Indeed, the situation was alarming when the state of alarm was established. And after that? Now it is chaotic and totally uncoordinatedThe General Council of Nurses has said that the incessant spread of coronaviruses without protective measures is a cause for concern. For its part the General Council of Doctors will appear as a prosecutor against the Ministry of Health. in cases of contagion resulting from the use of defective masks.
Can you imagine what would have happened to a private pharmaceutical, medical device or textile company and its managers if it had delivered this defective equipment with a serious risk of contagion that could put the lives of health workers at risk? Fines, closure of the company, arrest of the managers... And do you know what the consequences of this would be for the administration?
Imagine a purchasing manager in a company who takes weeks to place a key order for the functioning of the company - it was not until 17 March that the first official purchases were made by the Health Department -, who orders it from a supplier without references (or very well known to anyone?), who obtains it from non-approved manufacturers, who does not check the quality of what is received so late and has to return it after complaints from customers etc.., Wouldn't such an irresponsible person be dismissed with immediate effect? And what happens in the administration in a matter with fatal consequences?
But the arrogance and ineptitude are such that instead of relying on those who know, the companies that manufacture the equipment, or those who buy or import it, or their professional associations, or those who in fact have been exporting protective equipment to other countries until the first half of March, they prefer to improvise rather than recognise the virtues of the private companies, which "profit" from the disease. Perhaps they prefer mafiosi or cronies.
What negligent ignorance! To think that the poor Spanish Ministry of Health, now dismembered into three parts, could be in charge of the management and supply of health materials and equipment... Of course, the new cabinet does not know that the Ministry is an empty shell in a colossal building, which has lost over the years the wonderful technical teams we have known. We hope that at least the lesson will be learned and it will be considered not as a Maria in the ministerial reshuffle, but as one of the key elements of the government, despite the transfer of competences to the autonomous communities, which has caused serious problems in previous governments.
In one area the administration has shown itself to be an expert. First of all, it executes with great mastery and speed seize, confiscate, prohibit, reminiscent of the famous Chavista "exprópiese". Even if she then does not know what to do. The novice who studies economics - not those who get degrees by recommendation - know that the best formula to restore supply and lower prices is to favour freedom of production, which by increasing will lower prices. Companies in the textile sector were eager to help. Even Thousands of women in Spain have been making these masks by hand.When they did not exist, they were not necessary for health, and when they appeared on the market, they were essential to contain the pandemic. The autonomous communities did so as soon as they cleared the possibility of buying them back. The failure of the mask policy has been stentorian.. Then, of course, came the price controls. All that is missing are ration cards to remind us of times gone by.
Thank goodness the right wing lost the elections. Even if it had managed the pandemic without blemish, the situation on the streets would have been revolutionary. It is worth distracting ourselves with the videos of the street riots that took place during the Ebola epidemic, which resulted in the death of two infected missionaries who came to Spain to die and the death of the Excalibur mascot. What would have happened today with the tragedy of 20,000 official deaths or more than 50,000 real deaths from the coronavirus?
Eduardo Rodríguez Rovira
Honorary President of CEOMA (Spanish Confederation of Organisations for the Elderly)