[News]Emilio Bouza, the spokesman for the Covid-19 group, resigns in the middle of the war between Health and Madrid

[SougarLord]

Dr. Emilio Bouza, microbiologist and infectious disease expert, has resigned as spokesman for the Covid-19 Group in Madrid. It has barely lasted 48 hours in a position to which he arrived with the commitment, acquired on Monday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the head of the regional executive, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of being this technical and not political figure who will be in charge "Transfer the decisions taken in the space of collaboration between the Government of Spain and the Executive of the Community of Madrid."

 

In a letter, sent to the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, and to the Minister of Health of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, he explains the reasons for his departure: the initial surprise when he was urgently called to the former's office, last Wednesday, and offered him the position of spokesperson for the Covid commission. The attention with which he listened to them talk about working in harmony between administrations in the search for the common good in the fight against the pandemic. And the subsequent disappointment at the events witnessed.

 

Your letter indicates to the two leaders that “you confirmed to me your will for political harmony and your drive to work together to find a solution to the problem. They asked me to act as a technician and scientist on the council created by both governments and, also, based on my professional career, to act as spokesperson for the group's agreements. I believed in what was promised ”, and therefore accepted the responsibility.

But then he collided with the harsh reality: The circumstances that I have witnessed in the following two days, together with the contemplation of the simultaneous press conferences on Friday the 25th, force me to resign and decline the offer. Without a doubt I will continue working in favor of the citizens of Madrid and Spain, with the best of wills. I am, how could it be otherwise, at the service of Health, but I have simply been able to understand that this is not my position in the current circumstances.

 

The two press conferences on Friday and the subsequent crossing of reproaches have blown up the political truce that Pedro Sánchez and Díaz Ayuso signed publicly on Monday, just six days ago, after their meeting at the Royal Post Office.

 

The Covid-19 group in Madrid was created on Monday, at the initiative of the top political leaders of the Central Government and Madrid, as a space for cooperation between both institutions. Bouza's work as Covid spokesperson chosen by consensus of both institutions was, precisely, to be the one who transmitted the decisions and that no political statements were produced but only at a technical level, to try to reduce the level of tension. What happened on Friday represents a complete break with this idea, which could be behind the discontent of the prestigious microbiologist.

 

Dr. Emilio Bouza, with an outstanding care, scientific and research career, is an expert in infectious diseases and microbiology and founder of the Spanish Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

 

Bouza, in an interview with ABC last June, was critical of the management of the pandemic carried out in Spain, and assured, among other issues, that "we took time to react, we were able to save more lives."