How would you call 2020?

On the one hand, “Think big and not,” I would put the title to it, especially in the rich countries. On the other hand, as far as health workers are concerned, I would say ‘The Year of Noise’. We have had tremendous stress, although personally and professionally we have had a very “pretty” time. This year has taught us the need to create the news at any time and always. In the field of science, the scientific community has been laying the rules for a long time, but it has been useless. From one day to the next, we have seen that they have ignored the rules and turned science into an alien tweet, a message of other whatsapp. And there is no right to it! Everyone has spoken, and that has caused continuous noise.

“Think big, don’t do it.”

The coronavirus has been a great lesson of humility for Western countries, as this coronavirus had a brother, a sister, or a small cousin in China and the villages around in 2003. And so they behaved seriously and prepared the country and the health system. Here we also receive the warning, but we do not make any preparation, we do not strengthen the health system or the Public Health, that is, the part of health that ensures the health of society. We were confident in science, but when the disease came, we saw that the Public Health is weak: all special protection teams have been invented and manufactured in a country that is not ours, following the laws of the traditional economy, thinking that the virus would be nothing, that it would happen. However, we have received a terrible slap. It has been a terrible geostrategic miscalculation.

You say that it was a terrible lesson. The lesson is usually “lesson” in Basque. Have we learned anything?

I guess not. There's a good example. In 2016, looking at what happened in 2003 and what was until ten years later, the coronavirus vaccine was created in the United States. It took three million euros for the vaccine to be tested and prepared. An “intelligent” decided that this was not the priority and did not make money for it. And yet, it's that false certainty that lives us, we think that if something happens, science will save us. Always thinking that others will save us without realizing our fragility! An impressive lesson for all the citizens of the West.

In the ceremony of the Rikardo Arrangi Journalism Awards you told us that in the first one you did not think it was going to come.

We received the news and followed it. It was said that the disease was not so bad, not so contagious, not so dangerous. However, China closed an area of about 50 million people and made a new hospital overnight! It was worthy of attention. But as the previous viruses (SARS, 2003) were controlled in the same area where they were created, we thought they were also going to control it. What is more, by the end of February it would be a Tuesday, when the Chinese Government and the World Health Organization clearly said that the disease was under control, that it could almost be ended. And so I finished recording that week's [Health Center] program. I recorded it on Friday, and on Saturday morning, I woke up and listened radio to the appearance of several cases of virus in Italy. I called Jo and Arantxa [Artza, the driver of the program] to tell him to remove my last words, that if not, we would have to be ashamed.

Nobody expected it.

It's not what anybody expected. In February, for example, a world congress on the mobile world was to be held in Barcelona. The South Koreans were the first to step back. They were harshly criticized, but it was noticed that something was coming and that it was nothing good. I don't know if it's because they have China next door, because the espionage services work, or why the hell, but they do because they know something. Or, quite simply, it was an exercise of humility.

Those exercises of humility, us of pride?

Yes. We have false beliefs, false assurances, and with them inconceivable selfishness! We are not aware of the great need we have. Society is not possible without the support of each other, at all levels. Self-sufficiency is that. We have received a lesson, but we have not learned!

And every time those in charge of the health system send us measures, we look for loopholes.

Always looking for something! A trap! Instead of going into the spirit of the measures, I was always thinking about how to escape them. It is true that some have not invented many things, but as a society, as a society and as a person, I think we should do tremendous self-criticism, seeing where we have left our solidarity.

Now he has told us “self-criticism”, but he has said “collective failure” in the collaborations of both Berria and Euskadi Irratia.

From top to bottom, we've failed. To begin with, it is the failure of a certain lifestyle: to invade nature, to transmit the virus of animals to people, to industrialize tourism and travel, which entails facilities to spread the virus to the whole world, and above all, this great egoism, this false certainty of science, this pretension to hide the fragility of the person above all… are the proof of collective failure. We've also turned deaths into numbers, not people. Is it acceptable to kill 60 or 80 people a week? Otherwise, by doing what is in our hands, we would avoid those deaths! So what do we do?

You are an ICU physician at Donostia Hospital, when did you start noticing the chubascos?

The same Christmas of last year, when we started reading news from China in medical journals. Everything was new, but we were very soon implementing protocols, testing special protective equipment, doing training… I myself have been involved in drafting eight protocols! At the beginning of March, when we received the news from Italy, we thought something was going to come to us, but that it was going to have such a dimension, no. In 2009, when influenza A occurred, we had about 40 patients in our Intensive Care Units. And we live in situations that will never be forgotten. For example, a pregnant woman about to die of pneumonia. We had to do a C-section – a colleague made him – when I was there, inside an ICU box! The child, fortunately, came out unharmed, but the mother did not, unfortunately, die.

Did you expect the disease to have these dimensions?

We expected something, but not so much. Don't even think about it. When the vitorians began to tell us that the virus was there, that it was going to burst the situation, then yes, “Here we have it!” we said. In August I returned from my vacation, went to the hospital, saw him, and said: “This is what we have!” And we're in the second wave since the end of August. In the second wave, in September, and in October and November!

I don't know if those on the street realize...

We live in a totally dissociative situation. On the one hand, there is the world of the street; on the other, the world of the hospital. We do not want to see the suffering of others, we tend to hide it, to turn the dead into numbers. I think it would be convenient for the street to see the panorama that we live in hospitals.

We heard Miren Basaras say at the end of November that the suffering should be shown.

No doubt. The numbers decustomize us. I have two experiences, both brought by the coronavirus, that will accompany me all my life. One is the case of a 35-year-old girl who was admitted with coronavirus. It was in March, in April, certainly. He spent the day with us. He came out of breath and we had to put his respirator on him. Before that, he asked us, please, to let us make a phone call, which he wanted to make a video call to his man. “Yes, we don’t leave it to you!” And women, men: “Know I’m going to sleep, I don’t know if I’m going to live, but know that the best thing in the world has been to meet you, and have two children with you.” He survived.

The second one?

In October, more or less. A man about 50 years old, of South American origin, who lives here. They brought him in and we intuited him, because we didn't have any other news about him. The next day, a call from the Provincial Council [Gipuzkoa]. “How is this man? He is a widow, has two children of 12 and 8 years old, and if there are no new ones we will have to look for a foster family, because that man here has no family.” These are the real realities, the dramas. Turning that into numbers is making a ugly denial of reality.

What delights has allowed you to experience this drama in the first person?

We learned to live with Lanbide not above or below. When we heal someone, we do not cure him, and at the same time, when someone dies, we do not kill him. If not, we'd live on the rollercoaster, we'd go crazy. We learned to do the work as best as possible and to live. What delight does the situation we have experienced leave us? The joy of having helped, on the one hand, and death and suffering, on the other. We always carry that burden within us, it is by profession, but this time it has come to us totally multiplied. We also take care of two, three and four people, we tend to share the bad moments, to bring suffering together. The solidarity that this creates I do not know if it can be compared with anything else.

As for the management of the pandemic, what has not been done correctly?

It would be an amazing list! For example, no one should give the disease the dimension it had from the very beginning. Or the insufficient strengthening of public health. Or give messages without false certainty. Or that in summer, at a time when we were pretty good, no one told me: “This is serious, we have to walk badly, let us all be careful!” The lack of solidarity at all levels of society has been brutal. Or even the creation of this false dichotomy, health, on the one hand, the health of the economy, on the other, has not been done well.

Many things have not been done properly!

The list may be longer!

Who is the responsibility for?

Of all. Everyone has their responsibility to the extent that it falls to us. I don't like to point anyone out, it's ugly. Of course, the one who commands has the responsibility, because it is the one who commands. But I, too, reproach myself, that is, why I didn't speak louder in the media in March, why I didn't speak louder in summer. And it's also the responsibility of a society that doesn't take into account another's misfortune.

You regret not having spoken louder in the media.

Burden of consciousness. In summer, sometimes yes, sometimes no, I spoke louder, because it's not about people always laughing, because if they're not going to send you to wind, it's normal! Ajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajacajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaj

How well can you get out of this pandemic?

Experiences. Because life is experiences and nobody takes them away from us: past moments, possibility of helping people… What we all said: “Surely a better society will emerge from here.” It was what we said when we were tied inside the house. Those applause of yesteryear, and I'd never been very excited about it, those applause ended when I was able to get out in the street. Ha, ha… That was more false than a seven-euro ticket! I've seen man's march and I'm nothing optimistic. We're all on the same boat, but we haven't learned it. My only hope is that the next generation will generate a new vision of life and the world, but I don't know if we will.

There has been barbarism.

In medicine, there's a concept called catastrophe. The disaster does not mean whether good or bad work has been done, but that there are more injuries than resources. When a disaster occurs, the health system will always be overwhelmed. Therefore, in the current pandemic, the first night is to cut off transmission. However, the transmission is carried out from person to person, and that is what it costs us to break. Taking AIDS prevention as an example, the path is to have safe sex, not to have more consultations! If we had had thousands of cases of AIDS, nobody would have said: “Expand the hospitals!” Transmission has to be interrupted, and for that we have to change our lives. It looks like the bars are closing and the world is over. We don't want to critically analyze our way of life.

What do you feel when you hear the authorities speak?

I don't want to be on your skin. I don't know, and I don't want to know, the pressure they get. However, I would ask you to open a time line, not to act within a week or fifteen days, but to say: “Look, this is a pandemic, a problem worldwide, but in our little one we can do something, but for that we need the response of the whole society.” “Thousands of deaths are coming, we have them in front of us, we run the risk of the health system overflowing, and we are going to take drastic measures for that and other circumstances.” That is what I would ask the authorities, and not to devote themselves to false positivism: “We’re better! We’re doing better than last week!” People may not want to hear the truth, but it has to be said, and that requires continuity.

You would want the messages as clean as the clean water of the spring.

I believe that those in positions of command and responsibility should rethink the communication strategy. Take away the short-term focus and put the long-term focus, say things clear to people; hard, raw; but say one thing, or then fail to do it, or act otherwise, no. This is the way to lose credibility. In my opinion, they have not succeeded in the communication strategy, nor have they made that communication in a proper language.

And now, the vaccines are already here. Panacea?

It's the vaccine that pulls us out of this impasse, no doubt. History has shown that the vaccine is the most effective measure against viruses. Poliomyelitis, for example, up until a few decades ago, here was causing huge damage and was controlled with vaccines. Also Baztanga and many other diseases. Therefore, the solution will be the vaccine. However, we have to see to what extent the effectiveness of the vaccine, if the disease completely disappears, if not, if it has come to stop, to leak, to produce sick and dead... However, if the disease goes away in the world, it will also have to be vaccinated in non-rich countries, otherwise the virus will be mutated again. In the meantime, let’s play generously, thinking about the next one, the elderly people who are going to lose their father or their mother, or the children who are going to lose their parents…

Talk about the suffering that the numbers hide…

And from a scientific point of view, we need to ask one more question: “And our researchers, how do they live in Euskal Herria?”… I know the situation of some of them closely, and I can say that if there are groups badly treated in Euskal Herria, even considering all the professions, the worst is that of researchers. They are offered scholarships, a misery, scholarships that do not pay, that do not have the right to unemployment before social security, that do not give them the right to apply for the health card… That is what we offer to those who should be of the highest social standard. Higher education and doctoral theses have already been done, they are people who should create our own progress, well-prepared people who should solve the problems of society. We are investing money in a thousand things, but not in research or in science. It's a sad void ... We must improve the conditions of researchers and give research a tremendous boost and importance.

Health, on the one hand, the health of the economy, on the other?

If we really say that we want to boost the economy, why don't we buy more in the small shops of the village? Or, being aware that I can infect, why don't I make responsible use of hospitality? Where there is no health, there is no economy. These dichotomies are traps. Health care must be taken, people's lives must be taken care of, and from responsibility and solidarity in the field of health, the economy is not unsustainable. Are there sectors that have received a tremendous slap in the face and we do not have the mental flexibility to make totally different budgets at all levels? From the people, the parliaments and the governments, to help the person as much as possible? You always have to look at our navel!

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Xabier lete, I

"I met Xabier Lete when he entered the ICU. I met her in a hospital bed, therefore, on the margins of reading books. Xabier's care required a lot of work, and because it was a great job for one person, my colleague Fermin Alberdi and I took care of him until the end. One of the most special gifts in Medicine was to take care of her. I wanted to tell her how many things she couldn't. And most of all, to whom I would like to hear him tell his stuff, and I couldn't.

xabier lete, II

"A lot of people think I was a dark person, but just the opposite. He was aware of the world, of society, of his illness and of his weakness, but always within that he brought joy and love to the hospital. I knew the names of many of the nurses in our unit, I was interested in their lives, in their problems, in how they were… That is Xabier’s great lesson: the love that opened up being so bad and so weak.”

xabier and III

"Mount Bianditz was snowed when Lurdes died [Iriondo]. For the last time, when Xabier came to die, he settled in the southbound room, where he saw Bianditz. And you can't describe with what smile he came in and died. It was a terrible experience. And the last words of Xabier: “Felix, do you remember?” That is, the mountain was white even after the death of Lurdes. Since then, when I hear “Elurra zatorren!”, I think: “Tomorrow too, Bianditz will fight him.” Even the poem I've seen the snow, it means that moment.

LAST WORD

I've seen snow in the afternoon of November (final)

(…) today, from where we went

there's nothing left

I saw the mountains dyed in white again.

I looked at the edges of the east with emotion.

And it's awakened me from the most intimate of my being.

over time

The song was veiled.

On the top mountain there's snow, on the top there's ice.

(Xabier Lete)