People should get a grip over this recent measles “outbreak”. Partisan camps and social media “influencers” have been polarised between just two camps — (1) the Department of Health (DOH) headed by Sec. Francisco Duque who have been asserting that “low vaccine coverage because of the Dengvaxia scare” is behind this outbreak and (2) the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) headed by Persida Acosta who had had been drumming up the negative effects of experimental use of Dengvaxia on Filipino children under the the administration of former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III.
Such is this intellectually-bankrupt noise surrounding this recent outrage fad that it leads one to believe that only two factors are at play in this “outbreak” — (a) insufficient vaccination coverage and (b) fear mongering over vaccinations. As with most emotionally-charged “analyses” by shrill “activists” and “influencers”, the bigger picture is missed because of all the shrieking deliberately skewed towards personal and partisan agendas. Nobody is disputing alleged causes (a) and (b). But before we can conclude that these are the primary causes of the situation and whether Duque and Acosta should be crucified for their “sins” against Filipino humanity, we need to first consider other factors.
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Firstly, having one’s kids vaccinated is a personal choice just like it was Christopher Lao’s personal choice to drive his car into a flooded street back in 2011. People then — and now — are screeching “I was not informed!” Well, the information was there. It just wasn’t used. Many of the same Fake News Crybabies who carry on about the “death” of “press freedom”, personal freedoms, and other “freedoms” to do, think, eat, dress, fuck, and act as their hearts desire should, perhaps, really think about what they are wishing upon today’s societies.
Second, the information that supposedly was behind any “scare mongering” surrounding vaccinations was amplified by the chatter of “Netizens” — some well-meaning, others laden with noxious agendas, and, still others, driven by social-climbing goals, plain ignorance, boredom, or some perverse form of delusional sense of self-importance. Indeed, many of the “information” that fuels this circus emanate from social media and, in particular, the force-truncated 256-character “tweets” that encourage more emotionalism and less thinking amongst snowflake millennials and mommy (some yummy, some not) bloggers.
This recent problem like many others that are outcomes of the wrong arguments winning have long been symptoms of a society that rewards popular ideas and thumbs down sober thinking. Recall the obsolete words reminiscent of 1980s-era “activism” — “the people have spoken”, the “people’s will”, “majority rules”. These are now grossly obsolete as they are petridishes upon which propagated the very “fake news” and “misinformation” outbreaks people like Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and her sorority sisters screech about.
To put this “outrage” in perspective look no further back than the Philippines’ appalling civil maritime history. Perhaps 200,000 lives (based on a quick-and-dirty guess) snuffed out in preventable passenger shipping “mishaps” over several decades is not the fashionable “activist” focus nowadays, but that number of souls constitutes “just” 0.2 percent of Filipinos. But more than 10,000 dead in a single “accident” (of several over that period) that could have been prevented is not something normal people would forget. Thing is we not only did forget, it is evident nobody had been thrown into prison for these tragedies. So one ought to be excused if the noise being kicked up over less than a hundred dead in this latest outrage fad would be regarded with a grain of salt.
Third and last (as far as this treatise is concerned), is the question of why the vast majority of all these measles cases were brought to a single hospital. According to the ever-reliable Inquirer Editor, 1,550 patients afflicted with the measles were admitted to a single Manila hospital — San Lazaro. To be fair this is, supposedly, a “referral hospital for communicable diseases”, but considering that the biggest risks to young measles patients involve respiratory problems that could be mitigated by the emergency rooms of most modern general hospitals, one is led to wonder why only one hospital would serve the needs of a vast megalopolis like Metro Manila at a time like this. This points to a broader — and more systemic — problem with the Philippines’ health care system and emergency response services that transcends any one outrage fad kicked off at any one election year.
The common denominator here is not Acosta, Duque, or, for that matter, any high-prorfile government official, celebrity, or social climber who weighs in on or are roped into outrage fads like these. These are, more fundamentally, a reflection on the sort of society the Philippines is at its core — a nation habitually unprepared for routine “natural disasters”, cannot get to an accident scene within those vital seven to eight minutes it takes to save an oxygen-deprived brain, and cannot educate a society out of the paper bag that is its peoples’ deeply-ingrained superstitious and religious beliefs. As usual the “activist” and social-climbing social media “influencers” frame the problem wrong and issue the inevitable wrong argument that their inbred amigas proceed to make popular with their “likes” and “retweets”.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
With the experienced the country is getting with all these typhoons coming and going for some thousands of years, you think Pilipinos would have been an expert in dealing with such calamity events, but no, what do we do? Have a prayer rally and ask for God’s forgiveness.
Routine “Tsimis”, the term “Trust be Verify” is completely abhorrent to the average Filipino, for instance the heavy use of social media like Facebook is bad in both ways because of how gullible and naive people can be and how they can also spread that ignorance within seconds, and having a nanny “fact-checker” is also not an option when it can be abused and it’s insulting, you need someone to tell you the truth because you’re too stupid?
Playing the “Blame Game” is the only game the “activists” today knows how to play.
Who would not be afraid, if you become another “laboratory rat” for such a vaccine ? The Dengvaxia vaccine, that vaccinated children that were made as , “laboratory rats” by Aquino and Garin for the purpose of their sales commission has resulted in this scare.
Until now, many children had died because of the Dengvaxia vaccine. No one is prosecuted. These two criminals , who are responsible are running around free.
Social media “self proclaimed inteligensia” can proclaim their own opinions. Nothing maters, because people are afraid of vaccines, for their self preservation.!
The “value of life” of a rat is lower.
this is the one of the problems that plague filipinos. one apple goes bad, they assume the entire crop (not just basket where the apple is in, mind you) is spoiled.
We’ve had measles vaccines for years, tried, tested and safe. im sure even the parents of these children have had themselves immunized, unlike the dengue vaccine which can be considered as not yet mature in terms of being an all-around cure.
A quick google search and a bit of critical thinking will tell you that even if both meds are classified as vaccines, they treat very different diseases.
Then again, nothing beats thoughts and prayers and the power of jesus, right?
The coins were completely unprepared for this and were sadly deceived by their own inertia.