Wellness break against ‘ghost outbreak’

Once again, the “outbreak” averse Secretary of Health Dr. Ted Herbosa has refused to recognize the disturbing cases of “flu-like” ailments as an “outbreak” just like he did during the last wave of dengue cases.

- CITO BELTRAN

But as the saying goes, “use it or lose it” and that is what happened when DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara was left with no choice but to declare a “Wellness Break” in order to counter the spread of infections in thousands of schools all over the country.

Declaring a “Wellness Break” was a stroke of genius because the message was positive, “healthy” and timely and, more importantly, addressed a serious public health concern in schools.

Unfortunately for Secretary Herbosa, the DepEd declared “Wellness Break” places the DOH in a bad light and under public scrutiny. Health concerns are under the DOH domain and failure to exercise their authority portrays them as indifferent.

Since two weeks ago, people have asked me if there was a flu epidemic or an outbreak of some kind of viral respiratory disease in Metro Manila. Funny that they should ask a media person instead of the DOH, but I guess that is where the level of public confidence in government is.

What I observed from September to early October is that many friends as well as my own family came down with flu-like symptoms that took weeks to get rid of. I was initially worried that COVID was on the rise, but over-the-counter COVID test kits disproved my suspicion.

Fact is, there are a lot of Filipinos getting sick, bad enough to miss work and worse, they seem to share or spread the “flu-like” symptoms to other members of the family at home, at work or in school.