Sotto says even small errors in DOH data are significant
Published May 14, 2020 12:00 am
By Vanne Elaine Terrazola
A small error is still an error.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III pointed this out after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III downplayed on Wednesday, May 13, the discrepancies discovered in its COVID-19 data.
Medical scholarships hearing: Senate President Vicente Sotto III appeals to resource persons during the public hearing on Medical Scholarship and Labor Education Tuesday, March 3, 2020 to help the Senate come up with a “fine and easy to execute law” for the medical scholarship program. “We need to solve the severe maldistribution of doctors in the country,” Sotto said. (Cesar Tomambo/Senate PRIB)
Sotto was not convinced with Duque's statements that the data errors raised by experts in the University of the Philippines (UP) are only less than one percent of the Department of Health's (DOH) overall data and that these do not affect their interpretation and decision-making.
"On the contrary, I think it’s a very significant implication kasi napakahalaga ng statistic or ng data (because statistics or data are very important) as far as reliability of our scientific analysis is concerned," Sotto said in a video conference with reporters Wednesday afternoon.
"Hindi pwedeng sabihing maliit (We cannot just say that these are only minimal errors). Maliit nga, mali pa rin (It may be small, but it's still an error). Maliit or malaki, mali is mali so kailangan ingat tayo diyan (Small or big, an error is an error, so we have to be careful about that)," he added.
The DOH, he said, should learn from its mistakes and make sure that this would not be repeated.
He pointed out that such pieces of information are crucial for policymakers in coming up with decisions to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senators earlier expressed concern over the discrepancies in the DOH's data.
The UP Resilience Institute earlier flagged "alarming errors in patient-level" and "mismatch" between the figures of the DOH and local government units.
The UP experts noted changes in genders and ages in several cases within a day. At least 516 cases were also "reclassified either to another city or a completely imaginary city."
In a press briefing in Malacañang, Duque said the DOH "already note of the data errors" as well as other "inconsistencies communicated by private citizens."
Medical scholarships hearing: Senate President Vicente Sotto III appeals to resource persons during the public hearing on Medical Scholarship and Labor Education Tuesday, March 3, 2020 to help the Senate come up with a “fine and easy to execute law” for the medical scholarship program. “We need to solve the severe maldistribution of doctors in the country,” Sotto said. (Cesar Tomambo/Senate PRIB)
Sotto was not convinced with Duque's statements that the data errors raised by experts in the University of the Philippines (UP) are only less than one percent of the Department of Health's (DOH) overall data and that these do not affect their interpretation and decision-making.
"On the contrary, I think it’s a very significant implication kasi napakahalaga ng statistic or ng data (because statistics or data are very important) as far as reliability of our scientific analysis is concerned," Sotto said in a video conference with reporters Wednesday afternoon.
"Hindi pwedeng sabihing maliit (We cannot just say that these are only minimal errors). Maliit nga, mali pa rin (It may be small, but it's still an error). Maliit or malaki, mali is mali so kailangan ingat tayo diyan (Small or big, an error is an error, so we have to be careful about that)," he added.
The DOH, he said, should learn from its mistakes and make sure that this would not be repeated.
He pointed out that such pieces of information are crucial for policymakers in coming up with decisions to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senators earlier expressed concern over the discrepancies in the DOH's data.
The UP Resilience Institute earlier flagged "alarming errors in patient-level" and "mismatch" between the figures of the DOH and local government units.
The UP experts noted changes in genders and ages in several cases within a day. At least 516 cases were also "reclassified either to another city or a completely imaginary city."
In a press briefing in Malacañang, Duque said the DOH "already note of the data errors" as well as other "inconsistencies communicated by private citizens."