| | |  Editorials | Opinions | May 2009 
Countdown to May 6
 The News
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 |  | The government has bought itself some time with its five-day "puente." Now let's see what it does with it. |  | | |
It was a smart move to take advantage of the May Day national holiday and Cinco de Mayo commemoration to shut things down for a while and try to get a better handle on the epidemic. The challenge will come next week. The nation and its economy will need to get back to work, and if it can't, there will likely be some serious frustration and anger.
That's why it will be so important to see what our leaders do to get ready for May 6, the day Mexico is hoping to start returning to normal. Here are a few things we've seen in the past few days, and our quick take on them.
1. Increased field testing: We were glad to see the Health Secretariat send a fleet of mobile health care units out into the Mexico City metro area this week. It certainly appears that quick diagnosis and treatment are the keys to fighting this thing.
2. Reporting only confirmed cases: In a way, it seems more responsible to report confirmed infections and deaths rather than suspected ones. At the same time, it looks a little bit like an effort to manipulate the statistics downward. After all, a number of the suspected flu casualties are already buried or cremated and can never be confirmed.
3. Blaming the WHO: Comments from Mexico's chief epidemiologist, Dr. Miguel Angel Lezana, accusing the WHO of being slow to respond to Mexico's flu crisis, are counterproductive and look a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. How useful is it to alienate international health officials in the middle of a public health crisis? |
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