Gordon: Pandemic is still here
Published May 10, 2023 10:19 am
As the World Health Organization ended Covid-19 as a global emergency, Philippine Red Cross (PRC) chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Gordon reiterated that the virus is still present and that the government should still vaccinate senior citizens and people with comorbidities.
Courtesy of Unsplash
"It's as bad as TB; it's as bad as measles; it's as bad as the flu," Gordon said in a media forum on Wednesday, May 10. "We have to vaccinate the senior citizens; we have to vaccinate those who have comorbidities, and they should be readily available," he continued. Gordon also emphasized the country's need to strengthen its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and learn from past mistakes to move forward in terms of Covid-19 response. "We were late. We didn't have machines, we didn't have surveillance capacity. There was an anti-vaccine attitude. The doctors [were] not paid well. Going forward, you really have to make sure you practice intelligence gathering for whatever diseases there are," he noted. He then advised the public to remain alert and cautious, especially since businesses have already opened and a lot of people are coming in because, according to him, the overall situation will become difficult again once the surge of positive cases comes back.
Courtesy of Unsplash
"It's as bad as TB; it's as bad as measles; it's as bad as the flu," Gordon said in a media forum on Wednesday, May 10. "We have to vaccinate the senior citizens; we have to vaccinate those who have comorbidities, and they should be readily available," he continued. Gordon also emphasized the country's need to strengthen its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and learn from past mistakes to move forward in terms of Covid-19 response. "We were late. We didn't have machines, we didn't have surveillance capacity. There was an anti-vaccine attitude. The doctors [were] not paid well. Going forward, you really have to make sure you practice intelligence gathering for whatever diseases there are," he noted. He then advised the public to remain alert and cautious, especially since businesses have already opened and a lot of people are coming in because, according to him, the overall situation will become difficult again once the surge of positive cases comes back.
Not offering himself for a cabinet position
The health department is still in search of a secretary a year after the Marcos administration took office. When asked if he would accept the position if ever offered, Gordon replied that he is open to talk but will not offer himself. He added that whoever the next secretary may be, he or she must have a genuine desire to help and serve the public.P380-M debt of PhilHealth
Gordon also mentioned that the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) still owes PRC about P380 million for the Covid-19 tests conducted at the height of the pandemic. In 2020, PRC postponed providing Covid-19 tests chargeable to PhilHealth after the latter failed to settle its outstanding balance of almost P1 billion. "We did stop kasi paano naman, volunteer kami. Do we have money from the government? Wala kaming bayad kung hindi kami binabayaran, but nakalagay sa law na if we do services to the government, we can have the recovery cost. (We did stop because, how can we do it, we are volunteers. Do we have money from the government? We do not get paid unless we are compensated, but it is stated in the law that if we provide services to the government, we can recover the costs)," the PRC chief said. It was later resumed after PhilHealth paid a part of the balance but as of writing, it is still yet to settle the remaining payment.