Latin America is entrusted to the Heart of Jesus, the Virgin of La Chiquitina or the Christ of Corcovado against the coronavirus because if the pandemic invades the region, miracles will be needed to prevent it from decimating it. The divine love invoked by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is reasonable, since doctors will have to prescribe ejaculations if the contagion is massive in Mexico, with 125 million inhabitants depending on a poor hospital infrastructure. The President of Colombia pleaded for the protection of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá, whose medical assistance will be claimed by those admitted to the many hospitals left by the hand of God. Jesús de Nazaret will have to lend a hand to Brazil, disabled by the terrible management of resources and the shortage of professionals in vulnerable areas.
Latin America faces the viral threat precariously, mired in an economic stagnation that weakens the medical response. Cuba is more prepared because public health covers its entire geography, it has a health workforce trained in epidemics and international operations and accumulates experience in massive tests for the detection and isolation of patients. It did so against AIDS in the 1980s, and was the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and the syphilis bacteria as public health problems. In addition to entrusting themselves to the Most High, López Obrador, Iván Duque and other believing rulers will be forced to decree the control of private healthcare, better endowed than public healthcare but within the reach of a minority.
Private or union insurance plays a fundamental role in a region where state benefits generate mistrust.
Although I am a man of little faith, years ago I crossed myself before entering the emergencies of three Latin American public hospitals and came out blasphemous. The increasing participation of the private sector in health systems is directly proportional to the degree of dissatisfaction of the population with the public regime. Both sectors compete, integrate or complement each other, according to subsidies, modalities and personal income. Those who can afford insurance do so; Uruguay, Argentina and Chile are leaders in their hiring.
The epidemic, the collapse of the price of crude oil, devaluations and the depletion of fiscal resources are forecasting the recession of a subcontinent that should be protected by learning from Asia and Europe. The encounter with the plague shows the deficiencies of a geography where only 17% of mothers and children have their health needs covered; the rest live on the State and international cooperation. From the Chilean and Guatemalan curfews, the closure of accesses in Argentina, the economic assistance of El Salvador and the walk of Sandinista love, the governments take measures. But since sewers are still cleaned without masks and crowds scare, devotion is vaccinated kneeling in the Marian sanctuaries, while Pentecostal extremism denounces Satan, who abducts the fearful to turn the wind into pneumonia.
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