Between March 2018 and December 2021 – almost a full period – Dr. Paula Daza served as Undersecretary of Public Health. The control of the Covid-19 pandemic became the main challenge until she left the government.
Away from politics, she closely follows health issues, only now from another place: at the beginning of April she became director of the Center for Public Policies and Innovation in Health (CIPS) of the Universidad del Desarrollo.
This week he met with Enrique Paris and Alberto Dougnac in a live in which they criticized the handling of the pandemic by the new government. Do you feel the need to claim your work?
I wouldn’t say that we have to claim what we did. The important thing is to be informing people frequently. The form is determined by each of the authorities. We had regular press points, the seremis also made press points and from there the information was downloaded to people and they understood how the pandemic was evolving. Regardless of how it is done, it is important to be in permanent communication with people, and not only in bad times. In good times, when we have more freedoms, we forget about the pandemic and it is more important than ever to communicate with people.
Former Minister Paris said that the current administration has delivered mixed signals regarding the pandemic. Do you share it?
I do not want to criticize the current administration. I am interested in contributing to public health policies. That is why I have called people to get vaccinated, I have talked about the importance of risk communication and I have proposed strategies. Beyond criticism, we are interested in making an analysis and improving what can be improved.
Cases have been increasing for a week, and projections say that this will continue, what are the causes of this increase?
There are several items here. This is a virus that has a certain periodicity, winter is starting and people spend more time indoors. For this reason, at the beginning of April we proposed to focus on the vaccination of laggards. This surge in cases was known to be coming, therefore it was important to prepare. This means that people had to prepare and that when winter came, those who had to get a vaccine would be up to date with their schedule.
The vaccination process has slowed down, how does that affect the epidemiological scenario?
That vaccination has slowed down is important, it means that there is a significant number of people whose immunity against the virus is weaker and they will be more exposed to getting seriously ill, that is why we call for vaccination.
Has the new administration failed to be more emphatic in risk communication?
You have to understand what risk communication is. When we talk about this, we are talking about preparing and responding to risk situations, with planning and preparation. At the beginning of April, when we were still in a good epidemiological situation, there was not enough communication about the importance of vaccination.
From the authorities?
On behalf of the people who are responsible for giving that information. When the cases go down, the perception of risk goes down, so you have to have a more active attitude.
Former Minister Paris usually remembers -regarding the current authorities- that now Minister Izkia Siches called them “unhappy”, and that Undersecretary Cristóbal Cuadrado accused them of “criminal management of the pandemic”…
We were criticized a lot. When we proposed the Mobility Pass, after much analysis, where we saw that people who had both doses were less infected, they called us criminals. I have a collaborative posture and I am going to contribute with what I learned and with my knowledge, not only to the authorities, but also to the people.
Cases of Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses are increasing their circulation. Would it toughen sanitary measures?
What I have proposed is to strengthen the mitigation measures that we have. The most important thing is that this group of more than five million people who are left behind get vaccinated. Second, you have to continue with good risk communication so that people understand. It doesn’t seem to me that after three years of the pandemic there are more restrictions to be made, but rather that we have to use the tools we have. Chile has vaccines and people understand that they can be vaccinated, we have very good logistics and we must continue using them.
On several occasions you have warned that the health system approved by the Convention would have consequences for the public system. What is your biggest qualm?
Having a radical change in health systems is not only going to delay the emergencies that we have. The current system has many virtues and also problems, such as waiting lists or the lack of specialists. If we don’t focus on solving them, we are probably going to make people’s health worse. That is why it is not the right way to radically change the health system. Today we have 15 million people in Fonasa with serious problems, such as waiting for surgery or a consultation. If we overload the public system with the three million people who are now in the private sector, people will continue to wait.
So far, would you vote Approve or Reject?
I have to wait to see what happens. All the articles have not yet been closed and once this Constitution is finished, I will read it.
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