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COVID-19 Guidelines & Recommendations

The  recommendations for Covid-19 testing [on 1) sample pooling and  2) antibody/PCR tests] were developed by University of San Agustin Center for Informatics  and University of the Philippines Manila researchers, endorsed by the Philippine-American Association of Scientist and Engineers (PAASE), and sent to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for consideration.

THESE ARE RECOMMENDATIONS, THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL DOH GUIDELINES: ​

RE-USE OF PPEs
NIH Study Validates Decontamination Methods For Re-Use of N95 Respirators
Decontamination and Reuse of Filtering Facepiece Respirators 
Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide (From Nathen Bopp of UTMB Galveston National Laboratory)

SAMPLE POOLING
Sample Pooling to Save on Testing Kits

TESTING RECOMMENDATIONS
Testing for COVID-19 with Antibody and PCR Tests in Low Resource Areas
Comparing Antibody Tests

VIRAL TRANSPORT MEDIUM (VTM) - From Dr. Salvador Caoili (UP Manila)
Preparation of VTM
Hank's Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS)
The history of HBSS - FYI

LOCKDOWN
When Should We Relax the Lockdown

HERE IS THE OFFICIAL DOH GUIDELINE RELEASED ON APRIL 8, 2020 WHICH  HAS PROVISIONS FOR  THE USE OF ANTIBODY TESTING ALONGSIDE NUCLEIC ACID TESTING (RT-PCR):

Interim Guidelines on Expanded Testing for Covid-19

PAASE:

PAASE Bulletin #4:   Sample Pooling in a Resource Limited Situation
PAASE Bulletin #11: A 3-Step Recommendation for Diagnostic Testing Using Antibody and PCR Tests  in Low Resource Areas

Philippine COVID-19 Vaccine Discussion Group

  The discussion on our own Philippine Covid-19 vaccine was began on an email thread that started on May 13, 2020 among a group of local and internationally-based Filipino scientists, many of whom have experience and expertise on aspects of the vaccine R&D continuum. Issues discussed were the country's vaccine self-sufficiency or self-reliance, past and current efforts and capability in vaccine development, national security, and how each scientist perceived a new and improved Philippine vaccine program would and should be. Continuing through several zoom meetings and many more group emails, discussions on  stakeholder buy-in, R&D funding, transparency and accountability, safety and regulatory, continuity, immunology and virology, the anti-vax movement and scientific disinformation (infodemic) were all touched on. Finally, the group decided to pursue two outcomes: 1) establish expert panels that can be consulted regarding vaccines and our country's Covid-19 response and 2) develop a position paper from Filipino scientists regarding the Covid-19 response. There was a third outcome which was to create a roadmap towards vaccine self-sufficiency, specifically with respect to Covid-19. However, as we found that the government already has a vaccine roadmap,  we decided that we will simply address the gaps in   the current roadmap through the position paper.

We have formed the expert panels (see #1 above) in: Virology, Immunology, Ethics/Regulatory/Safety, Biotech/Vaccine Production, Diagnostics, Epidemiology/Public Health, Computational Biology/Bioinformatics and Veterinary Medicine/Animal Sciences. This list of experts has been forwarded to DOST/PCHRD to be utilized for any/all aspects of vaccine development, whether for COVID-19 or others.

Links to our discussions:
January 29, 2021 - Vaccine Distribution Modeling (pre-print)
Letter to the DOH on COVID-19 vaccines
December 29, 2020 - Summary Notes
December 4, 2020
August 2, 2020
July 12, 2020
July 6, 2020
June 17, 2020
June 7, 2020
May 29, 2020

Center For Informatics