MEXICO CITY (AP) – In other countries they have retired older doctors, they have summoned medical students to take the lead and they have encouraged health personnel exhausted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but in Nicaragua doctors have been harassed, threatened and, in some cases, forced into exile for questioning the handling of the pandemic.
Even the vice president and first lady, Rosario Murillo, has accused the doctors of “health terrorism” and of spreading “forecasts and false news”, reporting that COVID-19 has spread much more than the authorities recognize .
While international health organizations warn of the increase in infections in Nicaragua and independent doctors call for a voluntary quarantine to stop the spread of the delta variant, the government of Daniel Ortega, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term, has made it clear that this type of comments are unacceptable.
Medical groups denounce a much higher number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 and have criticized the Sandinista government for promoting mass concentrations.
Dr. Leonel Argüello, one of the country’s leading epidemiologists, recently fled Nicaragua after months of harassment and threats.
Argüello maintains its own count of health workers – including doctors – killed by COVID-19 and accuses the government of creating a false sense of security that has cost lives.
“We are not working to remove a government,” the specialist told The Associated Press from a country that he asked not to reveal for security reasons. “We are not working to be an opposition party. We are working as we would with any patient to find a way to save his life ”.
Argüello, who worked for the Health Ministry during the first Sandinista regime (1979-1990), said he took the threats seriously when Murillo accused the doctors of making things up and made it clear that the government would no longer tolerate him.
To questions sent by the AP about the alleged intimidation of doctors, the vice president responded with a thank you note, but without additional comment.
It’s unclear how many doctors have left the country during the pandemic, but the AP identified at least five who left because they felt intimidated by the government. “It’s a decision you make when you feel your physical safety is compromised,” Argüello said.
In early July, Murillo spoke of “false doctors” giving “false predictions and false surveys” about the pandemic. “In life everything has a cost and if we cause harm, harm will come to us, we should not expose ourselves to receiving the consequences,” he said on official television.
At that time, urologist José Luis Borgen was called to the Ministry of Health, where he was warned to stop releasing figures on the pandemic other than the official ones. He indicated that he knows a dozen doctors who were summoned and who were told the same thing.
“They accuse us of giving false news and creating fear in people,” said Borgen. A colleague of his was told that his medical license could be withdrawn and that he could be charged with spreading false information. Borgen said he believes that doctor is no longer in Nicaragua.
Borgen was also summoned to the Attorney General’s Office for having treated a political opposition figure wanted by the government as a doctor. He interpreted that quote as an intimidation attempt.
“Everything is related,” Borgen said. “When the vice president says something, the rest of the institutions execute it.”
The specialist, who also contracted COVID-19, said he did not know if any of his colleagues had their license withdrawn or if they have been accused of a crime. However, “many” left the country fearing that this could happen, he said.
The government had already exerted political pressure on health workers. When massive social protests broke out in April 2018, rejecting a reform in social security, the government ordered public health workers not to attend to injured protesters.
Those who disobeyed — some 400, according to Argüello — were fired. Several of them have since gone into exile.
The pressure has continued. Since the pandemic appeared in Nicaragua, in March 2020, talking about coronavirus was taboo. Wearing a surgical mask in hospitals became a risk, because administrators prohibited staff from wearing it. Masks create alarm among patients, they said.
Relatives of patients and health workers again disclosed this year “express burials” of the victims of COVID-19 carried out by personnel in white protective suits under cover of the dark. “La Prensa,” Nicaragua’s main newspaper, reported last July that a Managua funeral home carried out 14 such burials in 10 days.
Nicaraguan health personnel have also been affected by the pandemic. At least 160 healthcare workers have died from COVID-19, statistics the government has not shared, according to Argüello. Borgen said on Friday that 88 of the deceased were doctors.
A doctor from the northwestern city of Chinandega said doctors could not obtain COVID-19 tests outside of government hospitals, and even these are strictly limited.
“They have it under control and if someone in a given case tests positive, they handle it with discretion,” he said. “They want to sell an image that the virus is under control.”
However, he noted that there are a large number of cases in his region, that the local hospital’s COVID ward is full, and that a colleague who had been treating patients day and night died of the disease a month ago. She, too, spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.
Dr. Eddy Valverde fled into exile in late June, weeks after the government began arresting prominent opposition leaders. He had faced months of threats and attacks on social media for criticizing the handling of the pandemic. Some pro-government journalists called for the revocation of his medical license.
Valverde said independent doctors have been the only source of reliable data on the pandemic. He is a member of the Nicaraguan Medical Unit (UMN), made up of doctors dismissed from public hospitals in 2018.
The UMN, which offered free consultations to COVID-19 patients, was forced to close its offices in July after months of harassment by the police.
The Citizen Observatory, another organization formed by activists and independent doctors, has assured that the number of deaths from COVID-19 is 20 times higher than the official government figure: more than 4,000.
The government has been reporting a single weekly death from the disease for the past nine months. However, according to the Observatory, only in the first week of September there were 329 deaths and 1,865 suspected cases of COVID-19 in the country.
The Observatory called on Nicaraguans to join a “voluntary quarantine” during the month of September before “the peak of the pandemic and the collapse of the health system.”
Nicaragua began to vaccinate on a limited basis in April, and the nation of about 6.5 million people has vaccinated more than 520,000 adults over the age of 45, President Ortega said Thursday, although he did not clarify whether they received two doses or just one dose. first. He announced that the government would begin vaccinating those over 30 at the end of this month.
Instead of imposing restrictions to slow the spread of the virus, the government encouraged mass gatherings and the continuation of normal life, despite warnings from local doctors and the Pan American Health Organization.
Leonel Argüello assures that the government’s attempts to gag him and other health workers are aimed at giving the population a false sense of security.
“Those who started talking were fired and that was the signal for everyone to keep quiet in the public sector,” he said.
Leaving Nicaragua was a difficult decision, Argüello said. In most cases, a doctor cannot quickly resume practice in another country. He continues to remotely treat 15 patients who are on oxygen at home.
“The apparent normality that is sold is a false sense of security that makes people not take measures to protect themselves,” added the epidemiologist.
“Every day we are worse, the numbers increase,” said Argüello. “Hospitals are full and everyone knows a relative or neighbor with COVID.”
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