By Ben Rosario

Social media bashers have started to train their sight on politicians who allegedly used their influence to pressure the Department of Health to put them in the priority list of tests for the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID 19).

Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are among those within the bashers’ radar as COVID-19 infected persons were reported to have attended committee hearings in both chambers.

The criticisms against officials started when a medical doctor complained on social media that “politicians and their staff are now asking to be serviced in their homes by the DOH surveillance team.”

“Perhaps, if media can investigate this “palakasan” system, we might be able to alleviate the overburdened emergency rooms,” the unidentified doctor said.

The posts elicited anger towards officials who have been tested for COVID-19 on mere suspicion that they may have caught the virus.

The DOH has admitted there is not enough testing kits to determine who among those suspected of COVID-19 infection have actually caught the dreaded ailment.

Opposition Rep. Stella Quimbo warned that there is now “severe under-detection of COVID-19 cases.

“Dividing the number of deaths by the February estimate of the Wuhan case fatality rate (4.4 percent) implies that the detected number of cases in the Philippines, under ideal testing conditions, should be around 387. While there may be no under-reporting, there is clearly under-detection of true COVID-19 cases,” she said.

According to her the under detection could be “as high as 44 percent.”

“An undetected case is a potential unidentified carrier of the virus.This is due to shortage of test kits,” Quimbo warned.

In the Lower House, several congressmen, especially those who attended the Committee on Health hearing prior to the start of the summer break last March 14, are currently on voluntary quarantine. Some of them have also sought COVID-19 testing.

Their fears are not without reason.

It will be recalled that two Lower House employees have tested positive for the virus. One of them, whose mother and sister-in-law work with the Committee Affairs Department, has died.

On the other hand, a DOH director who recently tested positive for CoVid-19 attended a committee hearing conducted by the health panel and presided by Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque was also in the hearing. He is now under voluntary quarantine.