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The former head of Noncommunicable Diseases of the Ministry of Health (Minsal), Andrea Albagli Iruretagoyen, delivered her statement to the Prosecutor’s Office on September 30, within the framework of the complaint for alleged reckless dissemination of pathogenic germs in the middle of the pandemic.
Albagli assured the Prosecutor’s Office that there was an irregular handling of the pandemic data and affirms that the officials were asked to “manipulate the data,” according to the newspaper La Tercera.
“I remember very clearly one day when they asked us to change the information (…) On April 24, because previously the absolute value reported from Epidemiology was always lower than that reported by the minister, that day the information that was in Epivigila happened surpassed what was reported by Mañalich. So when I had already received the database, my direct manager, Rodrigo Fuentes, told me that at the request of the minister, the last records must be deleted to make it fit, because although there could be differences, the information from Epivigila could not exceed informed by the minister. We did not do it ”, indicates the professional.
According to Albagli’s testimony, the request to manipulate the data was made by his direct leadership, which changed in mid-April, but maintains that the request was made in the “name of the Cabinet” of the Minsal.
“That day the Gap was 30 cases, it was small. There were 30 cases of contagion no more. They ask me from the minister’s cabinet to do it again so that the value is adjusted, in quotation marks, without exceeding that reported by the minister, “he explains,
“It was very evident to me that this was inappropriate, that we couldn’t do it. We receive this indication at 11:30 or 12:00. The (epidemiological) report we had ready and we were finishing it, before its publication in the afternoon, That’s when they asked us to modify the report and the database to what the minister had said. It was verbal but there are more witnesses. Everyone from the office was there, Pía Álvarez, Silvina Alvarado, Patricia Cerda, Rocío Martínez, Fabio Paredes, Mario Soto. We all shared the same space, except for two who were there incidentally. We were in dependencies of the Ministry ”, he adds.
“With the database I mean what is extracted from Epivigila, what is downloaded. What happened was that I rejected the request, because manipulating the database is an irregularity. The minister’s order was maintained, which was not admissible, so it was requested that they change the cut-off point of the base, that if it was unloaded at 22:00, for example, it was unloaded earlier, I do not remember well but the cut it ran for 18:00. They advanced the cut-off point until there was a value equal to or lower than that reported by the minister ”, Specifies what happened.
Albagli’s statement to the Prosecutor’s Office is a document of 21 pages where he explains this situation. The official resigned from her post in mid-September to pursue a doctorate.
“When they ask us to manipulate the database, that although it has not been done, a decision was made that although it is not an administrative fault, it is still reprehensible for a decision not to report everything that could be reported, “he said in his statement, explaining that he did not resign before to change from within the situation.
The professional is a psychologist from the Catholic University, a Master’s in Public Health in Toronto, a UC Master’s in Epidemiology and is now studying at the University of Toronto. In addition, according to Ciper, she was also part of the Democratic Revolution Health Commission until 2017.
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