WHO: Mass testing won’t happen because Mexico has a better Healthcare tracking system than Europe and the U.S.

In a conference in Geneva, Dr Michael Brian one of the consultants at the Health World Organization, pointed fingers at Mexico for what he considers the need for more testing in that country. Despite that massive quick testing has been proven to be inefficient with 50 to  90% false positives in some cases.

According to the American Association for the advancement of Science (AAAS), many false negatives– a result indicating an infected person is free of the virus– result not from the test’s deficiencies, but from poor samples, which can be difficult to collect with nasal swabs.

Antigen tests don’t amplify their protein signal, so they are inherently less sensitive. To make matters worse, that signal gets diluted when samples are mixed with the liquid needed to enable the material to flow across test strips. As a result, most antigen tests have a sensitivity of anywhere between 50% and 90%—in other words, one in two infected people might incorrectly be told they don’t have the virus.

Recently, the World Health Organization explained that Mexico was not only one of the first countries who took rapid measures to handle the corona virus since January, 2020, but Mexico’s has an integrated healthcare system that counts with a robust universal sentinel surveillance system designed for emergencies allowing for easy tracking before an outbreak expands. Therefore, massive testing is not necessary since the tracking of small outbreaks is taken care of immediately.

“This country [Mexico], through its technological jewel and collaborating center, INDRE, a National Laboratory, has implemented and was the first to react and implement the Molecular Diagnostic technique, the only one validated to establish a diagnosis of certainty and precision. For this reason, in January, when the public health emergency of international importance was declared, Mexico was the first country in the region to do so. Not only to implement it at the headquarters, but the training and implementation has been replicated in 150 laboratories in the country, 32 states and of which also 67 private laboratories.

While the laboratory is an essential element in surveillance for detection, isolation of patients, their assessment and early care save lives.

And two, to monitor the magnitude, characteristics, and trend of the epidemic in the country to take public health measures, we are talking about reducing person-to-person transmission.

The laboratory is not the only surveillance tool, this country prides itself on a robust universal sentinel surveillance system and by event to immediately intervene in risk groups, in risk sites and try to juggle the expansion from its point of origin.” Said Jean-Marc Gabastou, WHO’s International advisor on Health Emergencies.”

So why reports of high mortality rates in Mexico?

There are three key components:

1. High rate of chronic diseases.

2.  Corruption: medicine and medical equipment theft by former PRI and PAN local authorities who left three thousand abandoned hospitals.

3. Systematic Social inequality and classism from former administrations, and upper 5% elite class.

All of these are enormous challenges Mexico has simultaneously managed to solve, while also solving the Covid-19 pandemic.

This explanation doesn’t come easy to many critics who only focus on comparing developed countries like The U.S., and European countries with the number of deaths in Mexico, without a deep understanding by using factual reports which shows Mexico is also battling a more pervasive epidemic of chronic diseases related to obesity. 

 

Obesity in Mexico and its high rate of chronic diseases.
According to Market Watch, Mexico is #2 in adult obesity, after the United States, and #1 in the world on child obesity
The World Health Organization explains that high risk individuals are those who have illnesses generated by obesity such as cardio vascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic respiratory diseases, and cancer patients.

Corruption of the Healthcare system
Previous admiration left hospitals uncompleted and abandoned due to the systemic governmental corruption that hit Mexico during the 36 years of the neoliberal economic model that was imposed in Mexico in 1994 (not longer used in Mexico since 2019). The new universal healthcare system initiated just in January 2020 and is scheduled to be implemented by 2021.

The new administration of center-democrat president Andres Manual Lopez Obrador (AMLO) have been dealing with a massive network of corruption and trying to put oder by firing corrupt government officials in charge of the old healthcare system.

The corruption ran all the way up and wide: former government authorities that were still in control, medical distributors colluding with criminal black market, pharmaceutical monopoly like PiSa selling expired or and moldy medications, medication theft, profit, and sabotage, are just one of many things the new administration of center-democrat president Andres Manual Lopez Obrador have been dealing and try to clean up and put order. Mexico’s new health secretary has been fired corrupt health officials.

And just this month, AMLO (with approval of congress) passed a new law to allow the federal government to buy medications and equipment overseas, since the monopolies of companies like PiSA were blackmailing the government so openly that international publications like Forbes wrote about PiSa corruption and sabotage.

Systematic social inequality and discrimination
To explain the third component of the reason of Mexico’s covid-19 death rate, Dr. Lopez Grattel, sub-secretary of health explains the 36 years of neoliberalism and inequality in a very poignant matter.

VIDEO:

 

Getting back to mass testing in Mexico

Let’s be honest and self-critical by remembering what really happended and how we got to a worldwide pandemic and the obsession with testing. The idea of ​​massive testing came out of the sheer desperation of the U.S. and European leaders because they ignored the warnings from China about a pandemic outbreak, so instead of implementing preventive measures, the massive testing was a reactionary attend to control the pandemic once it was too late. In addition, their private health care systems weren’t designed for public emergencies, and lastly, the WHO in Europe gave mix-indications, many erroneous and even fatal.

After months of trial and errors in Europe, the comment of Irish Dr. Michael Ryan is astonishing, in that he extrapolates the chaos in the U.S. and Europe healthcare system, into Mexico’s health system which is more robust and designed better for health national emergencies. It becomes clear at this point that some of the members of WHO are neither trustworthy nor knowledgeable enough to be giving opinions or even recommendations to other country’s healthcare Covid-19 operations..

Ironically, there are other WHO professional members who are more qualified. Therefore, JEAN-MARC GABASTOU, INTERNATIONAL ADVISOR ON HEALTH EMERGENCIES, for WHO and PAHO  responded to Dr. Michael Ryan during a press conference in Mexico.

In the video below, Jean-Marc Gabastou answers to Dr. Michael Brain explaining about the excellent and different healthcare system in Mexico, and why there is not need for the massive tests.

 

HERE IS THE FULL TRANSCRIBED ANSWER FROM THE CONFERENCE:
(original transcription in Spanish)

Below is the transcript of last Friday’s explanations given by one of the representatives of the WHO in Mexico, explaining how robust the emergency healthcare system is in Mexico (despite the corruption that hurt it, is still better than the one in the US. Amazing.

Dr. Lopezz Gratell: “Michael Ryan, in Mexico there is an office of the World Health Organization; So, we also went looking for answers and here is Dr. Jean Marc Gabastou to elaborate on what you asked Dr. Mike Ryan, which I will summarize, for the purpose of time … We thank Alejandro Alemán who asked Dr. Michael Ryan about whether in Mexico enough tests were being done.

This is a legitimate, absolutely legitimate question that has come up over time.

Dr. Ryan’s response, I already saw that in the media they are modifying, with respect to what he said, and I would like to ask Dr. Jean Marc Gabastou, regional emergency advisor [of the World Health Organization] if he can us comment.”

—-

JEAN-MARC GABASTOU, INTERNATIONAL ADVISOR ON HEALTH EMERGENCIES, PAHO / WHO: “With your permission, Mr. Undersecretary and Alejandro.

Your question, in fact, recurring, I heard the interview today of Dr. Mike Ryan and my colleague Mari Van Kerkhove is totally justified and there is an answer.

The question is not whether you are doing enough testing, but whether you are doing it well. This country [Mexico], through its technological jewel and collaborating center, INDRE, a national laboratory, has implemented and was the first to react and implement the Molecular Diagnostic technique, the only one validated to establish a diagnosis of certainty and precision. For this reason, in January, when the public health emergency of international importance was declared, Mexico was the first country in the region to do so.

Not only to implement it at the headquarters, but the training and implementation has been replicated in 150 laboratories in the country, 32 states and of which also 67 private laboratories.

While the laboratory is an essential element in surveillance for detection, isolation of patients, their assessment and early care save lives.

And two, to monitor the magnitude, characteristics, and trend of the epidemic in the country to take public health measures, we are talking about reducing person-to-person transmission.

The laboratory is not the only surveillance tool, this country prides itself on a robust universal sentinel surveillance system and by event to immediately intervene in risk groups, in risk sites and try to juggle the expansion from its point of origin.

It is not the only one, the hospital occupancy, success, reconversion and expansion of the system, and lately we have launched a new tool for the evaluation of excess mortality to allow, through an alert response system, to intervene quickly in the corresponding states.

This country has equipped itself with a comprehensive surveillance system and has opted for an intelligent, efficient, safe and quality sampling system. Moreover, the World Health Organization is validating new rapid diagnostic tests based on the detection of antigens, a bit similar to the molecular one, but there we detect viral particles that allow an immediate diagnosis at the foot of the patient, what we call by end and long awaited the point of care, which allows from the local level remote places the orientation and deliberation of the patient to the hospital units.

And we do not doubt that this country will equip itself with the tool to support and consolidate the primary health care initiative from a first level of care centered on the person, the family, our families and the community.

In summary, we are expanding and diversifying the response capacity through a quality tool, which is laboratory diagnosis and, two, we are expanding that capacity at the territorial level with full coverage and here we are talking about the communities and the population indigenous people that Michael Ryan also mentioned is a great concern in the region and in this country, we are equipping the country with the capacities to respond.”

==== end of transcription ======

In conclusion: Dr. Michel Ryan, an Irish citizen, being that he is from Eurozone where the epic center of corona virus was out of control due to failed measures and late response, has the audacity to give an analysis without knowing Mexico’s health system, and extrapolates the chaos’ measure that it became a failure and in a desperate massive rapid-testing with proven to be given false positives due to the inefficiency of it .

Its about time for the media to also stops extrapolating Europe and the United States failed mesures, onto Mexico and finally recognized  the very efficient Healthcare system in Mexico (Mexico even built their own respiration machines with their department CONACYD).

And that is impressive!