Testing, testing…

So how can you tell if it’s COVID or ordinary flu or cold?

If it’s Omicron, you can’t. Health officials and key doctors advising the government have said so.

The doctors say that unlike the original Wuhan coronavirus and its lethal variants Alpha, Beta and Delta, symptoms of Omicron infection can be similar to flu or the common cold. No loss of taste or smell, no unusually itchy throat, no coughing and sneezing fits so severe you fear your nose and mouth are about to burst with phlegm.

People, especially the fully vaccinated and boosted, think that if symptoms go away with Biogesic, Bioflu and Decolgen or Neozep, they can rule out Omicron-fueled COVID.

So there is a temporary shortage of the popular brands of paracetamol, according to the pharmaceutical group, although the Department of Health stresses that there is enough supply of the generic versions.

Yesterday, the lines were long at pharmacies for paracetamol, reminiscent of the lines for alcohol and Vitamin C at the start of the pandemic.

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Omicron, believed to be fueling the rapid spike in new COVID cases especially in Metro Manila, is reviving the praning in many of us. The weather has been chilly for some time now – flu season in our country. People normally just drink Vitamin C and Biogesic until the infection symptoms go away. But SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern are no ordinary viruses.

The paranoia can actually be healthy; people work from home and isolate as soon as they develop a cold or fever, and move to make these go away ASAP with ordinary medication such as paracetamol. If the colds and fever persist despite the medicine, they get an antigen test, followed by confirmatory RT-PCR if the result is positive.

Before you rush to the testing center upon learning that you have been in close contact with a COVID-positive person, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega says it is better to wait about five days from exposure before getting tested.

De Vega, who is also treatment czar and head of the One Hospital Command, told us Monday on One News’ “The Chiefs” that it takes time for the coronavirus to latch on to a host sufficiently to register in a test. If you rush testing, you might need another test if the result is negative but you later develop symptoms.

Unfortunately, there are millions of Filipinos for whom paranoia is a luxury they can’t afford. Being daily wage earners, isolating for a few days can mean no food on the family table. Even the cost of a reliable antigen test, while much lower than a nucleic acid RT-PCR test, can be a considerable drain on the day’s earnings.

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If the government wants to effectively contain Omicron, it should consider providing free testing especially in low-income communities.

Local government units, now flush with cash as the Mandanas ruling takes effect, need not wait for the debt-burdened national government to act. LGUs can provide free testing to their residents.

What the national government can do is scout around overseas for affordable but reliable nucleic acid tests such as RT-PCR that LGUs and perhaps the private sector can procure.

If the cost is lower, many people will readily undergo regular testing. And even third-class LGUs can afford to offer free testing at least to their low-income residents.

In the US, the government has announced that 500 million COVID home testing kits will soon be distributed. Unfortunately for Presdent Joe Biden, it’s uncertain if Americans will avail themselves of the free tests. There is a sizeable anti-vaxxer segment of the American population, some of whom even believe the existence of COVID is fake news. Also, the US is among the world’s top 10 wealthiest countries; our resources don’t come close.

Even if our government decides to offer free testing, the next problem is whether it can still find sufficient supply.

With the rapid spread of Omicron, the world is now running short of reliable testing kits, including rapid antigen tests. Even Israel, which makes its own RT-PCR and antigen test kits, is scrambling to meet the surge in demand as Omicron becomes the dominant variant in that country. And as in vaccines, the wealthy nations are cornering the supply.

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In the two years of the pandemic, the government could have invested in R&D to produce a cheap but reliable COVID test that produces swift results.

Surely Filipinos are not lacking in scientific capability. Dr. Raul Destura of the Philippine Genome Center developed a reliable RT-PCR test, proudly made in the Philippines by his company Manila HealthTek Inc. But the test is still pricey at P2,650 (down from P2,950 since the Delta surge in August last year), with results emailed in 24 hours. For 12-hour express result, the price is P3,400.

If the government partnered with the company to ramp up production, perhaps the cost might be brought down, considering economies of scale.

Currently, the cheapest RT-PCR tests available are those of the Philippine Red Cross: P2,800 for the swab test, and P1,500 for saliva (down from P3,500 and P2,000, respectively, since September last year).

Donald Trump, who was president when the pandemic started, at least set up a multibillion-dollar fund that was made available to pharmaceutical and biotech companies so they could come up with a COVID vaccine at “warp speed” –the name for the program.

Operation Warp Speed was not without controversy. Also, the first in the vaccine race turned out to be Pfizer (in partnership with Germany’s BioNTech), which didn’t tap the federal fund for its research and development.

Still, the recipients of the funding included Oxford / AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Merck, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline. Except for the last three firms, the vaccines produced are now in use including in the Philippines.

Our country obviously doesn’t have that kind of funding. The proposed vaccine and virology institute was even dropped from the 2022 national budget.

Instead the government’s priorities are the creation of new executive departments for every problem, further bloating the bureaucracy, and adding more congressmen and elective local officials to the public payroll, through more party-list groups and endless gerrymandering. This is where our taxes go.

For COVID testing, we’re on our own.