The pandemic and the importance of coordinated information systems: a letter from Spain

Spain is the world’s 13th biggest economy in terms of GDP, and the 17th in terms of purchasing power parity. This is a highly developed country, with good infrastructures, high literacy rates and a good education system, and one of the best public and universal healthcare services anywhere. And yet we fail in areas that would make our neighbors ashamed: how to explain the huge discrepancy between the numbers of people who have been infected by Covid-19 and those who have died? Why is it so hard for the authorities to count a person who tests positive in a diagnostic test, is admitted to hospital, goes to an intensive care unit or dies? How is it possible that entire days can go by without reporting data to analysts and international observers, prompting doubts about the veracity of what the authorities say, driving some researchers to look for indicators and multiple sources that allow them to corroborate the data?

Here are a few more questions: why has it taken so long to roll out a tracing app at the national level? And how is it possible that, at the end of August and with the return to school and work upon us, the app is only being used in a few of this country’s regions, thus becoming virtually useless if we consider the huge numbers of people going on, or returning from, vacation?