Blogging From Mexico Under Swine Flu

The Dilemma of Resuming Life in Mexico

Reminder of the epidemic continue to be present through the constant presence of the surgical face masks.

However, starting Wednesday, May 6th, when all the labor activities had been resumed, and more so on Thursday with the resumption of classes at universities and high schools and with restaurants, bars, museums and archeological zones reopened, it seems like the city is gradually returning to its normal dynamism.

Of course, reminders of the epidemic continue to be present, whether it be through the constant presence of the surgical face masks that we have to use in classes or in our jobs; in public transportation where you find signs with the recommendations and preventive measures that you have to follow to stop the spread of the disease; by the people distributing antibacterial gel in the stations of the subway, at the entrance of schools, universities, and different kind of buildings and offices; or by the new measures that most of the public places have to take if they want to remain open and not be subject to a fine. Restaurants, cinemas, theaters, stadiums, have to work at half of their capacity because they have to keep a distance among the people within and not become very crowded in a way that would facilitate the spread of the flu virus.

Nevertheless, a dilemma is facing the whole city while trying to return to normal life: The government's recommendations, which it considers vital to continue controlling the viral spread, are, in fact, completely unfeasible. They are not very helpful for the reactivation of economic activity and, consequently, difficult to put in practice at the individual and social level.

On my go out to the down town, I could corroborate this general tendency. Only about 10% of people or less continued to use surgical masks. Also, most of the public places don't fulfill the government health requirements: at the restaurants, not all the waiters used their surgical masks or gloves and the rarely leave an empty table between two tables to respect the distance that the government indicates. Most operated at all their full capacity. At schools, students avoided to put surgical masks at class, and some schools didn't have the infrastructure to provide their students with cleanliness tools, like soap or even water, which is scarce in this overpopulated city. So it seems that, because of our long and painful week at home, we are not caring anymore about the preventive measures, and are hurrying up in a way that is not very helpful to consolidate the control of the spread.

Taking this in mind, government and society have to cooperate. In the case of society it has to put in practice the preventive measures, while the government needs to consider a deeper compromise by providing the infrastructure, resources and information to the care of the capital’s population. The government should also supervise the compliance of the measures that it recommends, and most importantly, to help the people understand how the situation is developing and the steps that it is going to take and the strategies that it is going to apply for reverting the economic losses that this epidemic has inflicted on the city and the country, which is also the most worrying issue for the population.

Definitely, the epidemic has uncovered many deficiencies that our individuality and collectivity have to overcome. We have a weak health system, which lacks resources, medical material and personal. At the social level, we need to encourage and generate a culture of prevention in our lives that makes it easier to deal with a health eventuality like this. At the economic level, we need to overcome our deep dependence on the service sector and tourism and therefore the on sensitivity to the ups and downs of Mexico's image abroad. And within the politics, we need to correct the lack of coordination between local and federal governments, party interests over the national interest and the practically no population confidence in government performance and measures.

It seems like it is still a long way to run to have the city functioning at 100%, because the challenges that we have to face are different and complex as a city but also as a country.

Nohemi Jocabeth Echeverria Vicente is a student living in Ecatepec, Mexico, near Mexico City. She can be reached by sending an e-mail to sciencetech@iolteam.com.