OPEN LETTER TO ARGENTINE SOCIETY IN THE MIDST OF THE PANDEMIC
Today, we are in Argentina, the most difficult moment of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, measured both in terms of new infections as well as the increasing number of people who die every day. If additional measures are not implemented, this situation will continue to worsen day by day. In this context, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires together with the signatory Medical and Scientific Societies, concerned about Public Health, communicate our position to the different government instances, to our colleagues and to society as a whole.
Social distancing continues to represent the fundamental measure in the fight against the pandemic. We observe with great concern a relaxation in the fulfillment of the rules of distancing, which does not respect geographical limits or political districts. We make an energetic appeal in this regard that includes both governments and each and every citizen. We are talking about thousands and thousands of deaths that can be avoided.
Search devices for infected people with and without symptoms (but still contagious) and close contacts should be put into operation more quickly. To this end, you must dramatically expand our diagnostic capacity, implementing a more aggressive and active logic. What we have done so far in this area is clearly insufficient. Although to this day, mortality is lower than in many countries, our number of infected and deceased continues to increase.
Health personnel have made and continue to make an extraordinary effort. Day by day they put their health at stake, and that of their loved ones. It is essential to acknowledge their work and pay our warm tribute to them. We urge the authorities to urgently request strengthen the health system, through the incorporation of suitable personnel and adequate equipment, and recognize those who have been unknown and devalued for a long time. We ask society and governments to help us take care of us and take care of us.
We are exhausted from working in this context and under these working conditions. The pandemic affects us all, the fear of getting sick and dying is present in society, and the fatigue due to distance and confinement is increasing. Doctors, nurses, kinesiologists, and other health workers, are also stressed and exhausted, from working continuously and without rest, for 160 days, in a system that does not recognize us, that does not take care of us, or provides the necessary protection elements for our work. We too get sick, we die. No one should be without work, but what is certain, no one should lose their life to work, and this is happening to us.
We are very concerned about the increase in community circulation, the lack or misuse of chinstraps and masks, the fact that distancing measures are not respected, social gatherings without care, because this leads directly to an increase in infections, disabilities and deaths. It is necessary to increase our awareness of risk, as individuals and as a society. We all want to believe that the worst is over, but it is not, and it will not happen as in stories or dreams, that things happen just by wishing them. The increases in cases in the interior of the country and “plateaus with high numbers” in some cities, only herald new cases of disease, and not even societies with very advanced health systems, were able to sustain the risk of getting sick, without having to suffer a huge number of victims. It is not possible that the need for the freedom to have a coffee, expose us to more loss of life. We need society to make these situations of “lack of individual and community care” visible as problematic. For now, the best remedy we found was distancing, and protective measures, and in the meantime, we will also continue investigating vaccines, plasma, serums or some medicine.
Now is when, responsibly and as an adult society, we must assume the responsibilities that correspond to us, as a community, as individuals and as governments, and take charge of health care and life for ourselves and our people
SIGNATORS
Dr. Jorge Geffner, Chair of Immunology
Dr. Carlos Rojo, Graduate Faculty, Edgardo Knopoff School of Medicine. School of Public Health
Claudia Negri. Secretary of Degrees and Courses
Dra. Angela Gentile, Argentine Society of Pediatrics
Raquel Wainsztein, Department of Pediatrics,
Dr. Perez Rosales, IAR
Dr. Luis Sarotto, Department of Surgery
Dr. Adrian Desiderio, Department of Surgery
Dr. Pascual Valdez, Argentine Society of Medicine
Dr. Pablo Rossini, Career of Intensive Therapy Specialist
Dr. Guillermo Chapero, Argentine Society of Intensive Therapy
Dr. Ignacio Brusco, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health
Dr. Hugo Rios, Institute of Cell Biology
Dr. Adriana Alberti, Department of Public Health
Dr. Guillermo Roccatagliata, Garrahan Hospital
Dr. Donato Spacavento, uba professor
Dr. Sergio Varela, Professor of Kinesiology.
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