Philippines will continue mandatory masks

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The Advisory Council of Experts (ACE) comprising some of the Philippines foremost authorities on public health, economics, and analytics met on 24 June and decided the Philippines would continue masking up.

“We need to find ways so that we save our livelihoods without unnecessarily losing our hard-won victories against the virus,” said one of the attendees, Jose Maria Concepcion who is a presidential adviser for entrepreneurship.

“This is a very smart move given that Filipinos are accustomed to wearing masks and respirator masks have the highest efficacy of any SARS2 infection-preventative measure. I applaud the Philippines,” says Dr. Kathy Poon, interning with the  Civil Society Partners against COVID-19 in Singapore.

“The genuine American N95, China’s KN-95, the European FFP2, or the Korean KF-94 respirators are highly advisable although the Philippines policy does not insist on a type,” Dr. Poon added.

“The SARS-COV-2 BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron are seen in the Philippines and they are much like the Delta with the massive transmission rate of Omicron. Vaccines do not prevent infections, they protect against severe illness and death, but genuine facepiece respirators do prevent infection in 95% or more of test cases. In practical usage, N95 masks with a medical grade face shield have provided 100% efficacy in dozens of studies. In short, get vaccinated but do whatever it takes to make certain not to inhale the virus or transport it to oneself via dirty hands,” says Dr. Kathy Poon from Singapore.

Cumulative case growth in the Philippines shows flaws in testing in the context of the global pandemic, say experts.

COVID-19 Philippines  cumulative case sums

COVID-19 Philippines  cumulative case sums Source: Civil Society Partners against COVID-19

 

Nothing is known about community transmission without aggressive testing.

The cumulative COVID-19 case data indicates that Philippines testing and tracking has failed. This is consistent with the fact that tests are expensive to citizens, around $51 to $100.00 (USD) which for a Filipino family is more than a week’s groceries.  Reported case growth is nearly identical to hospitalizations indicating that the patients tested are in hospital, ill with COVID-19 disease.

Global norms to date in cumulative cases and testing.

COVID-19 Global cumulative case sums Source: Civil Society Partners against COVID-19

“We’ve seen over the past two years how important it is to have experts from all fields guiding us through the pandemic. Experts have credibility with our citizens and they give advice based on science and data,” Jose Maria Concepcion said.

13 Dec 2024 Data for the Philippines

Source: Civil Society Partners against COVID-19

IHME Projects actual deaths from COVID-19 in the Philippines to be 180.243 deaths based on 80% mask wearing. CSPAC from Singapore projects 137,685 actual deaths based on 100% universal mask wearing. COVID-19 deaths in the Philippines are enormously larger than what has been reported by Manila.

These data indicate the total number of COVID-19 related deaths including errors, and unreported likely-cause excess deaths such as people who never went to a hospital but had COVID-19 indications but were never tested.