‘Don’t manipulate us, disinfectants will suffice,’ solon tells DOH

MANILA, Philippines — “People are desperate. Don’t manipulate us.”

Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez issued this statement on Saturday as he challenged the Department of Health’s  (DOH) warning on misting of disinfectants, saying disinfectants will suffice instead of using the more expensive disinfectant alcohol.

“Please don’t force people to go back in the use of expensive alcohol, in replacement of the disinfectants,” the lawmaker wrote on Facebook.

“Disinfectants at this point of time will suffice everything. I rest my case,” he added.

Fernandez also noted that the public, instead of purchasing alcohol, which is also in scant supply, have learned to make their own disinfectants by heeding the advice of DOH back then on how to formulate their own disinfectant by mixing chlorine-based disinfectant.

“Thereby producing a 55ppm disinfectant which is an alternative to alcohol, which during those times was hard to find, and using this disinfectant is much cheaper,” he said.

The DOH earlier said it does not recommend spraying or misting disinfectants as there is no evidence that it kills the virus. It further said that misting can also cause pathogens to be dispersed during spraying and such practices could also result in skin irritation and inhalation of chemicals.

It further said misting or spraying may cause skin irritation and pose harm to the environment.

But Fernandez said he won’t die of skin irritation and using face mask while misting the disinfectants won’t cause harm to his lungs.

“To DOH, Di ako mamatay sa skin irritation, di rin maapektuhan ang lungs ko, may facemask nga diba?” he said.

(To DOH, I won’t die of skin irritation, my lungs won’t be affected if there is a face mask.)

He also downplayed the DOH’s environmental concerns for disinfectants, noting that the world is “healing by itself right now.”

“And more importantly wag nyo ng pakialaman ang environmental problems natin ’cause the world is healing by itself right now, magalit pa sa inyo (Department of Environment and Natural Resources),” he said.

EDV