Health comes first: stay home

March 18 2020 (10:37 WET)

We are experiencing a new situation, with bewilderment and uncertainty. The global village that the planet has become, due to the predominance of commercial relations over all other relations, is affected by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The health emergency situation, the declaration of the state of alarm, takes us to an extraordinary scenario, with restrictions on movements, with border closures, with demands for maximum citizen collaboration, to put the essential means that allow us to change the speed of contagion, decreasing the number and lengthening it in time so that the health system can respond adequately and does not collapse.

If the problem is everyone's, each and every one of us has to collaborate in the solution.

And we are doing it, responsibly and in solidarity, staying at home, ignoring hoaxes, rumors and false news. Now is when we have to do a responsible exercise with communication and information.

Let's not spread unconfirmed information. Let's go to inform ourselves in the official sources, given by solvent technicians and public officials, who have the duty to ensure the general interest. Our health and that of others, as well as the lives of many people, are at stake.

All of society is aware of the importance of the public, of the great importance of having a health system for all, of the need to allocate public resources to guarantee the right to health of the entire population, of the privatizations of recent years have taken their toll on the system, that we need more and better means, human and material. Sufficient and decently paid staff.  More health resources, as instruments of peace and security.

We need much more investment in research and development. We all look to the world of science to see if a vaccine appears that protects us.

And in the meantime, we are responsible for the measures to protect ourselves and protect those around us.

Politics and reason must prevail over the economy, which must be at the service of society.

Some irresponsible leader, such as the British Boris Johnson, has chosen to defend the economy against the lives of his fellow citizens, the natural selection of species against science and the rule of market laws against social justice.

Europe has also demonstrated its weakness; when it comes to social issues, it fails us citizens, because it has always prioritized economic values ​​over social ones.

It is clear that during the weeks, perhaps months, that this situation lasts and we are confined to our homes, we have to reorganize ourselves, discipline ourselves, establish routines, rediscover ourselves, protect our own, take care of each other, increase solidarity with the people who need us, cultivate patience and temperance.

In short, we are going to emerge from this crisis strengthened and more convinced of the defense of the public as part of our rights.

I am sure that together we are going to achieve it.

Health comes first, stay home.

We will stop this virus together.

 

Manuel Marrero Morales

Spokesperson for the Sí Podemos Canarias Parliamentary Group

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