Duque criticized for blaming surge on public ‘token compliance’; dodging Duterte’s ‘is COVID-19 airborne?’ question

Doctors called out Health Secretary Francisco Duque after putting the blame on increasing cases to the public of the said ‘token compliance’, and reminded him of the fact that COVID-19 is airborne.

“Una po sa lahat, COVID-19 is airborne in case di pa po kayo updated. Wag isisi sa mga mamamayan ang mga sarili ninyong pagkukulang,” tweeted by a doctor.

This after Duque avoided President Rodrigo Duterte’s question whether or not COVID-19 is airborne and instead blamed the public’s ‘Token compliance’ of health protocols on the new surge of cases, particularly the new Omicron variant.

“May iba o marami ‘yan sila na bakunado, hindi naglalabas ng bahay, tinatamaan pa rin ng ano. Is it…is that an airborne…itong ano? Kasi marami ng…naka-mask na ‘yung mga tao eh, tapos tinamaan pa rin,” the President asked during his talk to the people last Monday..

Duque refused to give a direct answer and cited that ‘token compliance’ or the attitude of not executing the rules properly such as improper wear of face masks of the public is responsible for the recent rise of COVID-19 positive cases. 

“Iyong mga tinatamaan, Mr. President, either mali ‘yung kanilang pagsuot ng mask, naka…nakaganoon o nakalabas ‘yung ilong, ganoon. Useless ‘yan eh, that is what we call token compliance, But it is the wrong way of doing things. It is the wrong way of complying with our minimum public health standards,” the health secretary cited.

He then proceeded to associate the surge of cases to the recent holiday where people are celebrating and inviting people over, making the spread of the virus more possible during these interactions.