MONEY. Lots and lots of money not just for COVID-19 but also for other factors that can affect its management. We need it fast, and we need it in the hands of the right people. An excellent healthcare worker (HCW) correctly said on Twitter that saving lives is prerequisite to a thriving economy. However, the opposite is also true: a thriving economy will enable people to avail of goods and services that are crucial for achieving the highest attainable standard of health.
This is especially true in the current pandemic because the COVID-19 crisis is a syndemic. In a syndemic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and the social determinants of health, such as poverty, crime, conflict, low health literacy, and poor health-seeking behaviors are exacerbating the COVID-19 transmission as well as its effects among patients. Likewise, COVID-19 has also disrupted the services that are necessary for managing NCDs and other infectious diseases. It has plunged the global economy to the worst recession since World War II, leading to unemployment, business closures, and low productivity in various industries. So we have to address the aforementioned factors that make the impact of COVID-19 worse. Some have argued that the solution is a total lockdown, in which the government will supply us with everything that we need to survive this crisis --- from food to vaccines, to medicines, to PPEs, to hospital beds, to salaries of HCWs, to better air pollution control, to improved transportation, to stable internet connection, etc.
Where will the government get the funds for all of that? From the private sector! Remember that the government can only redistribute resources, not create them, When I say “private sector”, I’m not just referring to the stereotypical greedy hacienderos whom we see on soap operas. The private sector includes the standalone therapy clinics, sari-sari stores, mom-and-pop businesses, religious groups, charities, and non-government organizations (NGOs). Together with big corporations, small and medium-enterprises (SMEs) create the wealth that the state partly redistributes to fund public health endeavors. On the other hand, churches, charities, and NGOs provide safety nets for those who can’t afford certain services.
Asa Pa More: Duterte and Robredo Will Not Save Us
Some fringe groups have been saying that the government should just seize all the resources of private entities so that the state can provide for everything that we need. That is ASININE! Why on earth should we entrust our hard-earned money to a government that has been corrupt all these years? If #DutertePalpak is true, why entrust this regime with more resources, not to mention more power over our civil liberties?
Certain people also want to overthrow Rodrigo Duterte so Leni Robredo can be President. It’s a ludicrous idea that reeks of evil. Robredo stands for socialist policies that will make the poor poorer in the attempts to make the rich less rich. In this regard, she is not much different from Duterte. She seems nice for pushing for more cash aid during the lockdown. But that will have the diabolical effect of incentivizing dependence on a government that has maltreated its people. Plus this grandstander barely has any ideas on how to make increased dole-outs financially viable.
Let’s assume that we’ll put the most upright people in office so they can redistribute all the private sector’s wealth to fight this syndemic. That is bound to fail! Increased taxation and stricter state surveillance will disincentivize private entities from creating resources that will fulfill everyone’s unlimited needs. The big businesses will just flee to freer countries where they will reap more profits. Only SMEs like standalone therapy clinics will remain because they can’t afford to move. They will be taxed and regulated to death.
Private Sector to the Rescue!
What do we do with an employee who is corrupt and incompetent? We fire him. Or we demote him. The government is the taxpayers’ employee that has massively failed to deliver. We can’t completely get rid of it lest total chaos break out. So let’s just strip it down to its most basic functions, which are national defense, crime-fighting, and the provision of a few social safety nets. Don’t expect the government to give all of us our daily bread. Let the state focus on making this country safe and fair for private entities to compete in creating the resources for effective medical solutions. This will entail using localized lockdowns instead of huge swathes of community quarantine because the former can help contain COVID-19 without pushing us into economic collapse. Other less restrictive safety protocols that we can observe are practicing good hygiene, physical distancing, wearing proper PPEs, and working from home whenever we can.
How will the private sector develop the medical solutions to defeat COVID-19? In 2020, the Geneva Network published policy proposals that can loosen restrictions for businesses to produce more medicines. Check them out for yourself to determine which are applicable in the Philippines’ fight against the syndemic. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also pushing to accelerate private companies’ purchasing of vaccines for their employees. Such a move will make the vaccine rollout more efficient.
Finally, we need to have a serious discussion on the right to try experimental drugs like Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. We need to be open about setting guidelines for people to try such interventions. We shouldn’t be constantly freaking out about them just because they’ve been politicized.
I don’t want this entry to look like an IH 203 paper. But I also don’t want to be accused of plagiarism. So I organized my references below for your personal study. I’ve added more readings to complement the ones that I linked above. May we all reason together instead of insisting on our anchoring biases that are causing suffering to multitudes of people.
COVID-19 as a Syndemic
Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Outbreak: the Need for Epidemic Preparedness by A. Pak, et al.
Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Z.J. Madewell, et al.
Why Duterte and Robredo are Not Saviors
Unleashing the Private Sector’s Medical and Economic Solutions
(Photo by UN COVID-19 Response)
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