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They are the only e-mails that the North Central Prosecutor’s Office has. And wants more. Johanna Acevedo, Head of the Health Planning Division of the Ministry of Health (Minsal), voluntarily handed over to the Public Ministry 37 documents with institutional email chains between her and authorities of the portfolio that she leads today Enrique Paris. He did so after testifying as a witness in a criminal investigation for the alleged crimes of reckless spread of pathogenic germs; injuries and homicide; denial of service; and falsification of a public document, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Dear Marcelo, along with saying hello, I apologize for the delay in reviewing my statement, I am attaching a signed document in Word and PDF, tomorrow I will ask to see how the emails can be compressed. Kind regards, “he wrote by mail to the prosecutor of Alta Complexidad Centro Norte, who is leading the investigation., Marcelo carrasco, last September 2.
The content of the emails —Included in the investigative folder of the case— reflect the methodological difficulties in handling the pandemic that Acevedo reported to the cabinet on more than one occasion of Mañalich, the tense communication that existed between both teams and also show the way in which the Second Floor of La Moneda intervened in Epidemiology to participate in the reports and advise on the figures. The communications cover the period between March 25 and June 12.
Days after Acevedo’s contribution to the Public Ministry, The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court after the Minsal refused, invoking reasons of National security, to deliver the Mañalich post office, his former chief of staff Itziar Linazasoro and the Undersecretary of Health Paula Daza. The controversy brought by the Central North regional prosecutor Xavier Armendariz He reached the Criminal Chamber of the highest court, which today saw the appeal.
The ministers Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos and the member lawyer Ricardo Abuauad they resolved request a report to Paris as a prior procedure. “In order that within a period of three business days, this court will account in detail of the reasons that support its opposition to the diligence of the Public Ministry, in accordance with the communications that it sent to the prosecution on the eighth and ten of September of the present, that is, that it specifies how the confidential information of patients and the protection of private life are affected and specify how the diligence in question puts at risk or affects national security “, says the resolution issued at 12:46 today.
Itziar Linazasoro, Mañalich’s nurse and right arm who is now in the crosshairs of the prosecution
The case was opened after the senator Alejandro Navarro and the Chilean Commission of Human Rights complained against Mañalich and the President Sebastian Piñera for their alleged participation in these and other crimes.
The data on infections and deaths and the methodology to obtain them has been one of the great problems that Minsal has faced and that Mañalich had to answer several times while he was Minister of Health.
The difficulties in the figures led him, for example, to the fact that on June 7 he had to add 653 deaths to the total death toll. That time, the doctor acknowledged that they made “a methodological change in the way we count people who have died.”
Another episode, this time with Paris at the head of the Minsal, which reflects how difficult it was for Health to put together a database that would account for all the people infected with the virus occurred on June 16. Paris had just arrived at the ministry and entrusted the mission to the chief of Epidemiology, Rafael Araos. The infectologist reported that after a long analysis, they realized a flaw in the Epivigila data, so they had to add, exceptionally, 31,412 new cases to the total Covid-19 case records.
One of the people who was always aware of the problems in the figures was Acevedo. This can be seen in the emails that it sent to the prosecution. The chain of emails in which the former minister participated started with one sent on June 2 by Araos to Mañalich and Daza, with a copy to Acevedo and Linazasoro. The subject was “Summary and table of new cases” and it said: “Hello – I am attaching the summary and table of new cases. Greetings, Rafa ”.
The same day, Acevedo responded to all: “Dear: We will modify this table to include the new definition of suspected cases with positive laboratory. Best regards”.
Given this, Mañalich answered the nurse 33 minutes later: “What is that definition?” The woman clarified the doubt about an hour later: “Dear Minister: As you had announced, the idea was to include suspected cases with positive PCR from the last 24 hours (As indicated by the presidency yesterday), finally given the volume of cases, it was decided to leave everything for Friday when the adjustment to the stock is made. Best regards”.
Another email was sent by Adolfo Lawn, an official of the Department of Epidemiology, on April 27, 2020 to Pablo Pizarro – who according to information from Transparency works in the Division of Information Technologies and Communications – and to other officials, including Acevedo. The subject was “Epivigila version correction and script”. In it it was noted: “Dear Pablo, along with saying hello I tell you that the system registry problems keep accumulating. A colleague from the dept. She reviewed yesterday’s database with a cutoff at 9:00 p.m. and found 66 cases without notification date and 28 cases without age and with date of birth, in addition to cases without folio number and without living or deceased status. I’m still waiting for the corrections to the observations I made last week. Please manage with the provider. Best regards”.
29 minutes passed and Acevedo forwarded the email to Mañalich’s chief of staff. Carmen Gloria Chacana —Which according to her Linkedin profile— served as head of the Department of Information Technologies and Communications at Minsal. “Dear Itziar and Carmen Gloria: I put in a copy an example of the request for revision of errors requested with respect to the Covid-19 form, 66 cases without a notification date that is the basic input for generating the card. Best regards, ”the message read.
In addition, Acevedo informed his superiors about duplicate cases that they had to exclude due to lack of support. For example, on April 11, the nurse wrote an email to Linazasoro and another employee of the portfolio: “Dear: Attached Epivigila database, confirmed cases until 6:00 p.m. There are 6988 records and 211 duplicates (marked), therefore, there are approximately 6883 unique records ”.
In another e-mail of May 23, sent to Mañalich, Daza, Linazasoro and Araos, he indicated: “Dear minister and undersecretary: A summary and database of new cases are attached, a total of 3,709 that met the laboratory criteria and are excluded 657 people who did not comply with the laboratory support ”.
While Mañalich was at the head of the Minsal, one of the criticisms he received (especially from some members of the Covid Social Table, such as the Medical College) was that he tended to concentrate most of the workload, or at least the most complex issues , in your close circle of advisers. That generated friction between the teams. In the communications that Acevedo delivered to the prosecutor Carrasco, there is an episode that reflects the way in which Mañalich, through his chief of staff, took charge of the issues that corresponded to the Undersecretariat of Public Health.
On April 27 at 3:02 p.m. Acevedo wrote an email to Carmen Gloria Chacana. The message was also addressed to Pablo Pizarro, Minsal’s project manager; Alfredo Lawn; in addition to five other ministry officials, including Linazasoro.
The subject was “Re: Epivigila Requirements”. Acevedo wrote the following: “Dear Carmen Gloria: Reviewing the application and according to what was stated by the authority regarding modification in the case definition, as well as to mount the Covid-19 card strategy safely, I have put some of the requests as urgentThese are: 1. Define compulsory symptomatic-asymptomatic clinical presentation variables. 2. Add variables for asymptomatic patients. 3. Lab requirement and bulk upload script. Best regards”.
Linazasoro replied to Acevedo the same day, at 3:34 p.m. “Johanna, the minister’s last indication was not to add anything to Epivigila. Carmen Gloria I am going to review this issue with the minister and undersecretary, I will tell you what the definition is. Greetings, “wrote the chief of staff.
The Acevedo’s answer arrived 43 minutes later. At 4:17 p.m. he wrote to Linazasoro: “Dear Itziar: They are not adding things, the request for the urgent is: 1. Leave as mandatory certain variables essential for the correct issuance of the card. 2. Add the asymptomatic option for PCR confirmation. 3. The requirement of massive load, we already did it previously with the supplier and we have not been able to execute it ”.
To close he added: “I clearly understand that we are not going to make the system more complex, but if there are modifications in the case definition or new algorithms are requested, we need to be able to make these requirements. Best regards”.
At the end of April, criticism of the government for Mañalich’s idea of creating a Covid-19 card, which would certify the immunity of patients recovered from the virus, was at its peak. The differences pointed mainly to the little scientific evidence that there was at that time regarding the immunity generated by the virus. In fact, at the beginning of May, the government finally made the decision to back down and suspend the idea. “We have been made to see that a fairly severe discrimination problem could be unleashed,” Mañalich said when he made the announcement.
The first email that Acevedo delivered in which there is a clue of the presence of the Second Floor of La Moneda was sent by the nurse on Tuesday, May 19 at 10:54 p.m. The communication was addressed to Mañalich and Daza, and it was also included with a copy to Linazasoro and Pablo Eguiguren.
The commercial engineer was the chief of staff of the former Minister of Economy José Ramón Valente. After Valente left the cabinet, Eguiguren was appointed as an advisor in the Second Floor of La Moneda.
The professional starred in the episode of the Presidency minute, of his authorship, which was leaked to the press and in which the comparative fatality figures delivered in April by the President of Argentina Alberto Fernández were contested.
Then in July The Third PM made known the intervention made by the team of Palacio advisers led by Cristián Larroulet in the team of the Department of Epidemiology of Minsal. Eguiguren, along with two other advisers —Benjamín Salas and Ignacio Parot— was part of that special team that had the mission of reviewing the epidemiological figures, the methodology for preparing the data and proposing improvements.
It was precisely this interference by La Moneda that was revealed in the emails that Acevedo delivered. Eguiguren appears copied together with Linazasoro in 18 emails. “Dear: Attached daily report part 1, prepared in conjunction with the presidency. Best regards ”, says one of the emails sent on May 20 at 22:23.
A similar message is repeated in an email on May 23 and another on May 24. Four days later, on May 28, it was Araos who sent the following email that went under the subject of “New cases and BD summary”: “Hello everyone, I am sending you the summary and the database of new cases. A total of 3,695 new cases today meet all three criteria and 1,173 were excluded. We include a new tab with the 281 duplicates that will be eliminated from the stock as discussed with the chair ”.
In the rest of the communications, Eguiguren was only included in the recipients of the emails and in one of them, from June 12 at 00.07, Benjamín Salas was included in the list of addresses.
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