By Dr. Javier Rivera | Jan. 6, 2022 | Post in English

It is known that in Spain we have one of the lowest research budgets in the European Union. On the other hand, it is clear that if we do not do research we will never own patents and we will have to buy innovative products from those countries that do research and own the patents.

The first vaccines against COVID came out more than a year ago, all of them manufactured by foreign multinationals, while the Spanish vaccines are still in the development process and are not expected until the second half of this year.

I do not know the investment that has had to be made to buy the vaccines with which more than 80% of our population has already been immunized with two doses, almost 50% with three doses, but an approximate calculation of what we have spent so far on vaccines may amount to several billion euros. I wonder if it would not have been more profitable to have invested them in due time in research to have our own vaccines as soon as possible.

The scarcity of research budgets cannot mean anything other than a considerable contempt for science and scientists on the part of the politicians responsible for managing the economic funds of our country and also a notable short-sightedness in their vision of the future.

Speaking of contempt for scientists, in a movie that’s all the rage these days, «Don’t Look Up» , research physicists discover that a giant comet is going to crash into Earth and cause a mass extinction of life.

The first thing these researchers do is inform the president of the country to tell her about the terrible discovery, but they come across a politician who is more concerned with the upcoming elections than with providing a solution to the problem.

Faced with this inexplicable attitude of politicians, the researchers then decide to turn to television to make the population aware of what is going to happen, but they come across some frivolous media that are more interested in audience ratings, shocking talk shows and influencers, that in what is going to happen.

In this parody there is also the astute businessman who sees an exceptional business opportunity in the coming catastrophe and puts his economic interests before the imminent risk that the population is going to suffer.

The common denominator in all these characters is the deep contempt they feel towards science and researchers that leads them to ignore the terrible threat that hangs over Humanity.

As I watched the film I had a feeling of déjà vu, which reminded me in many ways of what we are experiencing with the COVID pandemic in our country.

We must think that research is the engine that drives the development and progress of a society and as long as this truth is not taken into account, we will be condemned to experience a series of catastrophes that could be avoided.

In order to improve the current situation of COVID, we would have needed to have previously dedicated more funds to research, but at this time we can no longer turn back, at least take into account the opinion of our scientists who are the ones who know the most about this health crisis and avoid the leading role of politicians and the media who only think about their strategic interests.

For the rest, I recommend you to watch the movie because you can spend a pleasant time among so many reasons to feel bad as we have today.