Rev Bras Oftalmol.2020;79(4):225-226
COVID-19 and politics
DOI: 10.5935/0034-7280.20200048
Nowadays, the world experiences one of the most severe international public health issues of the past 100 years since the great pneumonia (Spanish flu) pandemic in 1918-1919. In late December 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital in China, has used social media to report the likelihood of a new outbreak of coronavirus infection.() After a fruitless attempt to discredit the aforementioned physician, Chinese authorities have rapidly imposed mandatory quarantine on 60 million Chinese citizens. The outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which was initially restricted to local markets in Wuhan City, has rapidly spread throughout the city and the Hubei province. Within 3 months, the virus crossed the Chinese borders and spread towards the entire world, a fact that forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare pandemic state. Nowadays, its epicenters lie on Europe and United States; most countries have closed their borders and adopted the lockdown regime.
In 2015, multimillionaire Bill Gates has warned about the excessive spending on armaments and military contingency plans at the expense of public health.() He anticipated that the world would not be prepared to face an eventual pandemic. The prophecy has now come true! The current international public health crisis is a colossal challenge faced by several countries at political, economic and national health system level. Helpless citizens witness, on a daily basis, significant scarcity of hospital beds, ventilators and simple personal protective equipment such as gowns, masks and gloves; the richest countries are not an exception. There is already evidence of shortage of human resources among health professionals working at the forefront treatment of infected patients, since many of them were infected (over 6,400() individuals in Italy and 3,400 in China(), whereas others remain in prophylactic quarantine; several professionals will reach the point of exhaustion very soon. Unfortunately, dozens of physicians have already died in countries such as Spain and Italy.
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