Pablo Sigal
10/09/2020 7:17 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 10/09/2020 7:17 PM
"There are jurisdictions that have
lost the compass
."
The phrase is from one of the experts that makes up the committee that advises President Alberto Fernández since the coronavirus pandemic began.
However, the infectologist in question
has not been able to express an opinion
in the previous presidential announcement, as well as none of those who have been advising the Government for seven months.
The peculiarity of this new renewal of the quarantine, with new flexibilities, is that
for the first time in more than seven months
that group was not consulted before the official communication.
What happened?
Clarín
spoke this Friday with some members of that team of experts, who during this year 2020 have been defended by a sector of society and attacked by another party.
Basically, between
those who believed that XL quarantine was a solution and those who believed that it was not.
Epidemiologists admit that the last meeting they had with the President was
exactly 11 days ago
, an eternity for this pandemic.
They have a whatsapp group that has been silent ever since.
And in these almost two weeks the reality of some provinces like
Santa Fe, Córdoba and Tucumán
changed completely.
Fernández's interlocutors this time were only the governors of the Interior, on Thursday, and those of the AMBA, this Friday.
"Certainly not with some of us
,
"
was the suspicious response of a committee infectologist when asked about the rarity that this time there had been no meeting with them.
Is there a conflict between infectologists?
Or between some infectologists and the President?
They say no
.
That there may be different views on the problems but that the thing does not go from there.
What has been evident in all this time are those different positions on the health policies that had to be followed.
For example,
the subject of tests.
Some placed more emphasis than others on this aspect.
What happened to the antigen tests that the government announced a fortnight ago?
The Ministry of Health had communicated the purchase of 500 thousand.
Interestingly, the expert committee could not give an answer.
They are not aware of the situation.
The much talked about
"red button"
that the President said he would not hesitate to press if the health reality warranted it has been forgotten, despite the fact that cases do not stop rising throughout the country.
On the contrary, the trend now is for greater openness, including
the political decision to start enabling classes.
The idyll between the Executive Power and the infectologists
was more oiled
while all eyes were on the Federal Capital and the Buenos Aires suburbs.
And while these two districts waged their
"cold war"
to see which one opened more or less activities.
In this context, the voice of the expert committee was always functional with the political interest of
upholding the quarantine status quo
.
The fact that this situation of the AMBA has ceased to occupy the center of the scene coincides with a
shift
in this instance of consultation.
Now that the crisis is moving to the interior of the country, it has become clear that
the official proposal is beginning to change
.
The metropolitan area has already passed the peak of cases between mid-September and the beginning of October.
The rest of the provinces are still far from coming.
However,
the political and economic resistance in each territory
of the country to close activities again seems to be weighing more now than what the President maintained every time he renewed the quarantine until now: the will to "save lives."
What can infectologists do in this new context?
His words this time have not only ceased to be binding, as has been the case since March, but have not even been consulted the day before.
The "cold war" is over.
$
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