The rector of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lluis Serra Marjem, gave a presentation this Thursday at the Sociedad Democracia de Arrecife, within the program commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Mercedes Medina Association. In it, he highlighted the figure of the teacher as a fundamental piece of education, in addition to addressing political issues and reviewing the health situation with the coronavirus pandemic.
He began his presentation by taking a tour of "the lessons learned during the pandemic", with three words: "Teacher, educate and educating". "Teacher is the one who guides your steps, that person who gives you everything without expecting anything in return," said the Rector. "Educate, because the one who educates also learns, and because whoever educates believes in the ability to progress and bets everything on the future," he added, and concluded the explanation of the third term "Educating, because it is the student who most needs our time, which also reminds us that we must not leave anyone behind, because we are all essential."
This coincides, the speaker points out, "with the way of thinking of a teacher like Mrs. Mercedes Medina Díaz, born in 1914, in a time of scarcity, misery and deprivation, and aware of the needs of her countrymen, especially girls, who were relegated to abandoning their studies in those 30s when she began her teaching career." "How many women have been able to study thanks to her?" Serra asked.
In addition, the rector is the spokesperson for the Scientific Committee for COVID-19 of the Government of the Canary Islands, and stated that "we were not prepared for such a pandemic", and gives as an example that, "before with other viruses such as measles, group immunity was reached at 70%, now we have realized that we must reach at least 85% of those vaccinated."
Serra adds that today, "Spain is the only country in the world to reach that figure, well above the percentages of countries in Northern Europe, and that is due to the common effort, a triumph that belongs to the citizens."
However, the speaker clarifies that "we have group immunity, but the virus will continue to exist and there will be infections even if their severity decreases, being in spring when we can start talking about getting rid of the use of masks indoors." Meanwhile, Serra adds, "we will have the trial by fire this Christmas, when it will be time to unite, but maintaining a certain distance, I am convinced that we will pass the test with flying colors."
He also highlighted that the role played by science, research and the different areas of knowledge "has been crucial in the massive development of tests and vaccines to combat, revealing the investment in these areas as an essential factor when facing health crises."
In a reflection, he stressed that "never has economic policy been so sanitary, nor sanitary policy so economic", highlighting that the decline in the economy "did not come properly from the effect of the pandemic itself, but as an inevitable consequence of the essential confinements to contain it."
"Now that we have passed the worst part, health policy continues to be, in a preponderant way, economic in its figures, because in absolute terms each euro invested in tests avoids an expense of 7 euros, while each euro invested in vaccination avoids an average expense of 1,370 euros."
"Making a comparison, we have observed that life expectancy has been reduced in Spain, having stopped the progress of the last decades, with those born now having one year less life expectancy, compared to those born previously," said the speaker, making a comparison with the situation of the pandemic. However, he clarified "the exception of the Canary Islands, where the increase in life expectancy continues the upward trend."
This is due, according to him, to measures such as "the opening of educational centers, of which the Canary Islands was a pioneer in incorporating students into classes, in a time of uncertainty, and especially in creating isolated bubble groups." Measures that could be adopted, according to the speaker, "due to the coordinated technical-political management, and the good political behavior, both of the government and the opposition, that was good, you cannot play politics with the pandemic." "From this we can extract, added to the commitment of society, the lowest accumulated incidence rate in the state," he added.
As a final reflection, Serra Majem stressed that politics must recover "the moral leadership of society against resigned nihilism or growing rebellion. It is about leading, not only administering measures or doses." He added that this is a crisis "that will be remembered for generations, that will leave a very deep emotional mark and that will mark the advance or retreat of certain leaderships."
Finally, he stated that in the Canary Islands "we have learned and taught lessons on the control of the pandemic, yielding a positive balance in management when compared with those autonomous communities in which political disputes prevented adding efforts."
Lluís Serra Majem is a professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and has been director of the University Institute of Biomedical and Health Research during the period 2013-2021. In addition, he adds to his curriculum the presidency of the Mediterranean Diet Foundation, from 1996 to 2012, where he led the international recognition of the Mediterranean Diet as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. He is also the author of 800 articles, being one of the 100 most cited Spanish scientists.
