The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is not comparable to other diseases, a health expert said Monday.
In a Covid-19 virtual presser, UP Covid-19 Pandemic Response Team member Dr. Darwin Bandoy said researches providing “simple comparisons with other diseases could be misleading”.
“Halimbawa, sasabihin nila ang namamatay sa ganitong sakit ay ganitong lang porsiyento tapos iko-compare nila sa Covid-19. Hindi po nila napapansin na ang datos na iyon ay for one year, wala pa pong one year ang Covid-19, bago palang natin nakukuha ang data, so may mga improper comparison na nagsisilbi sa mga tao na baliwalain nila (For example, they’ll say only such percent died from a certain disease and then they’ll compare it with Covid-19 deaths. They don’t notice that it is one year worth of data, and Covid-19 hasn’t been around for a year, Covid-19 data are fairly new, so there are improper comparisons influence people to ignore the severity of Covid-19), Bandoy added.
Citing the impact of the disease on the American healthcare system, Bandoy reiterated that Covid-19 is a deadly disease.
“Makikita po natin iyan sa America na napupuno po ang mga ospital, America na po ‘yun, mas lalo po kung medyo limitado ang ating healthcare capacity dito sa Pilipinas (Hospitals in America are full because of Covid-19, what more if we have limited healthcare capacity here in the Philippines),” he said.
Bandoy also warned the public against wrong computation of Covid-19 recovery rate circulating in the social media.
“May nag-call ng attention ko na may nagshe-share ng recovery rate. So, unang-una po pabayaan natin sa mga may valid na training dito, ‘yung mga epidemiologist na nakakaintindi (Someone called my attention about this recovery rate being shared. Firstly, leave this to those who had proper training, the epidemiologists),” he said.
He added that sharing the computation of Covid-19 recovery rate by persons who do not have proper training would lead to confusion.
To date, there are 68,898 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 23,072 recoveries and 1,835 deaths nationwide. (PNA)
