The new PH Health Secretary is…
Six days into the new administration, no one has been appointed to replace Francisco Duque yet. (Photo: KD Madrilejos/Rappler)
Newly sworn-in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has yet to name his secretary of the Department of Health (DOH) amidst the pandemic.
As of Monday, the other departments still waiting for their appointed chiefs are the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Energy, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Communications Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in a recent briefing that it won’t be long before he appoints a Health Secretary. Two people recommended for the post so far are Drs. Ted Herbosa and Edsel Salvana.
Herbosa is a professor and chairperson of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Surgery at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and the Philippine General Hospital (UPCM-PGH), special adviser of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, and former health undersecretary of the Aquino administration. Salvana is the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the National Institutes of Health at UP Manila, infectious diseases specialist at UPMC-PGH, and member of the DOH Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19.
Who can save "Rosario?”
Their high-profile roles have made them well-known among many Filipinos in recent years. Like them or cancel them, Herbosa’s or Salvana’s potential role as Health Chief is especially important in the current surge. Besides them, other health experts have been sidelined in favor of military officers to handle the pandemic.
Some argue it would be better to give the role to a public health expert over a medical doctor. Their main difference? Public health focuses on the prevention of disease, while medicine focuses on treating patients. By definition, DOH is “responsible for ensuring access to basic public health services to all Filipinos.” Therefore, it is a public health agency.
If the saying “prevention is better than cure” and this staple med school reading still holds any weight, officials should know that public health takes an all-around approach. “Rosario” in the text doesn’t just refer to an infant born in the slums of Malabon—it refers to every Filipino who has ever had difficulty accessing quality healthcare in the Philippines.
For instance, expiring COVID-19 vaccines is not an issue doctors alone can solve. It’s also a matter of securing the needed infrastructure and facilities to transport and store vaccines, plus effective information dissemination and incentives from the local government to encourage people to get vaccinated.
(READ ALSO: PH plans to include COVID shot in routine immunization)
The father carrying his dead 32-day-old son’s body in a box from April 2020 still hasn’t left our collective memories, either (if it has, then we urge you never to forget). From the infant’s premature death at a public hospital to the lack of public transportation which forced Rodel Canas to walk from Pasig to Makati, it’s one of the pandemic’s many sobering reminders of just how many sectors should work together in healthcare.
“Public health employs a wide array of social and community interventions ranging from immunization campaigns to urban design in order to preserve and protect health,” wrote Dr. Harvey Fineberg from the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C.
With the added challenges of rising prices and other emerging diseases, the new administration inherits the responsibility of not just handling COVID, but keeping an entire nation healthy.
"Everything is status quo until new directives from the President come in,” said the DOH.
When status quo is not ok
Marcos’ incoming DOH chief is expected to come up with a new strategy for fighting the ongoing Omicron surge driven by slow booster uptake, evolving variants, and increased mobility.
“If mobility continues to increase, compliance to MPHS continues to reduce (20%-22% reduction), and booster uptake is maintained at this low level, we may see 3,800 to 5,300 daily cases nationally by mid-July,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire said in a briefing.
Total cases this week are up 60% from last year’s tally, but more cases does not mean a raised alert level right away.
Vergeire said the revised alert level metric focuses on “hospital bed utilization instead of cases.” The agency’s current weekly bulletin emphasizes severe and critical cases over the total number of confirmed cases, and if the country’s health system can handle them.
Salvana said that if cases are increasing with almost no effect on the system and our daily routines, then that means COVID is becoming endemic. Currently, this outlook is not a hill we’re willing to die on just yet. With BA.5, Omicron’s most contagious variant yet; long COVID; and new cases on the rise, we fear it might be a slippery slope in disguise.
Mr. Future Health Secretary, we’re counting on you to save Rosario.
