The Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, during a press conference at the National Palace.Presidencia / EFE
Mexico this Thursday exceeded 200,000 official deaths from coronavirus.
It is a terrible fact and one that reveals, even though the real figure is much higher, the overwhelming cost of the pandemic.
It is clear that in this scenario, no matter how much some indicators have improved, the authorities in charge of containing the coronavirus should be required to take the utmost seriousness.
In a country with one of the highest mortality rates on the continent, nine million newly poor people, and a drop of more than 8% in GDP, this tragedy cannot be used for provocation or verbal reckoning.
Just what the person in charge of the fight against the coronavirus, Dr. Hugo López-Gatell, practices with vicious insistence.
The day he announced that the country exceeded the 200,000 official deceased barrier, López-Gatell, who long ago came to say that reaching 60,000 deaths was a “catastrophic scenario for Mexico”, accused various media of showing a “ fondness for round numbers ”and“ focusing on the sadder side of the pandemic ”.
In an escalation that should make the entire Government blush, he argued that the information from said media only responds to the search for economic profitability of certain interest groups and that for that purpose they appropriated the mourning of the families of the victims.
This senselessness not only reveals the intellectual height of the Undersecretary of Health, but also brings him dangerously close to those who shout so much against press freedom throughout the continent.
López-Gatell, a renowned epidemiologist, was the hope of millions of Mexicans during the first stages of the pandemic, who saw in him a specialist who prioritized his scientific knowledge over his work as a politician.
A year later, there is no doubt that the political López-Gatell has completely swallowed up the epidemiologist, unable even to accept his mistakes, such as a vacation trip at the most critical moment of the pandemic or going out to pass through a park, without a mask. , hours after stating that he had tested positive for coronavirus again.
López-Gatell would use it well to look at examples from other places, from counterparts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci in the United States or, much closer, the head of Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, the highest authority in the capital, the most affected city in Mexico, which has never tried to silence criticism of his administration with unjustified attacks on the media.
There is something, however, even more worrying than López-Gatell's attitude and that is that he has the permission of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from whom he has copied his strategy of confrontation with the media.
The undersecretary should apologize for his words and, of course, amend his verbiage in the future.
If not, the best thing you could do is walk away and make way for someone more serious and rigorous.
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