One of my favorite movies of all times is “Mary Poppins”. And there’s a song: “A spoonful of sugar (helps the medicine go down)” that I suddenly remembered these days, when President Alberto Fernández announced several new restrictions due to Covid 19 second huge wave. Why, you might ask. Well, simply because I would have expected “a spoonful of sugar” alongside his announcement. Such as some kind of self-criticism, admitting his administration has made many mistakes, and taking responsibility for them. I mean, no one has yet explained why so many of his/ their friends, relatives and “militantes”, have jumped the line and been vaccinated before their time. Furthermore, is it true that Fernández has rejected vaccines donated by US President Biden? If so, what would that mean? Vaccines are more than welcome from Russia but not from the USA? Is it an ideological issue or a public health one? Moreover, the three-week nighttime curfew he announced reminded me of the darkest days of our last military dictatorship (1976-1983). Not a nice memory at all. As if the virus only ran rampant at night. So far, only 4.5 million citizens have received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. There’s a long way to go, and it’s the government’s job to alleviate people´s suffering. Restrictions are far from enough
Irene Bianchi for Buenos Aires Times