From his home in Borines (Piloña) to Ribadesella, on foot. At 66, the Englishman Mike Bent yesterday traveled the 37 kilometers that separate his home from the health center of Riosellano, where he was to receive the fourth dose of the covid vaccine. Bent has a car, but he wanted to make the journey on foot to denounce the impossibility of many people in rural areas to travel the tens of kilometers that separate their inhabited centers from the vaccination points, in this case the Ribadesella health center .
The British have settled in Asturias since the late eighties of the last century, having lived in different parts of the world. Yesterday he embarked on his particular protest just before eight in the morning. He crossed the summit of La Llama to reach Colunga and continued on to the Rio de Janeiro council, where he passed through San Esteban and took the San Pedro highway until he reached his destination around 5:50 pm. He made stops in Colunga, Berbes and the beach of Santa Marina.
Bent believes that health authorities do not take into account the fact that many people in the region are elderly, do not have a vehicle of their own or have to travel by taxi, because even public transport schedules and combinations do not make things easier. “I am doing it to defend the rural area, which is losing more and more people. There are people who cannot travel because they work, are older or have no way of getting there except by paying for a taxi,” said the English resident. Piloña, who studied geography and holds a doctorate in Transportation. She currently collaborates with a prestigious international magazine specializing in railway technology.
Of the four vaccines Bent received, two were in Infiesto and two in Ribadesella, one of them in the industrial area of Guadamía. He says that, as in other parts of the world, more vaccination points could be enabled here. “The necessary doses could be sent to the villages to complete the vaccination of the neighbors,” she defends herself.
Since the vaccination began, Bent says he has known several “irrational” situations. “It makes no sense when any place can be set up as a vaccination zone. In Britain churches have been used, in Japan people are vaccinated in their commune and they continue to force people to walk 50 or 60 kilometers here. we have a car, a person to bring us or money to take a taxi “, concluded the British, already with the vaccination.
