translated from Spanish: José Maza criticizes government measures to tackle the pandemic: “They believe the whole country is Las Condes and Vitacura”

The US media Bloomberg said Chile failed to follow the example of rich nations after realizing that its citizens are poor. Around there goes the criticism that also makes the astronomer and National Prize of Exact Sciences 1999, José Maza. The scientist estimated that the measures taken by the government of Sebastián Piñera, so far, have not worked. At least not as the Ministry of Health expected.
The academic told Co-op radio that despite being a pandemic that no one had read or studied in any book, the solutions with which they began to attack it are quite logical. “I think they did well,” said José Maza, whose analysis goes one step further. “What is criticized by the Government is that it applied rules that possibly in a developed country worked or could work well, as in Sweden, but it turns out that in Chile 20 or 30 percent of the economy is informal, and I don’t think Swedes sell on the street or at free fairs,” he said.
Professor Maza stressed that “we are not a developed country,” even though the authorities once said that “we were reaching the level of Greece and Portugal, and in 10 more years we would be at the level of the United Kingdom.” Maza believes the government’s vision was “obnubiated by two communes.”
“They believe that the whole country is Las Condes and Vitacura,” the scientist said, noting that “some of the measures that were taken are not sustainable in a country like Chile.” But despite the criticism, José Maza admits that he is dealing with an unprecedented illness.
“This is not a cold, as the president of Brazil says. If a doctor misunderstands a cold it would be to ask him to deliver the title, because these were known many centuries ago, but this pandemic caught everyone suddenly.” In this sense, Professor Maza took the opportunity to refer to the former Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich.
“Politics gives to justify everything, but science is seen by the results. The previous minister said that he didn’t have to be nice, as a doctor it was enough for him to be a good doctor, and well, the results didn’t go with him,” he said.
 

Original source in Spanish