translated from Spanish: UNAM warns that there is a need to avoid distractors to tame the pandemic

Maintaining a clear, distracting message focused on prevention and public health actions, contemplating a future associated with SARS-CoV- and keeping the vaccine on the horizon, “as the best hope”, are the recommendations made by UNAM researchers.
Samuel Ponce de León, coordinator of the University Commission for the Emergency Care of Coronavirus, explains that, in the next 12 to 18 months, the daily activities will have to be adjusted to the epidemiological challenge posed by COVID-19.
“In six months, we have seen a very serious succession of infections, reaching more than seven million cases on the planet today, almost half a million deaths, and for Mexico more than 100 thousand cases and more than 10 thousand deaths have accumulated,” he said.
In the academic discussion “100 days of pandemic in Mexico”, Ponce de León warned that public health actions should not be undermined in the current concert of superficiality, politicization and denostication, because this confuses and does not help inform and guide the population.
Since January 30, UNAM has created this commission to track the scientific and academic information generated on the new disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.
Read: GEA- MADIT MASK: THE CARETA YOU CAN PRINT IN 3D TO PROTECT YOURSELF IN THE NEW NORMAL
It is an initiative that has generated an online platform with short interviews with its researchers that briefly and easily explain the implications of the pandemic in different sectors.
During the 100-day talk, Ponce de León said hospital demand is the main indicator for deconfunding. This is in reference to epidemiological surveillance in emergency services, as outbreak sequences will continue through 2021. “That doesn’t mean we have to be necessarily confined, but coping with the relationship that minimizes risk, keeping it in mind,” he said.
Photo: GRACIELA LAPEZ /FOURTHCURO
Officially, the coronavirus landed in Mexico City, February 22, via Italy. A 35-year-old individual returned to the capital international airport, having spent seven days in Bergamo. In the cash cut of the actions undertaken by UNAM, even prior to that announcement, he emphasizes that it has been recognized the importance of scientific and humanistic knowledge, education and culture as a central guide to guiding social participation
As of March 24, the UNAM Clinic for COVID-19 Diagnostics took office. As of May 31, it received 3,100 phone calls, given 2,800 appointments and applied1,206 tests, of which two out of 10 were positive. 
It is an initiative that pays attention to the university community. The breakdown of the profile of your patients shows that 54% are students, 30%, academics and 16%, administrative staff and workers. Of the percentage of students, 45% are postgraduate in medical residence.
You may be interested: UNAM maps pandemic recovery capacity to decon confinement
Yolanda López Vidal, coordinator of UNAM’s SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Program, explains that these are medical students residing at different hospital locations. “That’s how we support those in our community who are more exposed and see for others,” he said. 
The researcher detailed that in the implementation of diagnoses, increasingly accurate and early, complementary tests were introduced as an assessment of olfactory capacity, which has been useful in identifying asymptomatic people, who in their records account for 12.6% of their applied tests. 
UNAM also conducted two surveys on the perception of the pandemic in general population (3,158 people) and in health personnel (424 hospital professionals). In the first, 89% of respondents found the pandemic to be a serious problem. In the second, 7% said they received insults or assaults for their work.
University mathematicians have also been very active in making their models and calculations available to the authorities to improve decision-making in the face of the pandemic. 
José Antonio de la Peña, of the UnaM Institute of Mathematics, has written a thorough analysis of how collaboration between mathematicians, scientists and physicians is a contribution of the pandemic for the benefit of society. 
“Thousands of researchers are making significant efforts by making available hundreds of scientific documents, some of them with almost permanent updates such as monitoring the pandemic through online searches,”he owded in “From the ‘Lady of Bats’ to the ‘tamed’ curve.”
“I write these lines in June 2020. Daily contagion data continue to increase and do not appear to show the expected tipping point. (…) The time remaining for the end of the pandemic is the same as that needed from the principle of the pandemic to reach the maximum —this is another 150 days, this only in case the hygiene conditions used so far are maintained“according to De la Peña.
Read: WHAT ARE THE GOOD HABITS THAT WILL LEAVE ME THE QUARANTINE?
UNAM researchers argue that the pandemic is a problem that requires multidisciplinary attention. The findings of its scientists show that the new normal should be accompanied by good hygiene practices among the population and measures of social estrangement. 
What we do in Animal Político requires professional journalists, teamwork, dialogue with readers and something very important: independence. You can help us keep going. Be part of the team.
Subscribe to Animal Politics, receive benefits and support free journalism #YoSoyAnimal.

Original source in Spanish

Related Posts

Add Comment