IMHO this is a culmination of old school public health tools
Think out of the box and re-strategize
Few ideas to consider: 1. Use Rapid RTK-Ag not Slow PCR testing-no backlogs 2. Universal testing not targeted testing-esp #Sabah 3. Ramp up RTK-Ag in #Sabah- 100K not enough
4. Cap the cost of RTK-Ag testing at private labs/hospitals so #NowEveryoneCanTest 5. Frequent HCW testing to protect them & patients in healthcare settings 6. More resources/HCW deployed to #Sabah. Pre-COVID #Sabah was underfunded/understaffed/underpaid/overworked
7. Make sure HCW/Volunteers feed/rest/sleep well so as to mitigate burnt-out & low morale. Pay elaun stat! 8. Set up more low risk Isolation Centres to nurse pre/asymptomatic/mild COVID cases-esp #Sabah 9. Create more COVID beds in MOH. Decant non-COVID cases to private hospitals
10. If cases overwhelming, transfer non-ventilated COVID cases to private hospital 11. Last resort is use of private ICU for critical COVID cases. 12. Share #COVIDMalaysia data- Don’t abuse Act 342 under OSA 13. Analyze #COVIDMalaysia data better not just daily/routine numbers
14. Listen to ideas to decongest our prisons and detention centres 15. Pick brains of experts/NGOs 16. Best to stop the politician from daily briefings. He trivialises the crisis, his SOP mutates daily and he messes up with our lives and livelihoods malaymail.com/news/what-you-…
17.Finally and most critically, do not politicize the health crisis. #COVIDMalaysia is a health emergency.
It is not a convenient, immoral political expediency to subvert our democracy
Keep your political filth out of our pristine public health #HealthSolutionsExist
Nuances here more political than scientific.
IMHO the data shared (and unshared) points to a few scientific issues 1. It proves the sci that the election is a super-spreader event 2. Some returnees/politicians (no data shared) cud be super-spreader persons thestar.com.my/news/nation/20…
3. The massive surge of cases in Sabah reinforces this super-spreading phenomenon of the elections 4. The 30.8% Sabah cluster in Klang Valley could have been prevented if MOH: a)quarantined the returnees/politicians from #Sabah (b)re-tested the returnees
5. @DrAmarMOH showed down-trending of unlinked cases fr 63% to 7% (12 Oct). Shows that Klang Valley outbreak was clustered. This is “relatively good” news since clusters are easier to detect-track-contain. It debunks need for CMCO if rapid testing-tracing-isolation was robust!
1/ Successes of Public Health (PH) is largely invisible
They go unreported-out of sight out of mind!
PH funding < Sec/Tertiary/Curative/Tehab
eg Success of Vaccines-Took us 15 years to get PCV in our Nat Imm Program in 2020
But 1 case of polio/diphtheria-Msia goes hysterical!
2/ To detect #COVID19 before it spreads, PH needs FREQUENT/ACCESSIBLE/RAPID TESTING
We cannot detect pre/asymptomatic cases before they spread if we do not test FREQUENTLY
RTK-Ag picks out the infectious cases.
A powerful test for #COVID19 contagiousness youtube.com/embed/4vvgefwK…
3/ RTK-Ag perform best in areas of active transmission
And when collected from a case with highest viral loads (most infectious)
2 days before (pre/asymptomatic) and up to 5-7 days after symptom onset
Rapid testing=Rapid isolation=Faster control of spread=Containment
On-point @ProfAdeeba
Didn’t they preach 3Cs?
Distance>2m+Talk<15 min+Mask are NOT high COVID risk!
CMCO is an OVERKILL
-Kills livelihoods
-Kills economy
-Harms mental health
-Spawns national HYSTERIA
Why punish MakCikKiah who wants to put food on table? astroawani.com/berita-malaysi…
COVID-19 + MCOs disproportionately burdens low rank/paid workers aka #MakcikKiah selling goreng pisang at PPR flats
Causes big holes in their pockets and brains-anxiety/depression/suicides
M’sia MUST use all tools available NOT JUST MCOs! WHO dah kata-kan? malaymail.com/news/what-you-…
Unlike @DrAmarMOH others blurt nos without analysis of trends
Downtrending of unlinked cases=decreasing community spread
Data speaks against CMCO
RTK-Ag as part of pop-level strategy to “sweep” & isolate infected individuals is the way fwd to contain/eliminate #COVID19Malaysia
14 yrs siege limited entry of materials required to develop water and sanitation infrastructure.
Thus 97% of water is not-drinkable.
We built H2O treatment plants to provide safe & clean water world over inc Palestine, Org Asli villages, Cox Bazaar, Palu... #SafeWater
HRH The Sultan of Perak inaugurated 10 H2O treatment plants and a dam built by IMARET for several Orang Asli villages
Safe water technology inspired & in partnership with Malaysian Armed Forces #SafeWater
Soil in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh, housing 1 million refugees is cyanide rich.
Our H20 treatment plants had to eliminate this poison.
Several built to provide #SafeWater to the refugees
Solar activated.
Low maintenance
In partnership with @AlkhidmatOrg
To begin with the lifting of mandatoryQ was premature!
Though unpopular but data centric skeptics challenged the move!
“..suggested that those returning from high-risk countries be subjected to mandatoryQ, particularly those returning from Indonesia ..
which formed 75% of returnees which tested positive for Covid-19.
The other 10% who have tested positive for Covid-19 were from Singapore and 9% from Britain, so we need to be particularly vigilant of returnees from these countries”
Skeptics warned “..the government to emulate the strict self-Q rules enforced in South Korea where local returnees & foreign visitors were closely monitored using a mobile application that could track their whereabouts and store info about their symptoms..”