THE Philippine Government’s move to recommend the lifting of face mask mandates is “premature and counterintuitive.” It is sad that only a 18 million Filipinos or 23 % of the population have received their boosters against the coronavirus disease and our country lags in the charts for the Asian region.

We are the lowest in Southeast Asia in terms of booster rate, while the rest of the region which have opened the economy have 90 percent vaccination and around 50 to 80 percent in terms of the booster rate.

The Department of Health (DOH) Secretary OIC who co-chairs the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases but bows out to the IATF recommendation for masking to be made optional in non-crowded outdoor areas.

President Bongbong Marcos Jr. discussed the recommendation with the IATF a day after his return from his first overseas trips in Indonesia and Singapore. The guidelines of the implementation of the optional masking are being discussed now. But the overriding objective must be to prevent the easing of two years of mandated masking from resulting in a fresh COVID surge.

The most crucial safety measure is to improve uptake of COVID primary vaccine doses and booster shots in the first 100 days of PBBM. Vaccine hesitancy remains to be a major factor in our failure to solve the puzzle. The PH government must exert additional effort in achieving a significant increase in vaccine and booster uptake during the special days for the inoculation activity later this month. Primary vaccination with booster shot is the BEST way to get strong immunity to as many variants as possible. The updated bivalent boosters or new generation vaccines will provide more protection against the entire Omicron family. We don’t yet know if annual boosters will be needed like the yearly flu shots. This is a work in progress.

I have also noted that the country’s COVID-19 positivity rate is still at 11.6 percent—higher than the World Health Organization’s (WHO) five percent benchmark. The numbers right now in terms of viral transmission are not actually controlled. The booster and positivity rates must be considered before lifting mask mandates in particular areas of our country .

The local health experts have recommended that the government should also begin stocking up on COVID anti-viral treatments ( Molnupiravir and Paxlovid ) as plan B , which are now available in other countries but remain limited in major drugstore chains. More people are willing to risk COVID infection, believing that the new cases are mild – but these are mainly for the vaccinated and boosted. The immune compromised and ailing elderly can still develop critical COVID that will require hospitalization.

Masking is still being pushed by the medical community in non-enclosed mass transport such as jeepneys, motorcycle taxis and tricycles, but the mask mandate will have to be enforced by DILG authorities. Health experts also want mask mandates to remain in place in outdoor spaces where distancing of at least three feet is not possible. These include most wet markets as well as commercial districts such as Quiapo and Divisoria in Manila and the Dapitan Arcade in Quezon City.

The crowds in these areas, now immense because of the school opening, are expected to continue growing with the approach of the Christmas season. Authorities must make it clear to the public that masks are still required in crowded areas. Those pushing for the easing of masking rules have pointed out that the Philippines is among the last in the region to do so. On the other hand, Filipinos’ long adherence to masking rules is seen as one of the reasons for the relatively low COVID infection and death rates in the country compared to states that lifted mask mandates early.

The easing of mask mandates is seen as a huge step on the path to normalization, and part of the continuing balancing act between lives and livelihoods. Health experts have said masking should be the last COVID health protocol to be ditched. With proper precautions, this trial period should lead to a safe return to normalcy.

With the mixed and confusing messages , I think people will just follow optional face mask in outdoors and open spaces and abandon the IATF guidelines. The government has given some people the choice to justify their noncompliance. Surprisingly, the DOH based on their website has released Infographics supporting use of face masks. The Department of Health (DOH) prefers that mask mandates outdoors be retained, at least for a few more months as the government continues to work on increasing COVID vaccination and booster uptake.

Think about it. IATF’s recommendation is to liberalize our mask wearing mandate and make mask wearing outdoors voluntary across the country — and yet DOH released posters/ reminders on the importance of masking.

It is very evident that the DOH doesn’t want blood in their hands.

Let us pray that people will continue to be responsible by adhering to the MPHS.

Lastly , the great Albert Einstein most famously said, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” This is perhaps the biggest communication lesson in the pandemic.

We often talk about capturing the hearts and minds of people in our roles as communicators in public health, but we have continued to struggle in this aspect .

The messaging is very confusing because the government itself does not know what it wants.

This is partly due to use of politics in addressing the COVID pandemic response. The government has not been transparent with their communication process and when the time comes for real talk they have to make radical counterintuitive moves making the execution difficult.

All they need now is to admit that we need to resort to measures to perk up the economy but at the same time , our leaders are requesting for support to boost up to protect the people.

We need to act and sacrifice for genuine change.

And to me , that’s the real essence of UNITY!. By Dr. Tony Leachon

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Anthony C. Leachon, M. D.
Independent Health Reform Advocate
Past President , Philippine College of Physicians
Chair , Kilusang Kontra Covid
(KILKOVID )
Email address : [email protected]
[email protected]