Coronavirus Lockdown: Safety Precautions

It has now been about a month since the Philippines was placed under lockdown and quarantine.  It started with Manila and Luzon with practically every province and city following suit in the ensuing days. The gist of it is that we all need to stay inside our homes and enter into complete stasis.

https://www.facebook.com/bacolodcitypio/photos/a.207133923116770/912641812565974/?type=3&theater

That is not going to happen. Maybe if I had a hibernation pod I would do it but I don't have one. People need to get out and buy food and some even need to work in so-called essential services. Now to leave your house, in certain quarters, one needs a pass. Only one per family and only one name on the pass.  That means that either the wife or the husband can go out. Not both. If the husband has something to take care of but the wife's name is on the pass he is out of luck!

So you got your pass and need to go out to get food. With public transportation shut down, no jeepnies or taxis or pedicabs or tricycles, how will you do this?  You can walk, use your personal vehicle, or ride in a vehicle the local barangay has provided. Along with the quarantine pass you must also wear a mask.  Any mask will do really. 

https://www.facebook.com/bacolodcitypio/photos/a.217022702127892/906396366523852/?type=3&theater

Homemade masks? Ideally you would want to wear a bandanna at least but you have to work with what you got.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/04/09/2006546/philippines-detects-206-new-covid-19-cases-total-infections-now-4076

With quarantine pass in hand and face mask secured tight you have to pass through a checkpoint before you can get to the store.

After passing the checkpoint you can now enter the real world. After two weeks being cooped up inside it will be fun to see what awaits in the brave new world which lies ahead. It's not totally different but it's not exactly the same.

If you need money then the first stop should be the bank. Be sure to wear a mask if you go inside!

With money in hand the next stop is the supermarket. Each store has taken it's own protective measures to fight COVID-19.  Robinsons Supermarket has shut down one entrance and locked one of the exit doors.

Ostensibly this is to enforce social distancing because now everyone has to line up to enter the store and only so many at a time. But really it's just an unnecessary fire hazard.  The entrances can be manned and people prevented from sneaking in without creating unsafe conditions for all.  Robinsons has also ensconced their cashiers behind a veil of plastic.

Most of them anyway. Not all grocery stores are taking the exact same precautions. No SM Supermarket I have been to has their cashiers behind plastic. One SM has their side door locked while the other has both entrances, front and back, opened. Across town at the other Robinsons they have literally rolled out a carpet for their shoppers.

You step on a wet mat and then pass through the chair tunnel which is like a fire tunnel but without  any people or Pentecostal excess.

Now that you have your groceries it's time to go back home.  No dilly-dallying.  But be careful especially if you are driving your own vehicle.

The city has cut off all the traffic lights in town!!

Ma Anand Puja the Filipina Nurse Who Poisoned An Oregon Town

Wild Wild Country is a documentary currently streaming on Netflix about a cult that took over an Oregon, USA town in the early 1980's. At six hours the series is largely comprehensive but leaves out a lot of details and barely scratches the surface of how evil this cult was. Based around an Indian guru named Rajneesh the devotees were called Rajneeshees or sannyasins. 

The documentary is readily available and there are other videos about this cult all over Youtube. If you know nothing about them go watch the Netflix series or some of the other videos or read the Wikipedia entry. What I want to discuss here is one particular follower of Rajneesh known as Ma Anand Puja. 

  

Was born in Manila in 1947 as Diane Ivonne Onang, and grew up in California. She became a registered nurse in California in 1976 and trained at the LA County Hospital. In the years following her certification, Puja claims to have worked in clinics around Asia including the Philippines and Indonesia from 1977-1979, but in other interviews she claims to have been the director of Kern Country Medical Centre for several years during the same period. Whatever the case, she was in India in 1979 where she came into contact with sannyasins and the Pune one ashram.  After becoming a sannyasin,  astonishingly quick,  she became Director of the Rajneesh Health Centre in 1980,  until she fled with Sheela from Rajneeshpuram in September, 1985.

http://sannyasnews.org/now/archives/4933

The personal details about this lady are scant. She was born in Manila, immigrated to America at a young age, trained as a nurse, joined the cult, and eventually became the Director of the Rajneesh Health Centre. That is an ironic name because it was at the health centre where Ma Anand Puja cultured germs which she used to poison the town The Dalles, Oregon. It is also where she stored the Haldol which was used to drug the beer given to homeless people the cult invited to live with them. This was to keep them subdued. She also attempted to cultivate and weaponise the AIDS virus. In effect the health centre was a laboratory of death and disease.

The background story to all this is that in 1981 The Rajneesh cult immigrated en masse from India to Oregon. After a few years they attempted to take over the county. To do so they needed enough votes to change the county board. Oregon has a law that one only need live in the state for 20 days to become a registered voter. In a flash of genius the leaders of the cult sent out members around the country to bus in hundreds of homeless people who would in turn register to vote and consolidate the cult's power in the county. But the plan backfired and none of the homeless men were allowed to register to vote. In retribution it was decided to poison the town so no one would be able to show up on election day. 

The documentary Wild Wild Country does not answer the question of how the cult was able to obtain drugs and germs. But the book Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War gives us a lot more detail. I will quote at length from this book.

The investigation eventually established that the cult had experimented in 1984 and 1985 with poisons, chemicals, and bacteria. The commune's germ-warfare chief was a thirty-eight year-old American nurse of Philippine origin who had been a close ally of Sheela's since their days in Poona, India. Ma Anand Puja, whose real name was Diane Ivonne Onang, supervises medical care at the commune. One of the "Big Moms," as the commune's three women leaders were known, Puja wielded enormous power. 

A stocky woman with narrow eyes, a fixed sneer, and jet-black hair, Puja was known to some sannyasins as "Nurse Mengele." She was obsessed with poisons, germs, and disease. 

David Barry Knapp, known as Krishna Deva, or K.D., the mayor of Rajneeshpuram, later testified for the prosecution after being taken into a federal witness-protection program. He said that Puja had given Haldol, a powerful tranquilliser, to many of the violent. mentally disturbed homeless people whom the cult had brought to the ranch to help win the county elections. Acting under orders from Puja and Sheela, sannyasins had injected hypodermic syringes filled with the prescription drug into tea consumed by the homeless. They has also stirred it into their mashed potatoes.

Another key witness told prosecutors that when state medical authorities asked Puja to account for the large Haldol purchases, she ordered her assistants to fabricate records to disguise its actual use. Several had left the commune rather than break the law. 

Puja was responsible for buying the prescription and over-the-counter drugs that the Rajneesh Medical Corporation kept in the Pythagoras pharmacy, as well as its medical supplies. 

Because she headed a medical corporation, she was entitled to buy such products from commercial medical supply companies like VWR Scientific and even obtain dangerous pathogens from the American Type Culture Collection, the giant private germ bank located first in Maryland and later in Virginia from which doctors, clinics, and hospitals order germs for research and standard diagnostic tests. 

An invoice from the ATCC shows that the cult ordered and received a variety of such pathogens, among them the Salmonella type, said Skeels, people would almost certainly have died in the outbreak. 

The invoice also listed Salmonella paratyphoid, which causes a similar illness, though not a severe, and, most startling of all, Francisella tularensis, which causes tularaemia, a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease. U.S. Army scientists in the 1950s had turned F. tularensis into a weapon, and is still remains on the nation's list of germs a foe might use in a biological-warfare attack.

Finally Puja had obtained orders of Enterobacter cloacae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Shigella dysenteriae. Fewer than one hundred organisms of shigella are needed to cause very sever dysentery-profuese diarrhoea, bloody mucoid stools, and cramping-and death in as many as 10 to 20 percent of all cases, even in previously healthy persons. 

The ATCC invoice was dated September 25, 1984, indicating that the agents had been delivered between the two waves of the salmonella outbreak. 

No pathogens ordered from the germ bank were ever found at the ranch, and the order's implications got little attention. The investigation had begun more than a year after the poisonings, giving the cult time to destroy evidence before the authorities obtained search warrants. When the invoices were seized in the search, they were not shown to health officials who would have understood their significance. But those officials, who learned of the orders only years later, considered both the agents and the timing of their arrival at the ranch ominous. Skeels said that Francisella tualarensis, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi, and Shigella dysenteriae were all unnecessary in a clinical lab the size of Puja's. And all these bacteria, he said, could have been used for bioterrorism. 

Puja was also particularly fascinated by the AIDS virus, about which relatively little was known at the time. The Bhagwan had predicted that the virus would destroy two-thirds of the world's population. For Puja, it was a means of control and intimidation. She repeatedly tried to culture it for use as a germ weapon against the cult's ever-growing enemies. Her apparent failure was not for lack of effort. After she was told by a technician at the ranch, for instance, that her lab lacked the necessary equipment to stabilise and dry the virus, the corporation promptly bought a "quick-freeze dryer" in September 1984. 

Experts doubted that Puja had the skills, expertise, or supplies needed to culture the AIDS virus or the other dangerous pathogens she had ordered, But several sannyasins told the police that in at least one instance she had injected blood drawn from a homeless man who had tested positive for the AIDS antibody into the veins of a cult rival. The fate of the man is unknown.

State and federal investigators eventually concluded that the plot to poison people in The Dalles with a biological agent, which involved about a dozen people, had grown out of the cult's legal war with the county and its determination to win control of the country government in the November elections. 

Sometime during the spring of 1984, according to sworn affidavits and court testimony in 1985 and 1986, the commune's inner circle began brainstorming about how the commune's four thousand or so members could defeat the roughly twenty thousand residents of Wasco County. At one meeting, Sheel fastened on the idea of making non-Rajneeshees too sick to vote. Together, she and Puja began reading books like How to Kill:Volumes 1-4, and The Handbook of Poisons, trying to locate various bacteria that would sicken people without killing them. They also asked a urologist at Puja's clinic about poisons and bacteria that would be difficult to trace. The urologist, apparently unalarmed since he was told the women were trying to defend the commune against germ attacks by the Rajneeshees' numerous enemies, mentioned salmonella as a possibility.

Rajneeshpuram's mayor, K.D., told another cult member that Puja did some experiments with a hepatitis virus and had initially considered using it to sicken local residents. Puja also proposed using Salmonella typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid fever, which she wound up purchasing for the lab. But a Rajneesh Medical Corporation lab technician warned her that orders of typhoid cultures would be easy to trace if an outbreak occurred. As far as K.D. knew, the plan was never implemented. 

K.D. also testified that Puja had considered sickening people by putting dead rodents-rats and mice-into the water system. Puja believed that daed beavers would be especially effective because they harboured a natural pathogen-Giardia lambda, which causes diarrhoea. When other plotters complained that the county's water reservoirs were covered by screens, K.D. recalled, someone "jokingly" suggested that the beavers be put in a blundered and liquified.

Sheela and Puja finally settled on Salmonella typhimurium as their germ weapon of choice, known by the American Type Culture Collection's designation 14028. Before they began plotting in the spring of 10984, the cult ordered bactrol disks from VWR Scientific, the Seattle-based company. Puja then used the bacteria in the disks to culture and produce large amounts of the bacteria in a part of her lab known as the "Chinese Laundry." Ava Kay Avalos, known as Ma Ava, another star prosecution witness who was granted partial immunity, said that the lab was later moved, at another technician's insistence, to a complex closer to where people with AIDS and other infectious diseases were kept-a more isolated part of the ranch. 

Two rooms in the A-frame housed the production unit, with its gloves, masks, white robes, pills, syringes, containers, a large freeze dryer, and what Ava described as a small, green "apartment-type refrigerator" in which Puja kept the petri dishes filled with colonies of salmonella.

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, pages 26 - 29.

Known as Nurse Mengele this lady was obsessed with germs and disease. Her status as director of the health centre enabled her to purchase bacteria and germ cultures in large quantities.  She was also able to purchase large doses of Haldol. She attempted to culture the AIDS virus and even injected a rival with AIDS infected blood. And it was all in an effort to control and intimidate people both cult members and Oregonians.

More can be read about her doings at the cult in eyewitness testimony given by Ava Kay Avalos. Watching the documentary one gets the sense that Ma Anand Sheela was the brains and brawn behind the activities of the cult but the testimony points to Puja being the real wielder of that power.

Puja subsequently plead guilty and was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison.

Another commune leader, Ma Anand Puja, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years for conspiracy in the salmonella poisonings, to be followed by 3 years probation for wiretapping. Puja, a 38-year-old Filipino who led the commune’s Rajneesh Medical Corp., is not required to leave the country. 

On the state charges, Wasco County Circuit Judge John Jelderks sentenced Sheela to 20 years in prison and Puja to 15 years for attempting to murder the doctor and assaulting the county officials. Sheela also was sentenced to 20 years for arson. Prosecutors said, however, that Sheela would be in prison only about 4 1/2 years.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-23-mn-21578-story.html

Remarkably she only served 39 months in prison before she was released.

Ma Anand Puja, 40, also known as Diane Yvonne Onang, was released from the federal prison at Pleasanton, Calif., Thursday after nearly 39 months behind bars, including time spent in a German jail before she was extradited to the United States in late 1985. 

Puja's plea bargain called for her to serve three years' probation following her release from prison for her role in the electronic eavesdropping network, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Baron Sheldahl of Portland.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/12/31/Gurus-ex-aide-back-in-Oregon-after-prison/1337599547600/

What happened to her subsequently is not very clear. She is not interviewed in the documentary and the filmmakers do not focus on her but rather on Ma Anand Sheela. It is rather strange that this lady who poisoned an entire town only served 39 months of a 20 year sentence. Very strange indeed. Unless, that is, this cult was infiltrated by the CIA and run like their MKULTRA operations and Puja worked for them as some have opined. Stranger things have happened.

Is Fear of the Novel Coronavirus Getting Out of Hand?

The novel corona virus is a bioweapon. It comes from eating bat soup. The Chinese are carriers of the disease.  We have to ban everyone from Wuhan province.  Everyone needs to wear face mask.  Face masks are sold out everywhere!!  We are all going to die!!!

A lot of hysteria is sweeping the world about the novel corona virus. Several cases have been confirmed in the  Philippines already.  Face masks are indeed sold out and people have been warned to not buy face masks from street vendors. Hundreds have already died from the disease so it's not unwarranted to want to keep oneself safe from contracting it.  But perhaps some of these measures are just plain dumb and only serve to perpetuate the panic.  How about this poster at Robinsons Mall?

It's an informative poster no doubt. But is that little bit at the bottom in big red print necessary?

"Wear a mask at all times." Seeing everyone in a masks surely isn't going to cause a panic right? Of course all the stores are out of masks so it is just not possible for everyone to wear one at all times.  Unless perhaps you run across Paolo Duterte handing them out.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/02/03/paolo-duterte-distributes-free-face-masks-to-dabawenyos/

The Office of Davao City first district Representative Paolo “Pulong” Duterte distributed on Monday, February 3, around 10,000 face masks in various areas here amid the scare created by the novel Coronavirus (nCoV). 

Duterte said the activity was conducted in line with the growing clamor of the Dabawenyos for face masks considering that several stores have stopped selling the merchandise due to very high demand. 

“Tabang namo ni sa atong mga igsuong Dabawenyo tungod kay daghan ang wala nay mapalit nga face masks tungod aning (We would like to help our Dabawenyo brothers and sisters because a lot of them were not able to purchase the masks due to) coronavirus scare,” Duterte said. 

The presidential son, however, clarified that they did not want to sow panic, and just wanted to provide what his constituents have been clamoring for. 

“We also wanted to advice the public not to panic. What is important is we maintain proper hygiene. Mask alone would not protect us from any virus if we do not observe proper hygiene. Wash your hands regularly and make sure your environment is clean,” the young congressman said.

Where in the world did he get 10,000 face masks from? No wonder everyone is out of stock! Did he buy them all for this publicity stunt? If you are in Cebu and you drive a taxi, jeepeny, bus, or other PUV then you had better be wearing a face mask or you will have to cough up P5,000!

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1092884

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) 7 (Central Visayas) on Tuesday apprehended 10 drivers of public utility vehicles (PUV) for violating the new policy requiring them to wear a protective face mask while on duty. 

The operation was conducted Tuesday morning after the central office issued Memorandum Circular 2020-005, which set the guidelines for all public utility drivers, conductors, and terminal operators in ensuring safe public transportation because of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) scare. 

The circular has directed “all PUV drivers and conductors to properly wear a face mask at all times while on duty and for all franchise holders to ensure compliance” with the policy. 

Meanwhile, Montealto advised the drivers to just follow what has been required of them under the new memo to avoid being fined. 

His reaction came after some drivers complained about social media that the PHP5,000 penalty for not wearing a face mask is too big. 

“They can devise a mask. They can use their handkerchief or face towel to cover their nose and mouth. Table napkin can even be used, as long as they are protected from the virus,” Montealto said.

Wow!  A handkerchief, a face towel, and even a table napkin are enough to protect one from the deadly novel corona virus!  What a joke! No way will a flimsy table napkin protect you from the virus but it will protect you from the egregious fine.

SM Supermarket is also warning their customers about the virus and how to protect themselves from infection.

Cleaning ones hands figures big into all this preventative advice. Inside the store management was kind enough to provide a bottle of hand sanitizer for all customers to use.

Even Metro Supermarket is getting into the game by leaving out a big bottle of hand sanitizer for everyone to use.

Banks are also offering hand sanitizer. Did you know money is the dirtiest thing we touch every day?

Question: If everyone is touching the bottle won't that defeat the purpose? Or does the hand sanitizer cancel out that risk? Germs can be spread via hands through handshakes but what if there were no more handshakes?

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1093143

The chamber adopted during Wednesday's plenary session House Resolution No. 408, which urges the promotion of the simple act of gracefully laying the palm of the right hand over the center of the chest with a simultaneous slight head nod as a customary Filipino gesture of goodwill, praise, and respect. 

The resolution was adopted amid the threat of the novel coronavirus, wherein the Philippines had three confirmed cases of the virus, one of whom died in February. 

Marikina City Rep. Bayani Fernando, the author of the HR No. 408, said the medical profession has established that the traditional, well-meaning and innocent gesture of handshake transmits communicable diseases and is a risk to one's health. 

Fernando said the alternative of placing the hand over the chest is a universal gesture of good faith coming from the heart, while a nod is a traditional Filipino gesture of respect. 

"The Philippine Government is urged to promote this gesture of goodwill and praise so that this will become a customary practice of all Filipinos," the resolution read. 

"All government agencies are encouraged to promote this practice in their respective offices and areas of jurisdiction, with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) taking the lead in the wider dissemination and promotion of this Filipino gesture,” it added.

This might not be as bad of an idea as one thinks because Filipinos do not use toilet paper! A new gesture of respect to replace the handshake might be a silver lining during these trying times. However there is something even better to look forward to as a result of the virus: thriving tourism!

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1226053/mindanao-tourism-to-thrive-amid-ncov-threat-execs-say

Tourism officials in various areas of Mindanao expressed confidence the new coronavirus (nCoV) epidemic that’s gripping more than 20 countries will only have minimal impact on tourist arrivals this year. 

The optimism is mainly based on the rising number of local tourists, and the minimal count of Chinese nationals compared to the total expected influx of visitors. 

The large bulk of tourists into Caraga are Europeans, Americans, and Australians; they constitute some 90 percent of tourist arrivals in Siargao, the DOT said. 

Roel Catoto, a resort operator in Siargao, told the Inquirer by phone that so far the nCoV scare has not affected the island’s tourism. 

“We can still see the same [number] of tourists, and maybe more these past few days. People still pack the party spaces at night and the island-hopping bookings are still up,” said Catoto, who rents motorcycles to tourists and co-owns the Payag Suites and Chef Justice Restaurant. 

“Unlike Boracay, Siargao’s tourism fortunes were never dependent on Chinese visitors. Most of the tourists here come from Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world,” added Catoto.

While there is a ban on Chinese tourists Siargao Island doesn't get a lot of them anyway so it's no big deal! The white guys like to visit and they will keep on visiting.  Meanwhile since flights to China have been put on hold Filipinos will have no choice but to visit local farms for vacation.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1226033/senator-villar-ncov-scare-to-boost-local-tourism

Senator Cynthia Villar told hundreds of farmers during the 1st Agribusiness Tourism event here that the novel coronavirus (nCoV) would boost local tourism in the country. 

“Since there’s a ban on any flight coming in from China, Hong Kong, and Macau, so they can’t cruise for fear of getting infected of nCoV so we will rely on farm tourism and it is local tourism,” Villar said. 

She said this is a great chance for Filipinos to explore the beautiful local sceneries, particularly the farms, as promoted by the Department of Tourism.

Remember when anything happens in this county be it a natural disaster, terrorism, or a pandemic the first thing officials are worrying about is how it will affect tourism. Even during the recent eruption of Taal volcano official's thoughts turned towards tourism. It seems the (nCoV) won't be affecting tourism at all but actually increasing it domestically. Hooray for pandemics and quarantined countries!

Despite all the fear of contracting this deadly disease there really is nothing to worry about. The Duterte administration is going to defeat the virus.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/02/11/1992184/we-can-defeat-virus-duterte

In a speech before local government executives, Duterte slammed the “idiots” and “kibitzers in politics” who are using the nCoV crisis to sow fear. 

“If it goes out of hand, do not worry,” Duterte said. “I can assure you we can defeat the virus… just believe in the government. In a crisis involving deaths and getting people safe, we will do our very best.”

See? There is nothing to worry about. Just believe in the government. Everything will be fine. Stay safe out there, always know where your towel is, and whatever you do, DON'T PANIC!

Grocery Store Vegetable Section or Pharmacy?

While shopping at Metro Market in Ayala Mall I noticed the strangest thing. Fruits and vegetables are being marketed as medicines! It's not enough that there are so many quack "doctors" here like Edinell Calvario marketing their snake oil but even grocery stores feel the need to jump into the fray. Sure veggies are good for you but is it right to market them as miraculous medicines? I say no. I say the FDA will not approve of these rather bold claims for garlic and apples.  Take a look at these signs.

Is there a real difference between garlic, native garlic, and garlic from taiwan? According to this sign there is. All three types have different benefits listed. Maybe they share all these benefits? Who knew garlic stopped toothaches and headaches?

Ginger is great for your hair and treats dandruff and split ends! Why not boil some garlic and wash your hair with it?

Chinese cabbage prevents cancer! Now that is an outrageous claim. But is it only Chinese cabbage that does this? What about the Russian kind used to make borscht?

Papaya red lady heals cirrhosis, treats your worms, and stops cancer growth.

Regular papaya expels worms and cures ulcers.

Why are these Fuji apples different prices? Could it be because they offer differing benefits? One whitens your teeth. The other flushes out your fat. 

I really have never seen anything like this before. When I buy vegetables and fruits I'm not thinking of their health benefits. I don't buy apples to whiten my teeth or tomatoes to prevent cancer. I buy them because I like to eat them. Health benefits are there of course but I don't think about them. Do you? 

Young Living Essential Oils

I just got back home from a four hour presentation for Young Living. This is an MLM company which sells essential oils and other products infused with essential oils and marketed toward those who wish to live a healthier lifestyle. They are based in Utah, USA and have a worldwide network of distributors. Now I could sit here and tell you many things about this company and the presentation I endured. I could tell you how I ended up there.

I could tell you that to join the team you have to buy a starter kit worth P9,180.

From left to right starting at the top: Frankincense, Digize, Copaiba, Lavender, Lemon
Bottom row: Panaway, Peppermint, Citrus Fresh, Raven, Thieves

I could tell you about some of the silly and absurd science one of the presenters spouted off like when mixing essential oils you have to wait for the molecules to join. Or about one essential oil turning off your sympathetic gland so you can sleep! Or that using these oils will cure various ailments like high blood pressure.

Or how some of Young Living's distributors once promoted their oils as being able to fight Ebola which resulted in a warning letter from the FDA.

https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/young-living-09222014

I could tell you all the same tired crap about how this MLM scheme is different from other MLM schemes because the product is pure and good and you can really make a lot of money if you build your downlines and buy a certain amount each month.

I could tell you all that and more but I will not. Instead I will tell you that the final segment of this presentation was how to make your own soaps and cleaners. They called it the DIY lifestyle but it was far from that. Basically you buy a product like liquid soap, add a drop or two of essential oils, add a little water, and shake. Ta-da! Now you have body wash.

If it was really DIY you would be rendering fat and making your own soap. Buying ready made soap and adding a drop of overpriced Young Living brand essential oils and calling that DIY is ridiculous.

But what really took the cake was when they made their own Lysol aerosol spray. With vodka!

These ladies told us more than once that they aren't doctors, they are just mommies, passionate parents, who love the product and use it on their kids and husbands when they are ill. So that's mommy mixing up the medicine. She added 1/4 vodka, 5 drops of thieves oil (a blend of clove, lemon, cinnamon, rosemary, and eucalyptus), 5 drops of lemon oil, a little cold water, and shook it up vigorously. Voila! An aerosol spray fit for a drunk.

Here is the vodka just in case you cannot tell from the previous picture. Now after they demonstrated how to make the soaps and cleaners they raffled them all off. Guess who won the vodka collins mommy poured? 

Yes they put on the wrong label! This is the aerosol spray not the cleaner.

You guessed it!  Me. Wanna know how it tasted?  Like drinking a clove cigarette!

Philippines' Animal Bite Treatment Centres Are Having 10 People Share A One Dose Vial of Rabies Vaccine

As I wrote previously I was bitten by a kitten I rescued and I thought it best to get a rabies shot. The bite happened at 5:30am on a Saturday and two hours later I was at City Health hoping to avail of the free vaccine they offer.  No good. City Health is closed on Saturday!

Padlocked!

As if people don't get sick on the weekend!  So it was on to the hospital. I wasn't sure if they had the vaccine.

Of course they did not have it. But all is not as it seems. The hospital as a rule does not stock Verorab, which is the vaccine, but they will either give a recommendation to City Health or a prescription. With the prescription you go to the pharmacy, plunk out P5,500 for three vials, and then return to the hospital so they can administer the shot. I opted for the City Health recommendation because P5,500 is too much.

In the waiting room there was a lady whose daughter needed a shot and the hospital staff asked if we wanted to share the vaccine with her. We each pay half and we each get a dose from the one dose vial. She said no and opted for the City Health recommendation because there would be more people to share with at City Health and that would make the bill much less expensive. I really did not think much about sharing a vaccine with this lady but later the enormity of this incident would become much more clear.

Bright and early Monday morning we left for City Health. They open at eight and the place was packed already. All the staff were busy with the flag raising ceremony which took forever.

They started off with the song The Prayer then the sang the national anthem then they sang three more songs plus a Happy Birthday song and then finally they got to work. What a waste of time. Instead of getting the offices ready they were out there singing and clapping.  And the audio was awful because it was all being piped in via a microphone put close to someone's smartphone.

After looking around I finally found the place to sign up.  It was a double sided sheet and already filled. I was number 89. Names started being called at about 8:05. We waited for about an hour until I saw the following signs and then decided it would be better to just leave and never come back. It wasn't just these signs the turned me away either. I was told the names being called were all from Friday and Saturday! Anyone who had signed up on Monday morning would likely not get called especially since I was told they only see 100 people per day.

There is no vaccine at City Health. What happens is people line up in groups of 10 and then they split the money on the expensive vaccine. A one dose vial magically becomes a ten dose vial! No wonder the lady at the hospital wanted to go to City Health. In fact there she was waiting in the crowd.

How the heck can they extract 10 doses from what is specifically a one dose vial? I took my prescription to several pharmacies and asked to look at the vaccine.

Those are the tiny vials. You mix the solvent with the powder. You get one dose. So says the box.

The instructions specifically say to dispose of  any remaining medicinal product..

http://www.fda.moph.go.th/sites/drug/Shared%20Documents/Vaccine/U1DR1C1042470033911C-SPC.pdf

I asked each pharmacist about sharing doses. I said, "City Health is going to make 10 of us share this vial to split costs, do you think we can really get 10 doses out of this one dose vial?" Some were noncommittal saying that it is up to the doctor. One was very enthusiastic saying yes I will have to share with ten people and another gave me a what-are-you-talking about look as if I were crazy. She is the only one who seemed to have any problem with 10 people sharing a one dose vial.

What's going on here is that the rabies vaccine is being wilfully misused. Verorab comes in a one dose vial and local clinics are having 10 people at at a time share one vial of the vaccine. How can anyone be sure they are getting a proper dosage? They cannot. Perhaps more ironically is the fact that Verorab is made by Sanofi Pasteur which is the same company who makes Dengevaxia. It was the misuse of that vaccine by indiscriminately vaccinating 800,000 children which led to a public panic and criminal charges against government officials as well as Sanofi Pasteur.

The expense of the vaccine is by no means an excuse for misuse.  It's too bad that a full course of treatment is cost prohibitive for those who need it most, that is the poor. Even well off folks will find it hard to budget P5,500 immediately. I looked all over for articles, stories, statistics, anything about sharing vaccines and there is no information about this practice. Either it is unknown or people do not wish to talk about it or it's nothing controversial and is an acceptable practice. I highly doubt it though. The vial is a one dose vial and to extract any more than that is to misuse the medicine.

This is a practice that definitely deserves more scrutiny from the DOH and even Sanofi Pasteur. The state of Animal Bite Treatment Centres in the Philippines is dismal enough without doctors misusing the vaccine.