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The anniversary of fear

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  • The anniversary of fear



    The anniversary of fear
    Javier Flores
    One year after the emergence in Mexico of the pandemic influenza virus A/H1N1, one of the issues that certainly deserve to be addressed is the effect it caused among the population the announcement about the start of the epidemic because of this reaction important lessons can be drawn. Although little time has elapsed, the memory seems to be extremely short, and today some people are erased in stunning images of the history of our country. It should be recalled ...

    April 23, 2009. Meeting the health authorities, education and security at Los Pinos. A difficult decision. At approximately 23 hours, the television ad on national TV. The term severe fatigue and inescapable concern of health authorities. A short message. New infectious agent. We are facing an epidemic of breath. Unprecedented measures: suspension of classes from kindergarten to higher education in the Federal District and the state of Mexico. Symptoms of the disease. Stay away from people with respiratory infection. Do not greet with handshakes or kisses. Avoid crowded places and mass events, all that was said.

    The effect of the message to the public was immediate: the panic.

    That same day, but in the morning, Dr. Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, Health Secretary had said that cases of influenza were reported in Costa Rica were ordinary and urged people to remain calm. From early March until the announcement date had been at least 20 deaths, in the Federal District had 144 people hospitalized with severe pneumonia and many cases in San Luis Potosi and other entities of the Republic. Initially the authorities denied that it was an epidemic and attributed the events to the extent of the final phase of the winter flu.

    But now it is confirmed by statements from one of the protagonists in the television message, Dr. Armando Ahued, Secretary of Health, Federal District, or laboratories in Winnipeg, Canada, and the Centers for Disease Control and Diagnostics U.S. had reported that he was to an unknown agent, from which nothing was known about its virulence or whether it was susceptible to any treatment, so that Mexico should take all measures at its disposal to deal with it. In a few hours health authorities tacked a reassuring message to the alarm.
    The editorial in La Jornada on April 24, 2009 pointed out the contradictions and shortcomings in the official and added: "... the only thing to settle, for now, is that the authority has acted in a way that is inevitably generating panic, and has taken measures in which the confluence of the precipitation, misinformation and the most exasperating opacity. "

    Following the announcement, the profile of the country changed in a way that had never known. In Mexico City, the empty streets, the faces of men, women and children who were in the streets showed bewildered and fearful glances over the thousands of blue mask. Sneeze in a row in a bank or at any site was synonymous with rejection and discrimination never seen. Then all sorts of restaurants and shops empty. Panic buying (literally) in some supermarkets, in which the ranks to reach the boxes were several times within the stores. Sporting events without an audience, whose broadcasts could be heard the dialogue of the players. A right-wing political party called touching. Hospitals and clinics with cruelty exceeded showed its eternal vices: "We can not attend, they do not bring your card ..."

    It only remains to add in this description that a few days after the announcement, the federal Health Ministry changed course again: he abruptly reversed to say, from the first days of May, everything was controlled and that the epidemic was over almost .

    I'm not making value judgments about these events, the role played by the authorities in this phenomenon, at least not yet. There are published studies and projects underway that will help you understand the psychological and social factors involved in the response to the epidemic. I think the memory is strength and courage in itself.
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