In Canada and US, Filipinos Are Among Those in War vs. COVID-19

Volume 1, Issue No. 37

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

 Our latest as of Tuesday, April 7, 2020 

~ It's heartening to know that among the thousands of frontliners in the fight against the global coronavirus disease are Filipinos - medical doctors, nurses, health workers, and others in allied workplaces. A popular American broadcaster infected with coronavirus mentions that his doctor is a Filipino. Right here at home in Toronto, a Filipino is also at the head of efforts to safeguard public health while the search for a cure to defeat the virus causing the illness continues worldwide. 

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 PANDEMIC FRONTLINERS

Filipinos at Forefront of Fight vs. COVID-19

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson 

TORONTO - The Filipino in me could not hold off saying what amounts to bragging rights. Not at this time, my inner self tells me, when coronavirus persists in devastating populations with its dreaded disease.

This article, let me be clear, is not meant to underestimate other professionals and workers in the health sector. I'm simply overwhelmed by the realization that Filipinos, many of them unheard and unrecognized, are doing their best in containing COVID-19 as do others of different ethnicities and racial backgrounds.

This Tuesday morning (April 7, 2020) I watched on CNN television journalist Chris Cuomo talked about his struggle battling the coronavirus that currently afflicts him. The "secret to kicking this virus" he calls it and relays the advice to him by an unnamed pulmonary expert, which is to put up a fight.

There's really no choice in such a situation. The medicine to cure COVID-19 is yet to be found. (As of 8:30 a.m. Eastern, April 7, Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center reports 1,362,936 confirmed cases worldwide, 76,373 deaths and 292,188 recovered). 

Interestingly, China, where the virus began, prompting President Donald Trump to call it the "China virus", is in sixth place in the rung. The United States tops the number of cases at 368,449; followed by Spain at 140,510; Italy at 132,547; Germany at 103,717; France at 98,984; and China at 82,718.

One minute and 50 seconds into Chris Cuomo's regular update while quarantined in his home in New York, he mentions in passing that "This doctor's Filipino" without naming the physician, but enough to draw my attention, and thus this article. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b74d6NVTJ6s at 1:50 mark.

I wish Chris had identified the physician by name though he might have hesitated for ethical reasons, which is understandable. I do know that Chris is not over the hump yet. My point, however, is to give credit where credit is due, as the saying goes. Or, maybe it's too soon.

The advice Chris got - and I presume it's from his Filipino doctor - sounds revolutionary in the sense that it steers away from traditional protocol, which is to take medicine, eat nutritious food, take bed rest and wait until everything is gone. 

Chris indicated he did heed the advice, explaining how difficult and painful it was to break away from the normal routine of treating the virus. That was his "secret" apparently. Whether Chris would continue to broadcast, which is to say to live, or not, is another question. My prayer goes to him. He could just succeed with the secret treatment.

Chris' mention of a Filipino doctor treating him leads me to another doctor right here at home in Toronto. And it just makes me proud as a natural-born Filipino and a naturalized Canadian that one of us is there to look after us and take care of our medical needs.

That should be our open secret, a comforting one at that, knowing we're in good, capable hands, and fully aware of how Filipinos regard others, especially their families and friends. That's part of being hospitable, I suppose.

I'm referring to a Filipino-Canadian, Dr. Eileen de Villa, who is at the front and center of the local war against COVID-19 as the Medical Officer of Health of the City of Toronto, Canada's largest public health agency with nearly 2,000 employes. She's basically the public doctor of 2.9 million Torontonians.

She's born of Filipino parents who are physicians themselves. Her mother, Dr. Maria Antonina “Nenette” de Villa, is a cardiologist. Her late father, Dr. Guillermo “Jun” de Villa, was an obstetrician/gynecologist.

Dr. de Villa comes to her post well-equipped. She's a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Health Science (MHSc) (Health Promotion), degrees she got from the University of Toronto. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University. Dr. de Villa is also an Adjunct Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Health at the University of Toronto.

Since COVID-19 blew into town, Dr. de Villa presides over a daily press briefing with city officials led by Toronto Mayor John Tory. Hers is a calming presence. Composed, articulate, knowledgeable, she tells the situation as it is without trying to obfuscate the dire issues. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liYW6EgxXu8).

There may be others, but I know of only one in the US who possesses the same persona, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, whom the New York Times called "the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases". (Info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fauci).

In the current situation, Dr. de Villa is the voice of confidence and authority. In these trying times of the pandemic, her cool presence is enough to console and pacify uneasiness in Canada's largest metropolis of 2.9 million people. Indeed, she's our protector, the people's doctor, the guardian of public health. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).