A Hundred Years Later and Several Epidemics Later, COVID-19 Arrived
The disease is something unexpected that, generally, arrives at the wrong time according to the perception of one's own existence. Sometimes it is so abrupt and demanding that it does not give rise to having a reaction time to organize the resources and the own spirit to combat them. This has h...
| Published in: | Revista de Medicina y Cine |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | Spanish |
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Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca
2021
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| Online Access: | https://revistas.usal.es/index.php/medicina_y_cine/article/view/rmc202016e0105 https://doi.org/10.14201/rmc202016e0105 |
| Summary: | The disease is something unexpected that, generally, arrives at the wrong time according to the perception of one's own existence. Sometimes it is so abrupt and demanding that it does not give rise to having a reaction time to organize the resources and the own spirit to combat them. This has happened with the COVID-19 pandemic, one hundred years after the so-called Spanish flu. It has come suddenly, it has turned the entire health system upside down, it has claimed lives and resources like the plague of other times, and our way of life has been affected in practically all its aspects. It is the last great epidemic of the many that have affected humans in the last forty years in which we have seen AIDS, Ebola, SARS, H1N1, MERS, Avian Flu and, now, COVID-19 . Virologists knew that another pandemic could occur and some have been waiting for it since the beginning of the 21st century. They did not rule out that it had a zoonotic origin and for this, epidemiological protocols had been established worldwide on how to deal with it. However, everything has been overwhelmed, we have had the misfortune of an "astral" conjunction of leaders as undocumented as they are populists who have dared to deny the evidence and ignore prudent measures. Not surprisingly, Siri Hustvedt warns: “Viral ideas have no impact on viral disease. The virus is not intimidated by boasting or racist or sexist posturing, or by anti-intellectual bombast » La enfermedad es algo inesperado que, generalmente, llega a destiempo según la percepción de la propia existencia. A veces es tan abrupta y exigente que no da lugar a disponer de un tiempo de reacción para ordenar los recursos y el propio ánimo para combatirlas. Esto ha ocurrido con la pandemia por la COVID-19, cien años después de la denominada gripe española. Ha llegado de sopetón, ha puesto patas arriba a todo el sistema de salud, se ha cobrado vidas y recursos cual peste de otros tiempos, y nuestra forma de vivir se ha visto afectada en prácticamente todos sus aspectos. Es la última gran epidemia de las muchas que han afectado al ser humano en los últimos cuarenta años en los que hemos visto el SIDA, el Ébola, el SARS, la H1N1, El MERS, la Gripe Aviar y, ahora, la COVID-19. Los virólogos sabían que podía ocurrir otra pandemia y algunos la estaban esperando desde que empezó el siglo XXI. No descartaban que tuviera un origen zoonótico y para ello se habían dispuesto protocolos epidemiológicos a nivel mundial sobre la forma de afrontarla. Sin embargo, todo ha sido desbordado, hemos tenido la desgracia de una conjunción «astral» de mandatarios tan indocumentados como populistas que se han atrevido a negar las evidencias y a ignorar medidas prudentes. No en vano Siri Hustvedt advierte: «Las ideas virales no tienen impacto sobre la enfermedad viral. Al virus no le intimidan las fanfarronadas o los postureos racistas o machistas, ni la grandilocuencia antiintelectural» |
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