Two years after the first case of COVID-19 in Nicaragua, after the first case was reported on March 18, 2020, Dr. Leonel Argüello, a medical specialist in epidemiology, hopes that citizens have learned to make good decisions to protect their lives.
“Whoever does not review their history will make the same mistakes and we hope that in Nicaragua human life or those factors that threaten life, quality of life, family and society will never be underestimated again,” Argüello wrote on the page of Facebook For your Health Nicaraguato.
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The doctor recalled that in these two years more than 14,000 Nicaraguans died from the SarsCOV-2 virus “who should not have died, whose deaths were avoidable if they had acted responsibly, on time, with transparency and humility.”
Argüello recalls that the Government of Daniel Ortega minimized contagions and express burials due to the coronavirus. The specialist emphasized that it is necessary to recognize “that we are not Tarzan’s mother, nor the champions in the American continent or that we have the best health system in the world.”
«Nothing more false and of course we don’t have everything we need, but we can and must always improve, because quality is respect for the people and we must unite to save ourselves and listen to those who have more experience and knowledge, never disdain science much less the human and health rights of our population,” he stressed.
Ortega regime “favored expansion of COVID-19”
For Dr. Argüello, the few measures and relaxation of the Ortega and Murillo governments in the face of cases and deaths from the pandemic favored the spread of the virus.
“The disease behaved without barriers being put up, rather government action favored its expansion, which in addition to death, the thousands of orphans left behind, families with a void that they will never be able to fill, financial losses because it was suspended an income that affects his family, social security and the economy of the country, of the suffering that could have been avoided and was not wanted due to irrational obstinacy».
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He argued that “disparaging the cases of COVID-19 in Nicaragua, it brought the Ministry of Health to a level of disrepute never seen in the history of Nicaragua, “despite the efforts of thousands of health workers who did not allow it to do its job properly, nor to protect itself. Honestly, this was very painful and I wish that we never have to live through it again.
Health is a human right
The epidemiologist pointed out that health has been socially recognized as a human right, “as something invaluable that needs to be taken care of” and indicated that these years “there has been more talk about diseases than in previous years and we are learning the importance of alerting and educating in health, in recognizing that the population has capacities and that if we facilitate their learning process, they are capable not only of taking care of themselves individually and as a family, but also of working for their community».
“We understood the real meaning of what solidarity means and it was possible to identify how dehumanized some human beings are,” he stressed.
Regarding the role of the media to report on the health crisis, the doctor stressed the importance of providing scientific information. “Social networks helped, but they were also the source of a lot of false news, let’s remember that official and unofficial disinformation kills people, because they lead them to a level of ignorance that endangers their health, their lives and that of their families.”
“The unity of the medical union around science is another milestone in Nicaraguan medicine, they turned to support with scientific information and groups were created for exchange and updated dissemination of the epidemic, its prevention, diagnosis and treatment,” he said.
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The doctor concluded that it is necessary for promotion and prevention to prevail as the most important thing in a health system that wants to have quality universal coverage.
Since 2021, the vaccination process against the COVID-19 In Nicaragua, most of the doses were donations promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Covax mechanism.
According to the vice president of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, more than 60 percent of the population has been inoculated. Despite the fact that the Government runs a campaign for health care and protection, it also continues to promote agglomeration through its massive activities, where citizens are exposed to more infections.
