By Rathindra Kuruwita

The best way to address misinformation about SARS-CoV-2 is by being transparent, Public Health Inspectors’ Union (PHIU) head Upul Rohana said yesterday commenting on the Health Ministry’s attempts to deter health professionals from commenting on COVID-19 related matters.

Rohana said that the WHO insisted that public communication played an important role in addressing the challenge of public health emergencies and their effective management.

“Proactive communication allows the public to adopt protective behaviours, facilitates heightened disease surveillance, reduces confusion and allows for a better use of resources, all of which are necessary for an effective response,” he said.

The PHIU head said that in recent years social media had emerged as the most powerful medium of information dissemination. However, health officials hardly used social media to disseminate information.

“We need to at least use traditional media and clearly tell the people what’s going on. PHIs are the people who see the situation at the grassroots level first and we have always tried to communicate that clearly to the people. We want people to know the truth so that they can act accordingly. If people feel that the authorities are hiding the truth from them, then they will seek information from various sources on social media,” he said.

Meanwhile, President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS), Ravi Kumudesh said that hiding the truth from the people would not help the COVID-19 eradication programmes.

“The Secretary to the Ministry of Health Dr. H.S Munasinghe has issued a circular to shut people up. He seems to think that he could hide the issues in their anti- SARS-CoV-2 campaign by infringing on the freedom of expression of health professionals. There are many issues faced by health staff at the grassroots. The secretary has done nothing about these. He has not even met them. People are angry,” he said.

Kumudesh said that not a single health sector union has resorted to union action despite all the issues they faced and the neglect of senior health administrators. The administration however should not think that the patience of the health staff is infinite, Kumudesh warned.