The Coronavirus Crisis, Lessons Learned (Part II)

At the end of last March I published a paper containing the Lessons Learned in the early stages of detection, treatment and containment of the coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) which is ravaging the world and in which Spain has much to say because of its unexpected, although somewhat predictable, behaviour, number and types of contagion and varied and ineffective action to tackle this plague in its early stages and more virulent because of the major failures, delays and malpractice by the competent authorities and their many costly advisors; This has led us to reach and hold the first places in the world in the proportional percentages of infected and number of deaths among patients and health personnel. Nefarious places of no privilege and fatal prestige that, premeditatedly, these authorities avoid mentioning because they constitute the true Achilles' heel of their fallacious argument, no matter how much the Minister of Foreign Affairs herself tries to sweeten it up by means of deception in her interviews on international television.   

In this first work she announced that the collection and edition of the lessons learned in each phase of the operation -from the beginning of its planning and until arriving at the moment of stabilization in the final situation- is a continuous work in time, and sometimes it must even be reiterative in order to avoid falling again in previous nefarious and serious mistakes and in adopting positions or decisions, which having been very positive -in the same way or with minimum adjustments- can and must be used again. 

This is the second work on the subject which, as I had promised, I am presenting in a similar format, and I submit it for your consideration in case it is useful; once the second fortnightly extension of the confinement due to the state of alarm has been published and next Monday the period of paid leave for workers in non-essential activities ends, they must return to their jobs. 

• Despite the fact that the harmful effects of certain actions have been proven, the advance announcements of new restrictive measures by the government and in the media continue before they become effective, creating, once again, growing and unnecessary situations of anxiety such as the possibility of a third prolongation of the state of alarm and the idea launched on the obligatory use of masks; both declarations, among other minor ones, again meant the massive accumulation of food, mainly bread, another increase in prices and the desperate search on the black market.
• Allowing and announcing without order or concert the closure of food establishments (large chains) and many neighborhood supermarkets during the period of Holy Week, even being in a state of alarm, has been another error by the administration, as it has also led to the effect of large queues for the purchase of food and certain types of shortages in some products.
• Not taking into consideration that imposing compulsory measures without the majority of the population having the possibility of complying with them due to lack of means or stock creates uneasiness and much discomfort as it has been for several days with the compulsory use of the mask outside the home without having ensured sufficient supply in the normal market (pharmacies)
• It has continued to fall in the official diffusion of certain hoaxes and radical changes in the advisable measures for individual protection such as the convenience or not of certain measures or prophylactic actions such as the seriousness of the infections, possibilities and effects of the same; to advance in many dates the one that already was bending the famous curve of infections and deaths -that so much has taken in arriving and we will already see if it is definitive-; and the necessity or not of the use of some of them as the same masks; which is counterproductive and creates many unnecessary anxieties
• In particular, there has been the insane issue of the use of masks, which, overnight, went from not being necessary, except for those infected, and of very little use, to becoming something of obligatory use and compliance outside the home. To then question their effectiveness and, once again, in record time, to think of them as essential when the measures of internment are relaxed without the autonomous communities involved knowing anything about these masks, where they are and what distribution system will be used in less than 48 hours. We will see where the issue ends, because this so often announced basic element is not yet produced in Spain or imported in industrial quantities, and announcements of this type (free masks in the Metro, suburban and buses), will undoubtedly generate a great effect called next Monday to get so much precious booty today.
• Regarding these protection elements, it is unforgivable to have lost more than two months in starting to manufacture in the national industry elements so simple to obtain and tremendously necessary for prophylaxis as masks and PPE after having created false hopes, lying repeatedly about the arrival of the same, the effectiveness and homologation of those that have been acquired and having watered the foreign market of hundreds of millions in a search as titanic as it was unsuccessful, so the confidence and the moral of resistance of the citizens has been broken.
• No prudence has been shown in showing great doubts and different opinions among the members of the Government when it comes to making decisions or talking about lifting or not lifting, even partially, certain measures restricting movement and the possibility of being able to go after Easter to some non-essential jobs due to economic demands, without having yet reached the limits marked as recommendable by the low number of infections and deaths  
• Despite the knowledge from experiences in other countries that the increase in the number of deaths was more than certain, the necessary changes and demands have not been foreseen to correctly and adequately provide the funeral service and assistance so essential and sensitive in these pandemic situations 
• Nor were clear protection measures and priorities established for dealing with the many cases outside of hospital facilities; as well as control and containment of funeral prices, provision of a sufficient number of sites for the conservation of the bodies, improvement and expansion of systems for the disposal of the remains, and effective control of the location of graves and burials; all of this has been a fundamental element in increasing alarm and confusion and generating a bad image. 
• That currently, in the midst of 2020 in Spain - a country that boasts of trying to locate the remains of those shot during the civil war of 1936-39 - there are relatives who do not know where the remains of their deceased are or whether they have been buried or not during several days of anguish and dismay over this crisis, is frankly insane and almost like a court of law
• The measures adopted that prevent the accompaniment of the deceased during their last hours and the vigil of the deceased during and after their death, and that limit to a great extent the presence of relatives at the burials, are very contrary to our customs and almost inhumanly harsh; especially if we bear in mind the high number of deaths and that the immense majority of them have happened alone and without allowing the stay of relatives or companions at any time
• We must denounce the great lack of protection of the elderly sector, not only because of the greater risk factor and in the triage of the sick when they are transferred and arrive at the hospitals, but also because they have not increased special health care for the personnel (admitted and auxiliary) in the homes for the elderly where they usually live in the last years of their lives, or for all those who have suffered the illness and died alone in their homes without any type of assistance. All of them have led to a very high number of deaths in this sector of the population. In Madrid, 4,260 elderly people have asked for their lives in the first month of major infections, of which only 781 were confirmed by the corresponding tests (the only cases counted by the Health Department).
• If this limitation had not been used to count the cases of coronavirus, it would mean - very close to reality - a fourfold increase in the number of deaths in this community alone. The situation is very similar in the rest of the Autonomous Communities, as in Catalonia, although there the number of deaths amounts to 1,223 in the same period
• In general, and from the beginning, since the criteria for counting deaths from the disease have been unclear and even opaque (the need for a test and a positive result), and after certain possible and apparent differences in the criteria for application between communities have been discovered, it could appear that these methods obey certain hidden political agendas in order to disguise (greatly reduce) the number of real deaths if the death records are taken into account and compared with previous years, so that these phenomena are beginning to be reported even by the high courts of justice
• Despite the fact that the above-mentioned dance of figures is very important, the official data provided by Spain - following the criteria set by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the Government - make our country the first in the world in terms of the number of casualties in proportion to the number of inhabitants, a ranking that leaves the health authorities and the Government itself in a very bad position due to the more than possible lack of effectiveness of the preventive measures before, at the beginning and during the effervescence of the crisis; by the delay in applying control measures to those who came from abroad; by delaying the moment when the collective isolation of the population and the purchase of all kinds of protection measures was adopted with determination or by the same lack of efficiency of our health system. The same system that has been so often praised and exemplified, in recent months, as among the best in the world (cheap and disappointing propaganda, which now, to avoid answering for the faults of the authorities on these burning issues, attempts are being made to demonize, under the cloak of previous fallacious or lying cutbacks in that sector, which are being blamed on the main opposition party).
• This is a disastrous privilege, to which we must also add the fact that we are the first country in the world in terms of the number of infected health workers, since, by far, we have the greatest number of cases, which highlights one, several or all of the following issues: that the protection measures used by the country have not been, from the first moment or for a long time, the most adequate; that they have been forced to work or not to isolate those who were infected, and with this they have served as a transmitter of many more cases among them; or, what may be even more serious, they were not professionally prepared to treat this type of infection; all of these things, which apparently, spontaneously everything points to the fact that they are trying to hide behind the insistence and the tiresome propaganda of the warm collective applause at eight o'clock in the evening every day 
• In the chapter on the possible and/or real unnecessary loss of life or the endangerment of the health of hundreds of them, there is another even more dangerous point; the closure and the enormous number of obstacles of all kinds put in place by the Catalan authorities for the installation or start-up of field hospitals assembled by members and with material from the Armed Forces or the Guardia Civil. Unheard of cases of prevarication with the aggravating circumstance of endangering the health and lives of numerous people; but which, despite this, have not been forced into compliance by the Government in a state of full alarm or cause for any direct intervention by the State Attorney's Office.
• The questionable legality of measures restricting individual and collective freedoms that are not legally included among the Government's capacities or powers for the implementation of the state of alarm.
• Having waited almost three months, removing the entire market, buying unsuitable material, tarnishing our relations with Turkey and exceeding the figure of 14,000 deaths to decide to contract in the national industry the production of certified and tested serial respirators when during the period of maximum infection and number of casualties the use of such apparatus has been and continues to be denied to a certain group of people according to certain parameters, fundamentally their degree of infection and pathological affectation and the age of the patient, such action being pathetic; Apart from the attempt to manufacture a substitute respirator using SEAT's resources - a company that announced that it was ceasing production of this circumstantial product due to a considerable reduction in ICU income and, therefore, in the need for them - the production of the Madrid-based company hired on 6 April 2020 with a lot of hype in the presence of President Sánchez is a maximum of 100 respirators per day, which means that they have been hired to manufacture 5,000 of these devices, it will take almost two months to finalize the order.
• The blackmail campaign to which the government has subjected the population and the opposition parties since it announced new restrictive or coercive measures and a kind of renewal of those known as the new version of the 'Moncloa Pacts'. The way they are presented, their exclusionary style, the pestilential possible agenda hidden behind them and their demanding adherence demanded of everyone without a word of protest, make it very difficult to support measures or proposals by anyone without first hearing about them so that, at the very least, objections can be made; a situation that, once again, has been clearly drawn up by the Government in order to label the opposition as unpatriotic, ominous or any other type of description of the worst kind.
• To pretend to lock up against their will outside their homes, in places that are not recommended for comfort (known as Noah's Arks), all those infected who are asymptomatic once the massive tests have been carried out when the infection has reduced the number of infections and deaths, is a subject taken without taking into account its legality and constitutional rights; This has caused a new retraction of the Government and leave it only to voluntary cases in hotels or at home, although some specific and determined changes in the current legality are also announced by the Ministry of Justice, in the purest Bolivarian style.
• The abusive and repulsive campaign of state subsidies to the channels and related media of the Government (by the way, the ones with the highest audience), have turned them into real troublemakers, grateful stomachs or palmers who, like the well-known NO-DO in the time of Franco, are dedicated to extolling the advances even if they are not true in the arrival and provision of means of protection, the campaigns of solidarity and spontaneous joy among citizens, the moments (applause) of daily support to the health personnel and other types of efforts in the national companies and industries; as if all of them were dedicated day and night to producing non-stop means of support and prophylaxis, when this is not true at all; and even improvised and manipulated surveys showing massive support from the Spanish people for the measures adopted by the Government in the handling of this crisis, to hide the reality.
• The undemocratic system of selection and filtering of the journalists' questions in the numerous press conferences by the Government's staff or its experts led most of the major media to consider taking part in them because of the abuses, modifications, distortions, the avoidance of many of them (repetition of the most similar or less important ones) and the cancellation of all kinds of cross-examinations; which has forced, after a month of protests and complaints, to change the 'modus operandi' of the Secretariat of State for Communication.
• Denying the evidence in the face of the blatant lack of protection for personnel and the supply of materials to those deployed in the first line of contact such as health personnel, the State Security Forces and Corps, firefighters and other auxiliary personnel, seeking the rapid and incomprehensible but effective support of the justice system in several of its high courts, which have ruled in favour of the Government in a matter of hours or a few days; and, on the other hand, to encourage the denunciation of the same type of faults or needs by health professionals or the PSOE itself against the Autonomous Regions governed by parties opposed to it (especially in Madrid)
• Sowing chaos and confusion among the population as the Government does not speak with a single voice for the issues of relevance in the different phases of the crisis given the constant declarations and corrections to the previous ones by the ministers before the media in their different press conferences with a difference in time, as were the measures presented by Finance Minister Montero, leading to the progressive lifting of the isolation as of April 26, corrected in a matter of hours by Health Minister Illa.  
• The reiteration, to the point of true boredom (in form and substance), of the appearances of the members of the government (several times a day) and of the president himself (every Saturday) in long and tedious press conferences-mitin have given rise to each one presenting his version of the events that have occurred and of the road ahead; thus showing a great lack of coordination.
• On the other hand, this reiteration in his appearances, based on repetitions, makes him lose the normal respect for the stage, especially in new politicians, with little training or bravado, as is the case; This situation has given rise to the fact that the President himself, when he appeared in Parliament on April 9th to request the second extension of the confinement measures for a further 15 days, had a 'lapse' in his conversation with a Basque parliamentarian, and took the moment to 'get down' and even laughed in a certain way because he was aware that what he was doing was a poor or inconsistent act because he himself understood that it would have to be extended for at least another period.
• With such a smug and even mocking attitude on the part of the President of the Government, it became clear that his apparent seriousness and displeasure at having to take these measures shown at his Saturday afternoon rallies is quite feigned or that he does not care about the suffering and the large doses of anxiety of the Spanish people at these times when the light at the end of the tunnel is not yet seen.
• Sharing the blame with everyone like a fan, starting at a global level, Europe, autonomous communities and political parties, without having the least intention of assuming any responsibility, boasting of being the best European country in adopting measures and proclaiming it to the four winds, not recognising any of its many mistakes or apologising for them and their consequences is not the best way to lead the government in the face of a crisis of such magnitude or to generate confidence in the citizens.

• The opportunity and the good functioning (in spite of the stinking garbage campaign sown by socialist unionists and 'podemites') of the macro hospital set up in record time by various entities and many volunteers in the IFEMA fairground in Madrid, besides having served as a great relief for the rest of the hospital chain in the capital, has led to a good image of our health capacities in the world, recognized even by WHO representatives, which somewhat mitigates other negative aspects derived from the bad images of the means and protective measures adopted by the government and in the health system itself; deficiencies, which are beginning to be published as an example not to be followed in some international media of great circulation or visualization 
• That despite the high number of infections and deaths, the number of people discharged or definitively cured is also increasing, which may indicate a trend, with all kinds of precautions, towards a possible expiration of this plague in the medium term (a matter of a few months)  

• The WHO and its repeated hesitations about the effectiveness and necessity or not of the mask for the entire population, the undefined threats about potential new second or third waves of infection and the blackout on drugs and vaccines to combat the disease, do little to guide countries and calm the world's society at large. His semi-exculpatory pro-China political tendency, which is quite clear, certainly manifested and denounced by Trump himself, does not help either the image of an already badly damaged organism or to facilitate its work in this great task.
• The clashes and confrontations within the European Union (EU) to present effective measures, less burdensome for the neediest countries like Spain and Italy and of a collective nature to face the great economic crisis that this situation is creating and will leave in inheritance.
• The delay in time to have to accept the same terms and conditions exposed from the beginning, is a waste of precious time and helps little to create a situation of greater calm between countries and within them, in their entrepreneurs who see their businesses and ways of subsisting in the immediate future or medium term endangered
• The measures initially approved by the finance ministers of the EU countries represent a more or less harsh rescue for Spain and Italy, mainly, which will bring with it forced and not few reforms, and it is even possible that in the same package, with the risk and strong temptation that it represents for those of Podemos, more than one nationalization of large bankrupt companies will be included
• In any event, we are going to be very much in debt, to the point of being stuck for many, many years because of our waste, excessive euphoria and joy in spending money that we do not have previously, not having made the more than necessary structural reforms in time and as a result of a real and serious lack of foresight. All these points are seen by the Germans in a serious survey with much caution and the cause for not giving in on the subject of the so-called 'crowning'.

In view of the above, it can be clarified that despite the clear lessons learned from the first phase written and denounced in the first work, many of the main actors have not taken them into consideration and some of the serious mistakes have been repeated; fear that I expressed in that work on the subject and, I fear, that in successive deliveries, which will surely come, most of them will appear again.  

From now on, we start to ride to try to tame a more than assured economic crisis that, in view of what has been said, its quick exit is neither assured nor will it be a matter of plain sailing. With more than three weeks of delay and discussions that did not bring any good to Spain, yesterday the EU finance ministers, including the minister of the home front, approved what our government, at the same time, categorically rejected. A very bad example, a great wasted effort and much disappointment. 

In any event, and having seen what we have seen, I do not know whether it is good for the government to have us in our homes silenced, handcuffed and applauding the toilets in anger in order to prevent us from going out into the street and showing our real anger at an inept, inefficient government, which tends to lie very easily and which is so ill-equipped to deal with a situation such as this, let alone the one that will follow.