Oriol Mitjà predicts saturation of the health system for March 26

The medical researcher in infectious diseases and global health at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital in Badalona (Barcelona), Oriol Mitjà, considers a total confinement "indispensable" and predicts that with the current measures the health system in Spain will be saturated "by 26 March".

In an article in "El Periódico", the infectologist, creator of the eradication of yaws disease, a tropical disease that generates bone malformations and ulcers that disfigure the face, affirms that it has the collaboration of mathematicians with the ability to generate models that predict or simulate the possible progression of epidemics and that these mathematical models "have been warning for weeks of a terrible scenario that require very drastic measures."

"It is what I am trying to communicate by land, sea and air," stresses the doctor, who regrets being criticized for disagreeing with the opinion of the Spanish Emergency Coordination and Health Alerts Coordination Center.

"Unity in strategy makes us strong, but unity in opinion makes us useless," says the doctor, who has decided to resort to the media and social networks to criticize the management of the crisis.

Mitjà once again asks that the person responsible for coordinating the emergency be relieved "and put another person at the helm of this ship, and do it now" because they did not "anticipate the scenario we are in" and there was "no adequate information" .

He admits, however, that "it may not be possible to stop the virus from entering, because it involved confining a country without cases, but equipment and protocols could have been purchased that did not put our toilets on the front line in a battle that they are now fighting. piece and without adequate weapons. "

"I also believe that the experts appointed to manage this moment, perhaps with the best of intentions (not alarming the population) have contributed to fanning the fire they wanted to avoid), the infectologist criticizes.

"Not only have we not prepared well in the health field, we have not done so socially either," adds the doctor, who predicts that "not taking drastic measures will result in a Dantesque situation."

Mitjà predicts the "saturation" of the Spanish health system around March 26 and understands "saturation" as "the inability to enter the ICU of someone who requires it."

"This could only be avoided if we initiate the total restriction of mobility and the total confinement of citizens and residents with the exception of essential basic services," concludes the researcher.