There were a couple of hours left before the catastrophe broke out in Valencia and part of Albacete when I notified my boss by message that the embargoed study that we planned to publish at midnight was ready: it was a new edition of the ‘Lancet Countdown’, an annual report prepared by a hundred scientists and international organizations that evaluates the impacts that climate change has on health. I titled: Climate change is running faster than the human capacity to adapt. When this text was published, we already knew – one night glued to the radio – that the floods caused by the passage of a DANA had killed an “undetermined number” of people.
Since then, the words that the World Health Organization has repeated endlessly come to me with every image on television; with every testimony we hear; with every story we are telling: “the climate crisis is a health crisis.” A health crisis that can cost us our lives.
Who would have thought that a DANA would cause the death of more than a hundred people in Spain? This feeling of invulnerability was already cut short by the pandemic. Now, this tragedy puts us in our place again. Well, almost everyone, except those who question the alerts launched by the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
Climate change makes extreme weather events more frequent and more intense. Questioning that is only a matter for deniers, who have found the best fertile ground to spread hoaxes. To act as agents of chaos in the midst of human desperation.
The reality is that warnings serve to predict, but above all to prevent. Underestimating that is a bad idea. The Valencian Community sent a message to all mobile phones in the region when there were already many people in water up to their necks. Literally. Having a good advance warning system has become essential. “They are a proven, effective and cost-effective way to save lives, jobs, land and infrastructure,” says the UN. With the passage of DANA through Castelló, people were warned not to leave their homes and to take refuge in high areas; In Catalonia, the population of the Ebro was also warned not to travel by road.
The areas affected by DANA, now that the rain has stopped, face a long, black tunnel of grief and collective trauma. In the City of Justice, corpses continue to arrive that need to be identified and there are people who continue to be missing while the living drain what little they have left of mud. “We have lost everything but we are alive,” a woman said above my head – one of the televisions in the newsroom falls right on top of me – on Channel 24 Hours.
While you were doing other things…
- The communities are skipping the six-month waiting limit established since 2011 for five surgical operations. These are the data.
- This interview with the creator of CAR-T therapies against cancer, Carl June, is very interesting: “It’s like putting a patrol against the disease in the blood”
No ADHD medication
Children and adults with ADHD have been struggling for weeks to buy the medication that allows them to have a functional life in pharmacies throughout Spain: methylphenidate. There are patients who have had to stop taking it because they have not been able to find it in any establishment.
It is a “misalignment” at the school, family and behavioral level because it serves to control impulsivity, among other things, neuropsychiatrist Marcos Madruga told us. And, what is worse, there is no near horizon for a solution: normality will not be recovered, predictably, until the beginning of 2024.
Three laboratories produce this drug, with different trade names: Janssen, Laboratorios Rubió and Exeltis Healthcare. Only one, the first, has responded to our questions: the situation is due to “production limitations”, without further details, and a “growing demand in multiple markets”. We have not heard from the other two.
Thank you for reaching the end of this newsletter in these sad days. If you have loved ones in that area, a very big hug from here.
Sofia
#climate #crisis #threat #human #lives
