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By Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas
MEXICO CITY – A grey Suzuki stopped in front of Mexico’s General Hospital and stunned Victor Bailón at the entrance. He had refused to go to the hospital for days, convinced that doctors were killing patients with coronavirus. By the time he entered the backyard and collapsed on the floor, it was too late.
“Daddy, breathe!” yelled at his wife. “Please breathe.”
Within an hour, Mr. Bailon died.
Mexico is grappling with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, with more than 52,000 deaths shown, the third number of deaths from the pandemic. And their struggle has become even more complicated because of a widespread phenomenon: a deep-seated concern in hospitals.
The challenge has long plagued countries burdened by unknown diseases. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, many Sierra Leoneans believed that hospitals had desperate death traps, causing patients to stay in their homes and inadvertently spread the disease to their families and neighbors.
A similar vicious cycle is developing here in Mexico. As the pandemic crushes an already weak fitness system, with bodies crammed into refrigerated trucks, many Mexicans see the Covid community as a position where only death awaits, which must be avoided at all costs.
The consequences, according to doctors, nurses and fitness ministers, are serious. Mexicans expect a remedy until their cases are so severe that there is little doctors can do to help them. Thousands of people die before they have realized that the inside of a hospital, according to government data, succumbed to the virus in taxis on the way or in beds of poor physical condition at home.
The opposite fight against home infections can not only spread the disease more widely, epidemiologists say, but also hide the true number of victims of the epidemic because many other people die without being examined, and officially counted, as victims of the coronavirus.
Many Mexicans say they have a smart explanation for why they distrust hospitals: nearly 40% of other people hospitalized with cases of viruses in Mexico City, the epicenter of the epidemic in the country, end up dying, according to government data, a maximum mortality rate even in some of the worst coronavirus hot spots in the world. At the height of the New York pandemic, less than 25% of coronavirus patients died in hospitals, according to studies.
Although statistics may be vague due to the limited number of evidence, doctors and researchers have shown that a staggering number of other people are dying in Mexican hospitals.
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