Duterte adviser sorry for remarks vs 'complaining' doctors, hopes for unity vs COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — One of President Rodrigo Duterte's advisers apologized Wednesday for remarks earlier in the day against experts in the healthcare sector who warned against the use of rapid test kits for COVID-19 as more people go back to work.
Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion earlier Wednesday slammed a group of doctors and experts for "complaining" and defended the use of rapid test kits — a test method that the World Health Organization says should not be used for diagnoses because of potential false results — on employees returning to work.
"The problem with these doctors is that they keep on talking but are doing nothing. They keep on complaining. What will happen if the Philippine economy closes again is that a lot of people will lose their jobs. We can’t afford another lockdown. My appeal to all these doctors, if you have a better alternative, why don’t you tell us that better alternative?" Concepcion said then in a mix of English and Filipino.
“It is better to test than not to test,” he also said.
Concepcion's statement came as the government pushes to scrap the use of the term "mass testing" for testing more people and welcomed initiatives by the private sector to help boost the country's testing capability.
In a statement later Wednesday, Concepcion said: "I apologize if my words were perceived (sic) to criticize doctors in general. I hope we will be united in our efforts. With this, I extend my deepest thanks to all frontliners that continue to go beyond the call of duty for our people. We can and we will heal as one."
'This is the only way'
However, he also defended the ongoing efforts to test workers using a combination of antibody rapid test and RT-PCR kits, saying: "This is the only way to fight an invisible enemy and stop the spread of the virus."
"Through the tireless work of our private donors and medical volunteers, we were able to bring down the cost of rapid test kits by more than 50%. We hope to do the same for RT-PCR. This will greatly help augment government efforts in increasing testing capacity of our country," he said.
"We are at war with a common enemy and need to use everything in our arsenal to fight it. My goal in setting up Project Ark is to make all tests affordable and accessible to every Filipino."
The health department maintains that PCR tests are the "gold standard" in detecting the new pathogen as they allow for the detection of genetic material in body fluids or samples, while the WHO said as early as April that the rapid tests have limited utility for conclusive clinical diagnosis.
The Department of Health's current target of 30,000 tests per day by May 31 comes despite it missing its earlier daily testing capacity goal of 8,000 tests by the end of April.
In a joint statement issued in April, medical groups including the Philippine College of Physicians and the Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases said that the clinical use of the rapid antibody tests in the first 14 days of illness is not recommended because of the high positive and false negative rates. — Franco Luna with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
- Latest
- Trending
