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Today the former Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, exposed in the investigative commission of the Chamber of Deputies that reviews the constitutional accusation against him.
“A great political discussion was generated, we came from all the criticism or mistrust of the state on October 18, and in this context when this health discussion is presented on the networks, obviously the spirits are heated. As I am direct, I regret if I contributed to tense the spirits ”, maintained the ex-minister in the parliamentary instance.
After that, in an interview with Mega, he referred to his participation in said commission: “In a long exhibition illustrated by plates, we delivered the entire strategy that the Ministry of Health has followed since the beginning of this year, when this terrible disease appeared.”
On whether, in his opinion, the doubts about the questions to his management were cleared, he said: “In my opinion, partial of course, I think so. The measures that Chile has been taking, some of them very aggressive, with the imposition of a curfew that has not been used in other nations or very drastic quarantines, were evidently taken, as expressed by Dr. María Teresa Valenzuela, who also continued with her testimony after my presentation, in due course in the right dose ”.
“Regarding the quality of the data, it seems important to reiterate that the data we had was the best we had at all times,” he said.
Along these lines, he assured that today “I explained to the commission that evaluates this constitutional accusation how we were building the data, because in reality it is not that there was an autopsite ready to be visited.”
Likewise, Mañalich, in his presentation at the investigative commission, claimed to have made “mistakes” in his management of the pandemic.
On this point, later at Mega, Mañalich said: “The dynamics of thrust that we need, of jet engines that we had to impose in order to advance in the way we wanted. That is, how we managed to quadruple the number of intensive treatment units in the country’s public hospitals, how we forced the private health network to work in accordance with the Ministry of Health with prices that we set – low, for what they were used to. – and operate as an integrated network; how we managed to bring the supplies that were captured from us at airports in the war of masks, war of respirators. So this was an extremely hard time. That going head-on, getting things done, intervening in clinics, sending an administrator from the Ministry of Health, produced friction with the mayors, with society in general, which reflects some trait of my personality, in the sense of going from front and try to achieve at all costs what is committed”.
“That vehemence was translated into clearly unnecessary conflicts, viewed from the perspective of time, with mayors, with the press, with political actors”he added.
Along these lines, he pointed out the “mistakes” he would have made during his tenure in handling the pandemic, adding that he acted “with the information that was available at the time.”
“Obviously we made mistakes. I tell you one: we bought a very large dose of hydroxychloroquine, a theoretically very fashionable drug at a time to treat this covid infection. It was a mistake, but it was the best information we had so far. We used another drug, Ivermectin, to treat some patients and it was later shown not to. We made efforts with plasma … I think we acted with the best that we had in world information, much supported by the scientific community and especially by the scientific advisory committee of the Ministry of Health, ”he said.
In addition, he added: “We knew at the end of January that approximately a thousand people from China and the surrounding area were going to arrive at our airport. We blocked them very well and that’s why we didn’t have an outbreak from China. But I think we did not act with the same force for the Chileans who traveled to Europe during the summer. Looking back, we were a bit lax with people who came on business, from travel, from Europe, specifically Italy and Spain.”.
The Minister of the Interior, Víctor Pérez, referred to Mañalich’s intervention and the fact that he recognized errors during the handling of the pandemic.
“It seems to me that the words of Minister Mañalich inform what the government has always raised. What government in the world was prepared to face a pandemic of the dramatic conditions that we have experienced? “Said the Secretary of State.
“I want to remember that many more developed countries than us had at some point choose who to serve, that they could not provide health care to all their citizens. In Chile that did not happen and it did not happen largely because of the work of Dr. Mañalich. That he has made mistakes, we all made mistakes. That there have been difficulties, by the way. Whoever wants to say today that there was a unique recipe to face the pandemic is lying, “he added.
