Why Harry Roque is wrong on PH COVID-19 testing
According to Philippine Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, “[The Philippines] clearly has the best testing policy in the whole of Asia and probably in the whole world.” This statement is entirely false and misleading.
The spokesperson used the raw daily number of tests performed by the country, currently averaging a little above 30,000 tests per day, to support his claim on Philippine COVID-19 testing capacity. The raw number of tests performed, however, is not the best indicator for testing capacity. The use of this indicator to make such claims either shows that Mr. Roque is severely misinformed or is deliberately misinforming people. His claim is misleading by not relating the number of tests proportionate to the scale of the epidemic in the country.
Number of tests per confirmed case
The best starting indicator for the testing capacity of a country is the number of tests per confirmed case. This number shows how many tests are performed to find one positive case. It is a quick measure of testing capacity relative to the scale of an epidemic.
For example, Taiwan performs less than 0.01 tests per thousand people, while the Philippines performs 0.3 tests per thousand¹. Based on the number of tests alone, one might be mistaken that the Philippines has a better testing capacity than Taiwan as it performs more tests per capita. When the scale of the epidemic is factored in, however, the true picture of testing capacity emerges. Taiwan performs 180.4 tests to find one positive case, while the Philippines performs only 11.5 tests to find one positive case². These numbers mean that the scale of the testing in the Philippines is far less in scope than that of Taiwan even though the Philippines performs more tests.
How does the Philippines compare to other Asian countries?
Contrary to Mr. Roque’s claims, the Philippines’ testing capacity is worse than its neighbors. As seen in the graph above, the Philippines performs worse than Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and Singapore, and only slightly better than Indonesia. These are not cherry-picked countries, as well. The only reason I did not put in countries like Vietnam, Taiwan, and South Korea is because they distort the scale since their testing capacity far exceeds those of the countries in the chart above.
The importance of transparency
Mr. Roque’s claims hurt the Philippine response to the pandemic. Transparency is necessary for addressing COVID-19 to foster solidarity and build trust in government response. These attempts by Mr. Roque only further politicize the COVID-19 response in the eyes of many Filipinos.
The Filipino people are not ignorant to believe Mr. Roque’s words. It is palpable that the testing capacity of the Philippines is not enough. A victim of this kind of propaganda, however, is DOH. In my opinion, the DOH, while it has its pitfalls, has been performing reasonably well given the cards dealt to them. The propaganda-like messaging of Mr. Roque, however, sows doubt on the policy decisions of DOH. This doubt was evident with the skepticism of many people on the recent re-testing policy of DOH, even though their decision was in line with WHO standards.
Instead of taking from the propaganda playbook of Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China, it would do the administration well to be transparent with the Filipino people. Transparency makes sense both as a response to the pandemic and as a political move if the administration wants to maintain its approval ratings. It is only with transparency and accountability that we could truly heal as one. After all, Mr. Roque’s lies hurt the Bayanihan spirit rather than support it.
[1] Daily COVID-19 tests per thousand people. Our World in Data. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-tests-per-thousand-people-smoothed-7-day
[2] Total number of COVID-19 tests per confirmed case. Our World in Data. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-covid-19-tests-per-confirmed-case
