We saw in 2020 how access to public and universal healthcare was denied to the most vulnerable people. The deficiencies of the system and the ageism shown in the steps followed in the first moments should now serve as a trigger to ensure that injustice does not become a reality again.
The professionals who lived that first wave we know the consequences of leaving the most vulnerable behind. Now we are overcoming the quinta, and it has been shown that the vaccine is the solution not only to avoid contagion, but to avoid the virulence of the effect in those who contract the disease.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has made it very clear that one of the profiles to get this third dose, due to the lack of immunity of the elderly, is undoubtedly that of those who live in residences. With 73% of the population immunized, and about nine months after the start of the inoculation of the first dose in residential centers, numerous seroprevalence studies carried out in residences indicate how the level of immunity has fallen.
From the Círculo Empresarial de Attention to People (CEAPs) we have been asking since the beginning of the summer to carry out epidemiological studies at the national level (not just local). From the autonomous communities they are being carried out and the first conclusions of some administrations, such as the Generalitat of Catalonia or the Junta de Andalucía, coincide in the request of the EMA.
So that We have not asked the State or the communities for trivial measures.
We live with the elderly. We have seen the consequences of the virus on their bodies and the repercussions of social and family isolation.
There are users who cannot access the media. We are the ones who give voice to your needs. And, each of them, living in residences or at home, should have access to the third dose as soon as possible.
What services do we intend to receive if we now ignore the care of those who need it?
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One of the reasons why outbreaks have increased in overnight centers is precisely the lack of immunity. Let’s not be the last to make these decisions right now. Spain has millions of doses in the refrigerators that should be being distributed among the most vulnerable.
We remain at the bottom of Europe in decision-making. We wait for others to act as fall comes with the loss of immunity. And one measure that should be taken, for example, is the mandatory vaccination of professionals. Something already approved in France.
Because, although the sector is very responsible (with a vaccination of 90%, according to official data), we need laws and regulations that cover the group to achieve 100%. Standards like those of our neighbors.
The residences are not and should not be islands. Older people who live at home can no longer afford to lose their resources, stop going to day centers and stop using the services that allow them to prevent dependency and physical and cognitive deterioration: one of the most serious causes , after Covid itself, in older people.
The responsibility belongs to the whole of society. We cannot do it alone. Families and professionals are working very hard and using all our weapons to fight Covid. We need all the resources and knowledge that we have at our disposal. We had no EPIS, no masks, no gloves. Now we do have vaccines. Let’s start working on inoculating the third dose.
Now it is them, but we must think that soon it will be us. What services do we intend to receive if we now ignore the care of those who need it?
It is precisely at CEAPs that we are working on the 1st Baby Boom Summit, which on October 1 will bring together in Madrid the most relevant personalities from the fields of health, management and care at the European level to find out how we want the resources of the future.
Without present, there is no future. So there is no time to waste.
*** Cinta Pascual is the president of the Círculo Empresarial de Attention to People.
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