On May 5th, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID pandemic was officially over after three years. In those three years, the virus killed almost 700 patients here in Belize. Some people lost their children, some lost both parents, and some mothers died alongside their unborn babies.
In the first couple years of the pandemic, there was panic and lockdowns; hospitals were overwhelmed, and residents were scrambling to get vaccinated. The country had come to a standstill as health professionals and the government tried to chart the safest way forward.
And now, it almost seems like a bad dream, but it was all too real, and like all of history, it will likely repeat itself and future generations will find themselves in the same position.
And that's exactly why internist, Dr Fernando Cuellar, believes that there should be some sort of COVID audit - the do's and the don't's, so that when another pandemic comes around, the country will be more equipped to handle it. He explained more today.
Jules Vasquez
"Obviously, we may have another pandemic."
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
"Not obviously, we will and that's where I have made noise about that we haven't done for whatever reason. I'm being told that maybe we don't have the resources to do a national post-mortem, not only from the focal point of health, but everything- police, economics - say what works so that we can prepare ourselves properly. At least to have some better preparement, if there is such a word, that where we found ourselves. I don't think any country can be fully prepared, but you could have a little bit better structure."
"But you are so right, we should and I don't think it's never too late to do it, so we still have time to do it."
Jules Vasquez
"If you knew then what you now know about various aspects of it, how it actually plays out in people's health, long term, short term and also how it plays out for the economy and the society. What would you advise to do in a different way?"
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
"That's a very interesting question, because I am awake at nights thinking, what are the single most thing to do that could have change things a lot? I think communication. Strengthen the communication between the authorities and the public in general, better strategies how to get across the message, how serious this pandemic was, vaccines pros and cons - that kind of thing and I think that is where we could have strengthened a lot and could have done better by strengthening our communications on a whole. It was haphazardly by most, it was kinda of just relating data. Anybody could have stand up in front of a TV and say we had 10 cases today.... that was neither here nor there but now to better prepare and this personally have left me a lifelong lesson for various reasons; victim and profession."
"I use to really and truly look down on public health people, because I am the big bad intensivist who is fighting life and death, who is fighting with Saint Peter, okay. But public health do a far better job than I can do when it comes to saving more lives. So we need to invest more in public health."
