W.The hen Rufino Pacheco arrived at the hospital, suffocated and her legs fell unconscious, a doctor cutter handed the papers to her stepdaughter, asking permission to put her on a ventilator. But the elderly patient knocked.
Less than 12 hours after Pecheko’s death, he was knocked to the ground in an oxygen tank in his bedroom when his wife shouted, “Old man, don’t leave me.” Days later, she also fell ill in Covid-19, along with her adult son.
“There was a lot of stress and anxiety,” said Consuelo Vazquez at the time, taking care of her mother and brother after the person she loved as her father. “We thought we’d go through the same thing.”
Everyone needed extra oxygen from time to time, and only after they recovered would the family be able to begin to grieve for Pecheko.
Pacheco, who subscribed to Covid-1 and was quickly cremated, who died on November 24 in the working-class city of Iktepak, will never be seen as one of the growing deaths in parts of Mexico – especially the capital and its suburbs. Erupted from the peak of summer.
For weeks, officials have been urging Mexicans to stay home. President Andr મેs Manuel López Obrador, who seldom acknowledges the gravity of Mexico’s outbreak, also urged Mexicans earlier this month to meet with holiday parties from December to January. But he refused to impose sanctions, declaring Mexicans “responsible, well-behaved and sincere.”
The President’s soft touch highlighted what an essential contradiction his government’s approach to coronavirus is. The constant opening of bars, cinemas and shopping ping malls conveys the message that people should only go for activities.
He also said that many Mexicans cannot stop working. Instead of helping people stay at home, the leftist president has insisted on sticking to his two-year-old presidential penance. His government has proposed a Best of Stimulus program to recruit millions of new unemployed.
The result has been disastrous. U.N.A.M. Health experts at Mexico’s National Autonomous University estimate that the number is two to four times higher, although about 120,000 Mexicans have died from Covid-19. Reported figures also make Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for epidemics based on its population.
Even as cases – and deaths – began to rise in November, the government’s approach has changed little.
Finally, officials leaned toward reality and on Saturday shut down most of Mexico City and non-essential activities in Mexico City and the surrounding state, the suburbs of the vast working class in the area most affected by the coronavirus.
Deputy Health Minister H. Hugo López, who is in charge of the government’s efforts, acknowledged that “extraordinary measures” were needed to address the epidemic.
Tired doctors and nurses on the ground knew for weeks how terrible the picture was.
The complex care specialist at La Reza General Hospital in Mexico City, Dr.
Wherever it turns, there is scarcity. Its ICU has a single complex care doctor on duty on each shift to manage 15 patients, with the help of other doctors in other specialties.
The protocol recommends and there are not enough staff members to rotate ventilated patients on their stomachs to make sure the airways remain in place.
“I told my boss that end-suffering patients almost – almost – condemn death.” “What service are we serving?”
Since the epidemic began, the government has hired new doctors, purchased ventilators and increased the number of ICU beds. But that is not enough. “You can’t increase capacity overnight,” said Dr. Alejandro McCas, who handled the government’s response to the 2009 swine flu epidemic. “All these extra beds didn’t necessarily improve vision.”
Critics of López Obrador’s popularity argue that the approach to the epidemic was misguided from the beginning. “The Mexican government has declared that testing is a waste of resources,” said Dr. Jul Julio Frank, a former health minister who is now president of the University of Miami. Mexico has the lowest test rate of any country in the world.
“The policy was to have enough beds,” he said. “The purpose of the policy should be to control transmission.”
Testing X2 said part of the responsibility for testing falls on the states of Mexico, and they too failed to increase testing. The exception is Mexico City, where Mayor Claudia Schenbaum offers free, comprehensive testing.
Dr Samuel Samuel Ponce de Lane, co-ordinator of the Covid Response Group at UNAM, said the government’s attempt to strike a balance between allowing people to work and infecting them had failed. “More than half the population belongs to the informal economy,” he said. “They have to travel and go to work the next day to get money for food.”
Given that reality, he said, it was difficult to understand the government’s refusal to talk about basic measures to protect against the coronavirus – from the beginning to the refusal to set an example by wearing face masks.
“Social distance is an impossible dream,” Ponce de Lane said, referring to Mexico City’s crowded public transportation. “But we can reduce that with facial masks and hygiene.”
Many have also been surprised by L લpez Obrador’s insistence on maintaining decisive action during the epidemic.
The International Monetary Fund – not a fan of fugitive public spending – recently called on Mexico’s left-wing government to increase its support for families and businesses affected by the epidemic.
Mexico budgeted only 0.7% of GDP in additional health and social spending to combat the epidemic, the fund said, adding that Mexico should increase this amount from 2.5% to 3.5% of the country’s production, and make healthcare a priority.
For decades, Mexico has been critical to public health, behind comparable economies such as Colombia and Brazil. Many hoped that Lopez Obrador would change that when he took office, he promised the poor the focus of his policies.
Instead, “Covid hit us at a very bad time,” said Marina K. Camp Mops, a public spending expert at Ivelaya, a think tank in Mexico. The government of L ઓpez Obrador cut the health budget for 2019, the third consecutive year of cuts. “We have the structural problems that we always experience, and that has been growing since 2017.”
As the bustle of the capital begins to subside and the government focuses on the arrival of the first vaccine, McCas said the country was only halfway through its war.
“If this was a football match, we would be at 45 minutes,” he said. The virus spread rapidly in the winter and “I predict many more patients,” he said.
