Mexico Is Dangerously Unprepared For The Inevitable Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak By John Daniel Davidson for The Federalist
The disease is going to spread fast in Mexico, where a weak and corrupt state has made almost no preparations.
As much of the world goes into various stages of lockdown because of the Wuhan coronavirus, Mexico is in denial. The government’s response thus far has been to downplay the risks and carry on with life as normal. Mexican officialdom has taken almost no steps to contain the virus or prepare for an outbreak, despite a warning last week from the deputy health minister that a widespread outbreak is inevitable and that community transmission could begin there in a matter of weeks.
When that happens—not if, when—things are going to deteriorate very quickly in Mexico. The outbreak will almost certainly affect the entire country, cripple the economy, and threaten to bring down an already weak and corrupt government.
Now is your chance to support Gospel News Network.
We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
As of Saturday, there were only 41 confirmed cases in Mexico, where the disease was first detected at the end of February, about a month after it was detected in the United States. But there are likely many more infections across the country. Francisco Moreno Sánchez, head of internal medicine at the ABC hospital in Mexico City, said last week “there must be many more cases” in Mexico and that the government is taking the risk of an outbreak too lightly. The effects of an undetected outbreak, he added, will be “brutal.”
Yet the government has refused to take the threat seriously. Late last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was mobbed by supporters at the Hermosillo airport before flying to Acapulco to speak at a banker’s conference and then hold a series of campaign-style rallies in the region. As recently as last week, López Obrador was dismissing the need for caution with statements like, “You have to hug, nothing is going to happen.”
The president has apparently taken his own advice. Video circulated on social media over the weekend showing López Obrador embracing and kissing supporters at a rally, where he declared, “The misfortunes, the pandemics… are not going to do anything to us.”
All of the confirmed cases in Mexico so far have come from travelers arriving from Italy, Spain, and the United States, yet López Obrador’s administration has imposed no international travel restrictions nor taken any steps to tighten the border. According to one news report, passengers on a flight that arrived Friday in Mexico City from Spain—which imposed sweeping emergency restrictions over the weekend in response to a surging death toll—passed through passport control and customs with no health surveys or temperature screenings.
