Sometimes this pandemic - and the way it's handled here - puts me deep in my thoughts about past crises I've witnessed and covered in Mexico.

Not so much a thread as a collection of thoughts to get off my chest. Pull up a chair if you like...

Early on, I was nervous about how the strained healthcare system in Mexico in general - and in Oaxaca in particular - could weather a wallop of this magnitude. If I recall correctly, Oaxaca's main public hospital had 8 respirators on hand at the start of the pandemic.

I've been here through H1N1 and Zika and have had dengue fever, which included the lived experience of, "We could test you to confirm it but by the time you get the test results back you'll either be over it or...not. Rest up at home but maybe go to the ER if it gets worse."

Back in mid-March folks were still cracking coronavirus jokes and side-eyeing those of us who started wearing masks. I was watching the crisis situation in Italy & seeing schools across the US cancel in-person classes. My news feed & life outside my door were parallel realities.

The notable exception to the "no pasa nada" vibe was the reaction from Indigenous communities in Oaxaca's Sierra Norte region. They shut things down quick and strict. To date, the region continues to be the area of Oaxaca with the fewest confirmed cases of and deaths from COVID.

Many families in the Sierra Norte have relatives living in the US, where lockdowns were starting. So it's fair to assume there was direct binational communication. But there's another factor: experience with institutional abandonment & knowing who to count on in times of crisis.

And on a gut level, institutional abandonment is exactly what this feels like right now.

Pop into my mentions with "but look at all the new ventilators!" if you like, but also come prepared to show me exactly where the institutional support for frontline healthcare workers is.

Healthcare workers are bearing the brunt on multiple fronts. Healthcare personnel make up a 14% of the active confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Mexico currently. As of Sept 3rd, 1,410 healthcare workers have died in Mexico of COVID; more than in any other country in the world.

Mexico is now losing an average of 5 to 10 healthcare workers A DAY to the virus. Yes, working on the frontlines of a deadly pandemic involves risk, but there are ways to mitigate that risk. Healthcare workers in Oaxaca quarantined hospitals & threatened strikes TO ACCESS TESTS.

If you're wondering where I got "14% of active cases are healthcare workers and 1,410 have died" stats are from this PowerPoint presentation from the Sept 3rd Covid task force presser. It wasn't even the main topic of the night; healthy eating was - AGAIN. https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/576159/CP_Salud_CTD_coronavirus_COVID-19__03sep20.pdf

One particularly consistent message from the Covid task force has been to shift blame for systemic policy failures onto individual behaviors. Diabetes and obesity ARE major public health issues here, but what's especially deadly about COVID in Mexico is the *uncontrolled spread*.

Which brings me back to that déjà vu feeling that hits me in the pit of my stomach and takes me back to other crisis moments. It has the same acrid stench of the "en algo andaban" rationale the Calderón admin would offer up to sweep drug war deaths under the public opinion rug.