Some considerations on the issue of the enhanced community quarantine aka the lockdown.

A thread.

1. The lockdown was arbitrarily imposed without any clear set of criteria as basis and without clear objectives.

This is important because whether or not the objectives were met should be the basis for saying it succeeded.

Hindi yung pagbaba ng crime rate ang batayan. 1/

2. The lockdown lost much sense when no mass testing was done with it. Without knowing how much and where the disease has spread, how do we know we are containing it?

Identification (testing), containment (quarantine), and isolation ALL go together.

Di pwede isa isa lang. 2/

3. Since mass testing is only belatedly being done, the DOH Usec's term of an "artificial rise" actually sets the narrative along the lines that the DOH wants public perception to follow: that the quarantine has been effective in stemming the spread.

Has it? Nope. 3/

4. The DOH is so far behind in diagnostic testing that even if their numbers are showing a surge in cases, they fail to capture the true extent of this surge and the gravity of the situation.

So there are valid reasons for calling out the DOH on the matter of this lockdown. 4/

5. There were no real public health interventions undertaken during the lockdown when in fact, this should have been the period to push for community-based interventions.

The real arena of war is in the communities. This war will be won or lost there, not in the hospitals. 5/

6. When did the DOH start mobilizing barangay health workers? Who is overseeing the barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs)?

How are the elderly with co-morbids who do not yet have COVID-19 being managed? How are high risk populations are being protected? 6/

A lot of things were NOT DONE during the lockdown. A lot.

Whether the lockdown will be lifted or extended, communities are not just unprotected, they are hungry.

Hindi katanggap-tanggap na ang solusyon ay bala pa rin. Hindi pwedeng utak-pulbura. 7/7

#KalusuganHindiKarahasan