Doctors Call for Medical and Not Military Approach to Community Quarantine

Wazzup Pilipinas!

With many cities and provinces declared as MECQ starting August 4 to last for 15 days as per request of healthworkers, restrictions and limitations again for many of us.

Now referencing from a Philstar article, the statements below make perfect sense.

If only this government listens. From day one, I, together with many, have been voicing out that this pandemic requires a medical solution, medical quarantine, NOT a military approach. The military and the police is there to help augment but not the frontliner themselves. The generals dont know anything about health, and we dont have alot of pasaways that need the police presence. If only they listened.

Time to listen to our medical heroes! But first, the DOH must be rid of the incompetent man at the helm whose main concern seems self-profits rather than public health.

Duterte and his crowd has only one skill - THREATENING and INTIMIDATING.

In fact, this politician was elected to be president because he is supposed to be good in threatening (with death) alleged criminals. He has been threatening and intimidating everyone except the Philippine Military and china. It it but just natural that he resort to it in handling COVID-19. It will expose him as INCOMPETENT as we see in the article.

We are calling for an end to what it called "a militarist handling instead of a medical approach to the pandemic

A militarist handling instead of a medical approach to the pandemic wreaks fear among the people and proliferates human rights violations—while doing little, if not nothing, to curb the number of cases and spread of disease

The way the quarantines have been implemented are "devoid of scientific sense and health purpose."

The "Duterte-style enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or lockdown" set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases has been unscientific and oppressive.

"Doctors and healthcare workers must reclaim quarantine for what it should be: A public health measure aimed at saving lives by stopping the spread of disease. We must reject the distorted forms of 'community quarantine' being imposed on us, as these are devoid of scientific sense and health purpose, and serve only to oppress our people"

"If we are to implement a quarantine, it must be a medical quarantine, with healthcare workers in the lead and with clear health goals and outcomes. To truly benefit our overburdened healthcare workers, a new framework and new leadership direction than the ones we currently have are imperative"

Cases of aggressive and overzealous enforcement piled up over the ECQ in the name of "punishing" the public for its "stubbornness" and "complacency" with quarantine regulations—the same rules that a number of government officials have, themselves, failed to follow and walked scot-free regardless.

Most recently, law enforcement officials have broached the ideas of conducting house-to-house campaigns and repeating the administration's 2018 'anti-tambay' campaign. It has also deployed police supervisors per barangay for the "identification and monitoring of barangay residents on home quarantine."

"We call for an end to all militaristic and fascist measures being done in the name of quarantine."

"Too many lives of healthcare workers have been needlessly lost due to the wrong priorities taken by this criminally-negligent, corrupt, and tyrannical government. To honor our fallen colleagues is to demand a radical shift from the present blundering response to a scientific, public health, and pro-people response."

Even at the onset, the government treated this pandemic more of a ‘peace and order’ than medical in nature.

Kating-kati kasing gamitin ang military to potray strength and control - kuno.

All the Duterte Administration has is a hammer; therefore, to them, every problem is a nail.