Better safe than sorry

Coming home after their first day of classes last Monday, my twin sons cheerfully related how they went through handheld heat sensors being used in their respective schools to test for fever the students, faculty, and other people coming into their campuses. Then, they showed me their arms stamped with blue ink. The stamping, they told me, served as a mark that they have already been checked for their body temperature.

While the checking of body temperature at school gates seemed not to be foolproof in detecting the dreaded A (H1N1) virus infection, it, however, gives some form of assurance to parents. The school administrations are at least doing their level best to prevent an outbreak of the highly infectious disease in their respective campuses.

Although we have a total of 344 confirmed H1N1 cases as of yesterday in the Philippines, Health Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque kept reassuring us that the H1N1 strain that has spread in our country is fortunately not the deadly mutation of swine flu. Duque noted dengue is much deadlier than the H1N1 virus spreading in our country. In fact, the DOH has recorded some 60,000 dengue cases since January this year and about 60 reported deaths due to this fatal mosquito bite-caused disease.

But those are still not comforting words, considering the H1N1 virus has already spread in various schools, colleges and universities. It has affected students in public and private educational institutions in Metro Manila, Zambales, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Cebu, and lately in Bacolod. The DOH chief cited 33 new cases yesterday in less than 24 hours from the last reported case.

The DOH chief disclosed yesterday they are set to change protocols in suspending classes to prevent the spread of H1N1 in case any one of their students or faculty or school administrators gets infected. At present, the DOH observes only the “no confirmed positive case, no class suspension” policy. He said he is in the process of coordinating with Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli Lapus and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Emmanuel Angeles to adapt the protocols to the evolving situation in the containment and mitigation of the spread of the H1N1 virus.

When classes are suspended in a certain school due to a confirmed case of H1N1, he explained, classes will not be suspended again when another case is monitored. The latest to suspend classes for ten days was the Lourdes School in Mandaluyong City after one of their students was confirmed to have contracted H1N1 virus.    

The World Health Organization (WHO), after declaring pandemic spread of H1N1, has warned countries to prepare for a second wave of infections once the outbreaks have peaked and that the virus could mutate into a much deadlier strain.

This is why most of the confirmed H1N1 cases in schools were traced to foreign students and children who went with their parents abroad for vacation. Luckily, the H1N1 virus that had infected them was not the killer strains that started in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Australia where there were reported deaths due to it.

Precautionary measures are also being adopted in workplaces such as in our editorial office in order to keep out the H1N1 virus. To keep The STAR workplace free from H1N1 infection, our president and chief executive officer Miguel G. Belmonte imposed “self-quarantine” on any and all staff members who are returning from trips abroad. They are allowed not to report for work for a period of five days upon arrival and this will be charged to their sick leave credits. Our Boss Chief has also approved free flu vaccinations for all employees. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

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Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director-general Augusto “Buboy” Syjuco called me up last Wednesday after he read in my column that day about his supposed plans to run for the vice presidency in the coming May 2010 elections. Syjuco told me he is not aspiring for the No. 2 highest elective post but he would return to Congress. The 66-year-old TESDA chief plans to go back to his second congressional district in Iloilo where the incumbent happens to be his wife, Congresswoman Judy Syjuco.

The former Iloilo congressman also sought to clarify that TESDA paid only P130,000 for the “rider” question included in the survey done by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) last Feb. 20-23. Syjuco explained there were two sets of questions in this “commissioned” survey for TESDA. The first question was about the awareness and satisfaction rating and the reason why respondents feel that way about TESDA. The results of the survey showed TESDA got “very good” performance ratings in both awareness and satisfaction among the respondents polled.

The second set of questions, he admitted, was about his own awareness and satisfaction rating among respondents. And since the “rider” question was personal to him, he paid half of the amount out of his own pocket. He failed to mention though the results of the survey on his rating. And since the survey is being done quarterly, he pointed out, they paid a total of P520,000 for the “rider” question on this SWS survey for the whole-year contract.

Another rejoinder I got was from someone at the SWS, a certain Leo Laroza who identified himself as survey research and communication specialist. In his Letter to the Editor, this writer arrogantly charged that I made a “ridiculous claim” in that column when I stated: “As far as I’m aware of, a ‘commissioned’ survey would cost around P2 million for a ‘rider question’ included in a nationwide opinion polling as was done by the SWS for TESDA.”  

That same writer stated that “The standard price of a ‘rider’ question in the nationwide Social Weather Surveys is only P40,000. Kindly make the proper correction.” Duh! That P2 million amount did not come from me but from their own clients who paid that much. Since a subscriber with political agenda would want specific questions, he or she is charged per set of questions. So the more questions asked, such “commissioned” surveys could thus reach as much as P2 million.

Now, who’s polling whom? Pun intended.