A publication in the digital medium Health with Magnifying Glass notes that the Nayib Bukele government hired a specialist to write an article published in December last year in a prestigious British magazine.
An investigation of the digital medium Health with Magnifying Glass he noted that the Salvadoran government used funds from El Salvador Hospital to pay for international publications on the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the prestigious British magazine The Lancet.
“El Salvador Hospital: A New Paradigm of Intensive Care in Response to Covid-19 in Central America” was the headline published on December 23, 2020 by The Lancet, the same one Bukele boasted on its networks noting that the Hospital, known as “the largest in Latin America,” appeared in one of the world’s most prestigious journals, but without mentioning that the publication was paid for.
The article mentions the technology acquired to implement telemedicine in the care of patients with Covid-19 in addition to revealing some data, which Health with Magnifying Glass highlights have been handled inconsistently in official communication.
The media notes that the Bukele Government hired specialist Magdalena Serpa to help with the drafting, further points out that the writing was published in the opinion section of The Lancet.
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Health with Lupa consulted the British media about this publication. Media relations manager Emily Head said “this comment was sent by the authors and was not commissioned by The Lancet Global Health.”
And he added: “This comment was not reviewed externally in pairs, as is usual in the comments of The Lancet magazines.”
Salut amb Lupa also points out that more than two months before the publication of The Lancet, the director of El Salvador Hospital, Dr. Laura Miranda, issued a reasonable resolution to justify the first external contract that the hospital would make, which was intended for a “Technical consultancy for the descriptive writing of articles on the management of Covid-19 in El Salvador”, which was requested by Dr. Manuel Bell, in charge of the Department of Intensive and Intermediate Care of the ‘hospital.
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The purchase order was issued on October 28, 2020 and has as the end date of the contract on December 31, for a sum of $ 12,600 in favor of foreign consultant Magdalena Serpa. The document also provides for the drafting and publication of five international articles.
Dr. Manuel Bell told Health with Magnifying Glass that he did not know if the other four articles had already been written and delivered.