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She is a doctor, former minister and of socialist roots, like Bachelet, and, in recent weeks, she has been very active in the national contingency, due to the pandemic crisis.
We are talking about the former Health Minister, Helia Molina (PPD), who after the trench of her role as dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Santiago (Usach) has been direct and sharp in relation to the work of the government and the current minister from the portfolio, Jaime Mañalich, and has not hesitated to say it publicly.
Even in BioBioChile.cl Helia Molina went further and winked at the option of being a presidential candidate, based on some requests, especially those that appeared in comments on social networks.
“There are many people who say that I can be a presidential candidate,” said the former secretary of state.
Regarding the decision to apply a total quarantine for Greater Santiago, given the increase in 2,660 cases of Covid-19 that became official during the last 24 hours in the country, he described it as “late” and is more this Wednesday assured that the system health could collapse in June.
“The first thing I want to say is that my voice in this pandemic has never been to play an opposition role. A pandemic of this nature, which affects so many Chileans in the social, economic and health fields, I have never put in a context of opposition. In an event of such calamity we must be paddling for the same side ”Helia Molina said.
The former minister of Michelle Bachelet added that “that does not mean that we agree on everything. I am a health doctor, with mention in epidemiology. I have had to deal with other large epidemics in Chile. I am already big, like cholera, HIV and I got H1N1 while I was in the ministry. The fact that it puts different points to what the government raises, does not mean that it places a political emphasis on it ”.
There is no waiting to have “the tendalá”
-How do you rate the decision to apply a total quarantine to Greater Santiago?
– It seems to me well, when the minister made the decision now, it seems correct to me. It is a little late, but that does not mean that it will not have an effect and be positive. The important thing is that the government in Genrela put the batteries and assure the people that they can comply with the quarantine, because if there is not a comprehensive concern about the people who are under it, most likely it will be an insufficient quarantine and which does not solve the problem. It seems late to me, because public health is an anticipatory discipline, which does not react but rather anticipates. It is not necessary to wait for the “tendalá” to be in place to make decisions, it must be made when the effect is still noticeable.
-What are the risk factors today in the metropolitan area?
– It is everything, the collective locomotion, the Metro, the supermarkets, the restaurants. the soda fountains, where they sell the gol dick, are all risk factors. The common denominator is to leave the house.
-You spoke of a “underreporting” of deaths from Covid-19, why do you point that out?
-What I said is that there could be underreporting, because I am not in the hospital today, nor am I attending people, therefore I can make certain assumptions that have to do with the fact that many people die without the death certificate having arrived at hospital where he was and is based on the diagnosis of cardiorespiratory arrest and that happens with many dead who die in a home and there have been cases, in nursing homes, where they have not been examined. Suspicious cases, they sent them to the house, they did not do exams.
-But, do you know that situation?
-It’s not that I know it or not. This is always the case. In other words, if a person goes to the office, consults and is not taking PCR on the premises, they say “stay 14 days at home because you are suspected of Covid-19”, they will not go to take the exam at the home because that’s not being done.
Another thing is with a guitar
– Would you have liked to be Minister of Health under these circumstances?
-I am a person who likes many challenges, I have always been moving throughout my life with several and different. In that context, I don’t know if he ministers, but if I would have liked, he was an important part of managing a pandemic. It is not part of my person to look for personal or political returns, nor to believe myself the best of the best and probably I have the grace that I am good at forming teams and working on optimizing all resources. But, that does not mean that I could have done better than the current minister, we are very different in the way of approaching things and saying them too. Of course, I have to be honest, I would have loved to be in management, but not with a desire to value myself more in society, because I come back.
-You left the Bachelet government for saying: “in all the cuica clinics, conservative families have had their daughters abort,” what do you think today?
-The truth is that I have little filter and I say what I think and I don’t measure costs. That has serious consequences, like I had to resign from the ministry. But, okay, everyone has personalities, their characteristics and one acts on it. I do not have too political, too indirect characteristics to say things. That has pros and cons and you have to assume what you are no more.
Probably me and President Bachelet, because she is a doctor and an epidemiologist as well, we would have been more anticipatory, we would have increased social isolation, but always considering people, not the epidemic. ”
– Helia Molina, former Minister of Health
-If Bachelet had been in government, would this pandemic have been better managed?
-I think it would have been approached differently. Value judgments of better or worse must be seen in the results. Today we are still not clear about what is happening. We are seeing that the contagion curve is rising and probably me and President Bachelet, because she is a doctor and an epidemiologist as well, we would have been more anticipatory, we would have increased social isolation, but always considering people, not the epidemic. People are greatly affected by the quarantine and the State must take care of that. I think that, according to the experience of teamwork that the government of President Bachelet had, we could have anticipated and had social measures a little closer to the people.
Presidential door open
-On social networks some people have suggested that you could be a presidential candidate, what do you think?
-There are many people who write to me, who call me, who think that I, due to my personal characteristics, could be a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. Today we are living a climate of much discredit of politics, of much discredit of the authorities, that is the worst of the worlds. It is probable that due to my personal characteristics it is believed that I could be a different person, who does not represent the traditional politician, who is direct and more transparent. But, the truth is that presidential candidacies do not arise like this. Presidential nominations arise because people raise you up as a candidate. It would have to be, for me to get hooked with an idea of that nature, a more massive thing, to have the political backing and that is very difficult first of all. Politics is very misogenic.
-But, no political leader has suggested such an option.
– Local leaders yes, I belong to a political party and my party has, prior to these things that people say, a candidate to propose to the citizens.
-But, if your party asks you, what will you say?
-Of course. There is a topic that surpasses personal ideas and that has to do with the struggle of ideas that one has had all one’s life, that has to do with the common good. If really the citizenship with an important and numerous part, plus the support of a political party that says that I am the letter, well it should be evaluated.
-Yeah, but basically, would you like it?
– “My candidate for the presidency is that of my party, Heraldo Muñoz. If the circumstances take another turn, I am not a person who can not take charge of certain duties or certain things that they can do well, ”concludes the interview firmly with the Chilean woman.
“There were meetings with Piñera with President Kirchner for that same time, and as he said to our questions, ‘one plus one is two'”
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