On 10 March 2020, in an appearance on the TeleRadio America TV noontime show of Roberto Castillo on Channel 33, SuperCanal, the beloved philanthropist Dr. Felix Antonio Cruz Jiminián had downplayed the Covid-19 virus. On that day, Dr. Cruz Jiminián had taken off time from his clinic on Av. Ortega y Gasset in Cristo Rey barrio in uptown National District to educate Dominicans on the disease. He said hundreds were coming to his clinic, hysterical that they may have the disease. At the time of his appearance at the talk show, there were only five people tested in the country, most foreigners and all imported cases.
Little did the good doctor know that less than two weeks later his life would be seriously in danger after he himself caught the new coronavirus. Ada Guzmán, head of communications at the Cruz Jiminián clinic, told Diario Libre that Dr. Cruz Jiminián is in coma and on a respirator at the Plaza de la Salud General Hospital. He was admitted on 25 March for dengue and later tested positive for Covid-19. His clinic in Cristo Rey was closed and is being sanitized.
Dr. Jiminián was in touch with hundreds of people before testing positive. In the 10 March interview, he said doctors at the clinic were seeing hundreds of patients that were scared with having caught the disease.
On the talk show Cruz Jiminian explained to the audience that Covid-19 is a virus, not a bacterium. He warned that it was a “highly contagious virus,” only to then downplay the impact of the virus in the Dominican Republic. “It is difficult that it attack Dominicans,” he told TV host Roberto Castillo. “Because we are exposed to so much bacteria, we are immune,” he said. “No one is going to die of that, at least by my experience, no,” he had said. “But that doesn’t mean one should be careless,” he said. He warned that the disease only enters by eyes, mouth or nose, and urged Dominicans to keep hands clean and free of the virus so as not to catch it.
He did warn that anyone could catch the disease, not feel anything for 10 or 20 days not show a fever. “The monster is not such an ogre,” he had stated on the TV show. He highlighted that demographics is in the country’s favor. Persons 65+ make up 8.5% of the population, compared to 65.9% that is 15-64 years old.
On 16 March 2020, the first case of a death in the Dominican Republic had been taken to the Cruz Jiminián clinic by a 911 ambulance. The 47-year old Dominican had arrived recently from Spain, where she lived. She suffered from HIV and tuberculosis. The clinic said the woman was dead when she arrived.
Follow the story in Spanish:
Diario Libre
YouTube — the interview with Dr. Cruz Jiminián
Camara de Diputados
26 March 2020