Mexico’s government is facing massive criticism for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite its March 30 declaration of a public health emergency.
With that declaration came stricter measures meant to slow and control the spread of the coronavirus, but public health experts say that the Mexican government did not act fast enough and are not testing enough people to keep widespread outbreak like that seen in the United States from happening within Mexico’s borders.
On March 31, health officials announced that there were 1,215 cases that were confirmed to be COVID-19 in Mexico, and that more than 11,000 individuals have been tested (11,008 in total). But there’s a problem: because of low levels of testing, many experts believe that there are far more cases of the coronavirus caused disease in the country.
The number of tests carried out to date is low compared to many other countries and even dwarfed by New York state, where more than 205,000 tests had been performed as of Tuesday, according to an article in Mexico News Daily.
And, infectious disease expert Janine Ramsey, who works in Mexico’s National Institutes of Public Health, suggested politics played a role in the lack of testing as of April 1. She told the Associated Press then that widespread testing should have begun in February and March, but had not happened, although the widespread testing is the only accurate way to determine how quickly a disease is spreading.
“Politics is very, very much involved in the decision-making going on right now," Ramsey said. "Mexico, politically, does not value scientific evidence. Why? Because it takes decision-making away from the politicians. For most of us, especially those of us who work with infectious pathogens, there is absolutely no excuse not to test.”
Ramsey is not the only individual well-versed in infectious diseases and epidemiology who believes Mexico should have begun testing sooner.
Dr. Joseph Eisenberg told the Associated Press something similar. Eisenberg is the chair of the Epidemiology Department at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.
“Testing is really our eyes, otherwise we’re kind of blind,” he said. “The only way you can really understand where the disease is and where you really need to focus your energies with respect to control is to be able to know where the infections are. And the only way to know that is through testing.”
The Mexican government’s response to this criticism is that on-the-ground health surveillance provides information it needs to track the evolution of the coronavirus. Hugo Lopez-Gatell, deputy health minister, suggested that he believed the curve would begin flattening in early April, thanks to the social distancing recommendations announced by the government.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador put out a video message on social media channels March 27, urging Mexicans to stay at home and avoid going out as much as possible. On March 30 the government declared a health emergency and stopped non-essential activities through April 30, including gatherings of more than 50 people and other measures.
Those measures should have come sooner, says Dr. Miguel Betancourt, president of the Mexican Society of Public Health. He suggested that these steps should have been taken at least two weeks earlier.
“We still have time to avoid an outbreak that grows out of control but we all have to do our part,” Betancourt said.
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