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Coronavirus in Argentina: Pedro Cahn takes off from how the government handled the pandemic

2020-10-20T19:01:08.408Z


The infectologist, a member of the expert committee, remarked that they made suggestions with their colleagues, but that the decisions were made by political power.


10/20/2020 3:40 PM

  • Clarín.com

  • Society

Updated 10/20/2020 3:40 PM

After a million cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Argentina,

the infectologist Pedro Cahn

, one of the most visible and well-known faces of the expert committee that advises the Government,

detached himself from the handling of the pandemic

.

“With a million cases we are no worse than with 990,000, nor does the reality change much with 1.1 million.

It is

a very high number of infections and a significant number of deceased people

.

The round numbers are used to mark the agenda, but it does not happen there, "he said Tuesday in statements to

Radio Con Vos

.

The scientific director of the Hupedes Foundation pointed out that since “firefighters do not sit and reflect in the middle of a fire”, the moment will come when “the

deep reflection that we deserve

and that must come from the national political powers, will come. provincial and municipal, and the professionals who work on this, who

in good faith advise and make mistakes like everyone else

, but surely some media will also have to look inward and see in what way they contributed ”.

In this sense, Cahn returned to what he had said shortly before to

La Nación

: "We are not part of the Government, we do not govern, we do not decide, we only give opinions, suggestions that are sometimes taken and other times not. We work ad honorem; to resign. "As some ask, they first have to hire us. We make available articles, scientific news and when we meet with the health authorities we exchange opinions.

It is the Government that makes the decisions, not us."

Cahn described that today 70% of the cases are concentrated in the Interior and that although this spread was inevitable,

"not all the provinces prepared well

.

"

He said that some “put police officers at the borders thinking that this would stop the epidemic and did not take advantage of the time to strengthen health teams and set up testing and contact tracing teams, which continues to be the Achilles heel in the fight against the pandemic. ”.

The infectologist stressed that this

has nothing to do with the ruling party or with the opposition

, exemplifying with Tucumán and Mendoza, provinces governed respectively by one and the other political sign with a high number of cases. He also pointed to the

fragmentation

of the Argentine health system as another element that makes the situation more complex.


The advisory committee was presented in March, and in addition to Cahn, other renowned specialists in infectious diseases made up its list: Mirta Roses, Eduardo López, Omar Sued, Angela Gentile, Pablo Bonvehí, Gustavo Lopardo and Tomás Orduna.

Alberto Fernández's meeting with them became common before announcing each extension of the quarantine, so it was striking that they did not meet prior to the announcement on October 9, when the president spoke accompanied by four governors.

It was the first time that he did not summon them.

Clarín

tried to contact Cahn to add his analysis to the note on the million confirmed cases, but did not get a response.

Consulted in the interview with Radio Con Vos about the impact of the extended quarantine, he affirmed that "the answer is counterfactual" and that if it had not been done early it 

would have overwhelmed the system

and "instead of today talking about 25,000 deaths we would be talking about 100,000".

The infectologist explained that “people died due to the evolution of the disease.

Fewer people could have died if we had had a more effective containment policy, it's true;

but people could also have died from not being able to access an oxygen tube or a respirator ”.

They accused us of being the infection

;

I heard politicians and panelists say in television programs that infectologists govern and that they had to fire us, when in reality the Executive Branch consulted us and what we do is, give opinions and suggestions about how we should be enabled or not certain activities in the jurisdictions, but we are not the ones who make the decisions, "he reiterated in statements to

Infobae

, where he once again made clear the

ad honorem

nature

of the doctors in the advisory committee:" In order for them to fire us, they must first hire us. " .


ACE

Look also

Coronavirus: near the peak of cases, there was no meeting with the infectologists to announce the quarantine

One million cases of coronavirus in Argentina: they estimate that there are six times more infected

Source: clarin

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