Canton woman speaks out about crisis in Venezuela

When Sofia Penna went recently to receive her COVID-19 vaccination in her adopted home state of Massachusetts, she presented her Venezuela license as identification and was treated with no questions asked.

Sofia Penna (right) with her parents David and Tatiana

“They didn’t care who I was or what my legal status was,” she said. “It was so easy; everything was well thought out and organized.”

Months earlier, when her family’s local pizza shop, Slices Pizzeria on Turnpike Street, suffered significant revenue losses as a result of the pandemic, they were able to apply for — and quickly receive — a forgivable government loan, plus additional grant assistance that had been specifically earmarked for minority-owned businesses across the commonwealth.

As a result, Penna and her family were able to stay open for business and continue working, all the while taking comfort in the fact that if anyone were to get sick, they had proper health coverage and access to some of the world’s leading medical facilities right here in their backyard.

Yet sadly, said Penna, this “blessed” new reality of hers is nothing like that experienced by millions in her native Venezuela — a South American nation plagued by political corruption, chronic food and medicine shortages, crippling hyperinflation, and soaring crime rates. A 2019 New York Times report, citing several leading economists, characterized the ongoing crisis in Venezuela as the “single largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years.” More than five million people have fled the country in recent years, and of those who have remained, an estimated 94 percent live in poverty, according to a recent United Nations report.

“We’re going through a crisis, the whole country economically and financially,” said Penna, who moved to Canton with her family three years ago. “I was very lucky and blessed that I was able to choose where I could go.”

While most of what she knows about the current situation in her homeland has come from news sources, Penna said she received a harsh lesson in the realities of Venezuela’s pandemic response when both of her parents, David and Tatiana, contracted COVID while on a trip back home to care for Penna’s grandmother, who is awaiting surgery.

Penna said her mother developed symptoms first, and then her father became ill and both were hospitalized. Luckily, they were able to secure beds in the same room at a private clinic, although it came at a high price — costing $1,700 per day plus additional fees, with full payment required up front.

While characterizing the facility as a “proper hospital,” Penna said they still experienced daily water and power outages. “They need generators to keep the ICU and other departments running,” she said. “Resources are scarce. Just like any other business owner [in Venezuela], they are doing their best given they are in a country where survival mode is the only mode.”

While it was a challenge to come up with the funds to pay for her parents’ care, Penna said treatment in a public hospital was simply not an option. “The health system in Venezuela is collapsing,” she said. “Many of the hospitals have closed or are operating at a reduced capacity, and they are very dangerous in terms of health and safety procedures.”

A recent report in The BMJ, a weekly medical journal published by the British Medical Association, paints an even grimmer picture of the public health system in Venezuela: daily shortages of basic supplies such as alcohol, blood tests and personal protective equipment; doctors resorting to buying their own tools and equipment; ambulances not running due to gas shortages; and doctors working round-the-clock shifts for only pennies per day.

The article further asserts that President Nicolas Maduro’s government — which the United States and several of its allies do not recognize as legitimate — has responded to the crisis with a coordinated campaign of misinformation, denial, and information suppression, going so far as to detain and prosecute those who attempt to sound the alarm about COVID-19.

Still, The BMJ notes that many healthcare workers “have sprung up to tell the reality of the situation in their clinics and to call for assistance,” even at the risk of being detained or jailed.

Penna said she too has felt compelled to speak out about conditions in her home country and is especially frustrated by what she sees as active government efforts to thwart distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. (The Maduro regime, earlier this week, announced plans to purchase millions of doses through the global COVAX program, although it has received less than a million doses to date and is far behind most other countries in the region in vaccine distribution.)

“The government just doesn’t care; it’s not a priority for them,” argued Penna. “Most people in Venezuela are not even close to getting a vaccine, and there have been efforts from the government itself to block the vaccine. They blame it on the U.S. and the sanctions they have placed over Venezuela.”

In the meantime, Penna said that based on what she is seeing in the news as well as her family’s personal experiences, COVID-19 is “out of control” in Venezuela. Indeed, cases have been surging since March and the CDC has placed Venezuela in the Level 4 category, indicating “very high risk,” and has cautioned even vaccinated individuals against traveling to the country due to the presence of COVID variants. Several outside observer groups, such as Human Rights Watch, have also called into question the reported totals of 177,000 cases and 1,800 deaths, suggesting that they are likely vastly underreported.

As for Penna’s parents, she was happy to report in an online post on Saturday that they had both left the hospital and were back staying with her grandparents. “Thank you so much to everyone who supported my parents during this process,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page she had set up. “Each message of love and affection made me feel closer to them.”

While thrilled that they are on the road to recovery, Penna took the opportunity in her update to also remind people that, unlike in the United States, there is “no light at the end of the tunnel for Venezuela yet.”

“I got my vaccine on Monday and I only thought of all the medical staff who cared for my parents, my grandparents, medical relatives and everyone out there without access to it,” she said. “This situation could last many more years in countries like Venezuela.”

“It is difficult to relate to the Venezuelan reality, even for me,” Penna added, “when federal aid, healthcare, and payment plans for almost any service are accessible to everybody here (at least in Massachusetts), so I recognize the effort of those who work in a country without guarantees, with scarce resources, daily power/water outages, and no government support when I say how proud I am of how my parents were treated. They only have good things to say about each of the people who were there to help them during the longest 17 days ever.”

“Yes, they are home and I am happy that they are hugging my grandparents today, but I know this is not over yet.”

Penna encouraged anyone who would like to donate or learn more about the healthcare crisis in Venezuela to visit www.vamainfo.com. To make a donation to help defray the costs of her parents’ medical expenses, go to gofund.me/09bd8279.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=73937

Posted by Jay Turner on Apr 16 2021. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.