Our state of health

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Rayne Suyam

There are many issues both in the Philippine health situation and Covid response that impact on Baguio’s health situation and Covid response.  So that, no matter how resourceful and adaptive the city government and community may have been trying, we can only do so much.  More than this, because this is a world health crisis, the international response also matters. 
    Covid-19 is not only a local concern but a national and an international issue.  No one, no city, no country can heal alone. Truly, we can only heal as one.  And towards this goal, we in Baguio must deepen our analyses of these issues and to do our part to make healing happen.
    The weak pre-pandemic Philippine healthcare system due to historically low budgetary allotments that are frequently subject to cuts, is a big factor in itself.  Slowly being relinquished to privatization; and more crisis-oriented, curative, western medicine-based, urban center-based and hospital-centric in orientation, healthcare is greatly inaccessible to the growing number of poor Filipinos with a corruption-laden PhilHealth public insurance system meager assistance. This pathetic situation is magnified many times over with the higher requisites for pandemic response.  Immediate impact is weighing down on attention for other illnesses with COVID-19 taking center stage. And health workers have become more overworked and underpaid with little benefits, further stressed, overexposed to contracting the virus, and eventually dying from it themselves.
The country’s late, ineffective, incompetent, uncomprehensive, chaotic, corruption-laden and militaristic
    Covid-19 response relegated much of the hard work to the unprepared local government units and to the people, with very late and very little financial assistance. It relied mostly on lockdowns without significantly strengthening health capacity and that resulted in loss of jobs and livelihood as well as hunger. 
    It resorted to people blaming, punitive measures against lockdown violations instead of giving sufficient aid to have people stay at home and survive, and threat to criminalize refusal for vaccination.
    With President Rodrigo Duterte giving up on the crisis every so often, he would give irresponsible advices and conflicting directives, depended on China’s vaccines further surrendering our sovereign right over the West Philippine Sea and lowered vaccination targets to manage its incapability.
    And, with world vaccine supply cornered by a few rich countries, it is a big question why the Philippine government is not joining popular international demand for trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver on Covid-19 technologies to allow for local and cheaper Covid technology use and vaccine production to catch up on herd immunity with the rise of more infectious and fatal Covid variants.
    Some implications on Baguio’s present health situation and Covid response are the following: greater health care inaccessibility due to needed swabs for patient and caregiver for hospitalization and expensive private swabs for various purposes especially for the poor, periodic spikes in cases with hospitals and isolation facilities pushed to their limits, non-testing of close contacts due to limited testing kits with more infections due to untested positive cases, push for tourism to help boost the economy but at risk of causing rise in cases, confusion from changing IATF directives on travels, push for local herd immunity without success guarantee given adjacent LGUs lower vaccination performance, long vaccination queuing vis-à-vis the limited supply.
    Yes, we can still ask for services and aid that the city can and may be able to provide, over what is allotted from the national government.  We can still ask greater systematization and order in their delivery. 
    But also, we as an LGU and as a community, must join the national call for a free, comprehensive and progressive health care system and an enabling Covid response founded on equity, social justice and people’s rights. (Rayne Suyam is a member of the Health for People Brigade)