What Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should be doing is to double down on putting his nose to the grindstone and shun the cringe-inducing dramatics of being under-appreciated as well as needing to do some soul searching.
Ditto for Covid-19 Testing “Czar” Secretary Vince Dizon.
Perhaps, if they did, they could have prevented the country from being flooded by substandard Korean Covid-19 rapid testing kits made by SD Biosensor and RapiGen Inc.
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Most likely, the Covid-19 testing kits made by these two companies were used in hundreds of hospitals and clinics. False-negative readings could have contributed to increased disease transmissions and false-positives could have caused unnecessary emotional as well as financial trauma.
The US FDA banned SD Biosensor’s Standard Q Covid-19 IgM/IgG Duo in June — NEARLY TWO MONTHS AGO.
India pulled SD Biosensor’s Standard Q Covid-19 IgM/IgG Duo in July and suspended the company’s distribution license.
The other substandard Korean testing kit, Rapigen’s Biocredit Covid-19, failed the standards set by the Malaysian Ministry of Health’s Institute for Medical Research.
Biocredit Covid-19 was found to have a low sensitivity rate of 43.3 percent which makes it very likely to produce false positives.
Dizon and Duque should ban these two Korean Covid-19 testing kits IMMEDIATELY.
If my lawyer/columnist friends probably read about this latest slip up before putting out their opinion pieces this week, it probably would have added to their already lengthy lament over the horrible performance of the government’s Covid-19 response.
One of them, Atty. Goy Larrazabal, already scored the IATF’s ineffective reversion to a stricter community quarantine.
He writes: “Did the government do a comprehensive Triple T approach, which is the TEST, TRACE and TREAT? That’s a big no. In fact, many were shocked when the Department of Health issued a Public Advisory informing the general public that Filipinos should beware of scams of people claiming to be contact tracers, because…. There are no contact tracing teams of the Department of Health. That was mind-blowing considering the first official infection in the Philippines was way back in January, and we’re already August. Saying that’s scandalous doesn’t even begin to convey how disturbing that news was. I would not have believed it myself, except that it was an official announcement of the Department. So, August, and still no national contact tracing teams.”
But if ever contact tracing teams did their job right, their effort would be rendered meaningless by inaccurate Covid-19 testing kits.
The way things are going, with government’s ineptitude and Covid-19 paranoia driving the economy to the ground, we’re really up doo-doo creek without a paddle.
If that’s the case, the President could do all of us a favor by serving us up his inimitable candor and just tell us all during official business hours that… WE’RE DOOMED!
Either that, or really get heads rolling.
Writer.
We have incompetent government officials, who are in charge in the “fight against ” COVID 19 pandemic…
The Korean manufacturers of the COVID 19 testing kit, did not do any good , Quality Control and Quality Assurance on their testing kit products. They did not resolve any concern, or issue of their testing products….
The buyers must require Quality Assurance seals on every testing kit, they buy…and give assurance that the testing kits are working properly and are of good quality…
There is no good solution on this problem, except to return the defective products…and find a better manufacturer, who sells good Quality Assured testing kits.
Incompetent government officials, must be fired, and replaced with competent ones….
We cannot Gamble on the lives and health of all of us, who are affected by these testing kits !
those covid vaccines might be just antibiotics which will kill our beneficial bacteria in our system and weakens our immune system. the ‘Staphylococcus Aureus’ is one beneficial bacteria in our nasal passage and in saliva which protect bad bacteria entering our body. it’s the one i bet they traced when they do a swab test (staphylococcus Aureus) and will say it’s a covid virus.