QCOSTARICA – The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) is using social media to get the message home, to stay at home in the face of an increase in massive events, attended in the majority by younger people, and one of the reasons for the sharp increase in new cases of covid-19 this week, and with that a near collapse of medical services,
A photograph of two arms with party bracelets along with a heartbreaking image of another arm with an intravenous line were the elements used by the CCSS in the fight against mass parties.
“This bracelet (the one from the party) can end in this one (the one from the hospital). The party can wait,” says the text of the design published this Monday on the institution’s Instagram and Facebook pages.
Yet another poster has the message: “If you can’t wait to party. You may have to wait for an ICU bed”.
The deputy director of Communication of the CCSS, César Blanco, told the Q that the campaign was his idea and that it is aimed mainly at the young population of the country.
“I believe that an image is worth a thousand words and, precisely, perhaps we have all been to that party where there is a colored or neon bracelet. It is not the only party out there, but I think it was a much more visual way of identifying it and there is a hospital bracelet analogy that can be very powerful.
“There is a young population that actually feels this virus is distant (from them) because they have not been affected, perhaps, or because they have been sold that the young person is not affected, and that is not the reality,” said Blanco.
The communicator said that for days they had been thinking about how to approach this issue since they need people to react and feel identified with the serious situation.
According to Blanco, with the image, they hope that those young people who have attended parties or have been invited to participate in one, reconsider their decision and act in a more conscious way, both for themselves and for their families.
“Today we have young people in all our hospitals, even a 19-year-old, who is in the Ceaco right now, in an ICU, after being transferred in very serious condition,” said Blanco.
The CCSS press officer comments that for many years they have tried to make their social networks closer, truer and human.
“We have always tried to be very empathetic in our networks, very different from a communication as rigid as the institutional one can be,” said Blanco.
Authorities concerned
The CCSS is not the only one concerned about these massive events. Different authorities have been uneasy about the issue, including the business sector, calling on the population to refrain from massive events, gatherings, fiestas (parties), mega-parties, and clandestine parties, etc.
For example, the slogan of the new campaign of the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce is “Bad idea” and it tries to make users aware of the compliance with preventive measures, the elimination of clandestine parties and the follow-up of protocols by its affiliates.
The initiative is also signed by the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), the Association of Producers and Importers of Alcoholic Beverages of Costa Rica (Apibaco), the Costa Rican-North American Chamber of Commerce of Costa Rica (AmCham) and the Costa Rican Chamber of Restaurants and Related (Cacore).
Another who has raised his voice has been the president of the National Emergency Commission (CNE), Alexánder Solís, who emphatically points out that “this is not the time to have parties.”
“It is time to stay at home, to go out only for what is necessary, to use the express (delivery) if we want a dinner, to share with our bubble; It is not the time to have parties, it is a very critical moment, not only those who are infected with covid are at risk, but also people with chronic diseases, those who suffer a traffic accident; we are all exposed to suffering an accident or illness that forces us to go to a hospital,” said Solís at a press conference this Tuesday.
This call to avoid parties is also joined by the Deputy Minister of Public Security, Eduardo Solano, who asks the population to assume individual responsibility and have solidarity.
“To call or attend a party, in these dramatic moments for the country, is to be indifferent to the saturation of the medical system and to be unsympathetic to the concern of families whose prayers are raised for the recovery of a loved one.
“No person or family is exempt from needing a bed in an intensive care unit,” said Solano in an opinion article published in La Nacion.
