MEXICO CITY – Mexicans hope President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recovers quickly from Covid-19, though many believe he could have avoided infection if he had followed the government’s own health advice more strictly – and worn a face mask.
López Obrador’s diagnosis Sunday marked the deadliest week of the coronavirus pandemic in the country with the fourth highest death toll in the world.
“He did not look after himself, always walked around without a mask and did not take social distance,” said garbage collector Luis Enrique Flores, of Mexico City, as he pasted his wagon past a wall with government posters. which tempted people to wear masks.
López Obrador, who quit smoking after a heart attack in 2013, insists he is cautious, referring to the recommendations of his coronavirus tsar, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, when asked why he does not wear a mask do not wear.
Opinion polls show that most Mexicans approve of the management of the health crisis, and his popularity has improved, if anything, in the pandemic, during which he maintained a busy schedule and continued to tour Mexico.
Polls, however, suggest that his aversion to wearing a mask is not in line with public opinion.
A July poll by the newspaper El Financiero showed that 86% of Mexicans believe that masks spread Covid-19, but nearly nine in ten said they always wore one when they left home, a survey found shown by consulting firm Consulta Mitofsky on Monday.
“He needs to take better care of himself, he needs to wear a mask because he never wears one at his news conferences,” said Noe Méndez, a street vendor in Mexico City.
The president is only ever seen in a mask when he flies. But she decided to take a plane aboard Sunday, hours before revealing that Covid-19 had criticized him for undermining the government’s own message.
Marisol González, who runs a food stall in the capital, said many ordinary Mexicans had to work much longer to keep themselves safe.
Mexicans are increasingly afraid of access to health care as the pandemic stretches hospitals, but Reina Luisa Hernández, a massage therapist whose livelihood was shattered by the pandemic, said the president would receive the kind of attention “not available to the vast majority of Mexicans not. ”
Others hope the president learns from his experience.
“It’s good that he knows how it feels, how people suffer from it,” said Teresa López, editor of digital magazines. “Now he needs to take a stricter approach.”
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