The former director of the National Flu Center: “Imposing the mask is populist”

2024-01-24 10:13:11

Updated Wednesday, January 24, 2024 – 09:13

Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazuvirologist and professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Valladolid, has been director of the National Flu Center from the capital of Pucelana, where he continues as scientific advisor.

Acute respiratory infections, but especially the incidence of flu, have dominated the headlines of the press and news for weeks, along with the political decisions made to stop the collapse of health services.

The summary of the conversation with this fan of viruses, specifically the flu, is that we are facing an “absolutely normal” epidemic, he advocates for real vaccination campaigns and censorship that Health imposes masks. But let’s look at the nuances of each position.

Has this winter been exaggerated with the flu epidemic and the rest of respiratory viruses and also with the measures?What has happened is that after covid we have rediscovered respiratory infections. A surveillance system has been set up that was not the same as the one we had before, which is good, but it must be explained to the doctors and to everyone.What is this new surveillance system like?The flu surveillance system we had now monitors covid and all acute respiratory infections (ARIs), regardless of their severity; and the figures are what they are. The Respiratory infections were monitored and reported 30 or 40 years ago; Then they stopped communicating and now it has been done again because now we have systems to diagnose them.What has happened in the case of the flu?The flu is very seasonal and quite punctual: it comes in winter, around Christmas or Epiphany. I was already doing it before the covid pandemic. Some years have come a little further ahead, but it is very rare. The first winter after the Covid confinement there was practically no flu, neither in Spain nor anywhere else, except in China, India and some other countries. Later, the epidemics that have occurred have been in different ways and absolutely unique. They have had two waves each. and this year We have an epidemic that is like the ones we had before and that is very reminiscent of those of 2019-2020, 2018-2019, 2018-2017… The seasonal flu seasons of 2022-2023 and 2021-2022 were two waves of flu separated in time, instead of one like every year, and the system did not crash. The maximum it has reached this season, if it has already been reached, is also not exceptional. We have had epidemics in 2017-2018 much larger than the one now and There was neither an interview nor an Interterritorial Councill, or anything like that. In my opinion, covid has put us in a situation of extreme nervousness, at least for those who are not medical professionals, virologists, epidemiologists, microbiologists or preventive experts. No one will say that it is a rare epidemic because it is absolutely normal.

“We must have vaccination coverage that meets at least the WHO recommendations. This is what Portugal has done, which has achieved a rate of 75% for two years”

Why are hospitals overloaded?Every year there is flu and this year, there is also covid. There are flu and covid patients in the ICU and that overloads the system. Covid is not causing any special wave, but it continues to infect and there is a baseline of infections that takes people to the ICU.Have political decisions contributed to this state of nervousness and the convening of an extraordinary Interterritorial Council?An Interterritorial Council is held because there is flu! It’s like activating an alarm. It’s winter and there’s flu; It’s winter and it’s cold… Normal. What should have been done was insist on vaccination, seeing that the previous year fewer people had already been vaccinated; run a campaign on TV about what can happen with the flu, which is very similar or the same as covid.How long can the incidence of respiratory infections last?Acute respiratory infection is It will almost certainly last until April., already with descending figures, of course. The flu is a different acute respiratory infection because it puts many more people in the hospital than other respiratory infections. The flu, in 99.9% of cases, is a benign process, but there are times when it is not. And it is a virus that spreads much more than others, with the exception of rhinovirus, which is not seasonal and circulates throughout the year.

“We have had much more serious epidemics and there was not even an Interterritorial Council”

And how long will it take for the peak of the flu epidemic wave to subside?If it is like before the covid pandemic, the peak of the epidemic wave that we have now, if during the next two weeks it continues to decline, we will begin to decline the flu. What happens is that the flu rises very quickly for three or four weeks and this overloads the system, but then, with a lag of approximately one week, cases occur in hospitals; As happened with covid: first there are infected, and then there are cases in hospitals and finally deaths. In 46 years I have never seen a rebound like in the flu epidemic season last year and the year before. And in this fourth wave of post-pandemic flu, the current one, it has reset all the viruses, and I don’t know if the same thing will happen as with the previous ones. If so, we would have another wave like last season, which occurred in the months of March or April.The Ministry of Health does not want to settle for the numbers being equal to those of the pre-pandemic. What do you think?That is absolutely right, but the measures that must be taken are to have vaccination coverage that meets at least the WHO recommendations, which is what Portugal has done, for example, which has been achieving vaccine coverage of 75% of the population over 65 years of age for two years. Here, we will be at 63% or 64%, according to the Gripometer and it is usually right, those campaigns have failed a bit. We must bring them closer to the citizen and facilitate this vaccination. The imposition of masks will in no way change the course of the epidemic, just as it did not do so during covid. What changed the course of the pandemic was confinement.So, do you think the imposition of the mask by the Ministry of Health without the agreement of the Interterritorial Council is correct?No, it doesn’t seem right to me. The ministry does not have to be in those things, but in more general and preventive issues. It is a measure that, if it clearly has to be taken, They must be the autonomous communities those that do, depending on their incidence figures, their ICU occupancy… Spain is large enough and, although the flu is quite universal, we know that it is seasonal and that it starts earlier in the north, generally, It is descending and has a path from east to west. I believe that the imposition, as was done sometimes during the pandemic, It is a populist measure. If there is no exceptional situation, such as a pandemic, I believe that in medicine there should not be any mandatory measures because the doctor is a person who advises and the patient does what he has to do. Vaccines are not mandatory, that has to be based on conviction. When in a normal flu epidemic has it been mandatory to wear a mask?
#director #National #Flu #Center #Imposing #mask #populist