Together, the PP and Vox reject the creation of the State Public Health Agency.

MadridEverything pointed to the fact that the creation of the State Public Health Agency would be approved with the support of a large majority in the Congress of Deputies. Health Minister Mónica García had assumed this for granted this Thursday morning during the debate on the initiative. She only expected Vox to vote against it because the rest had endorsed the text during its passage through the Health Committee, prior to the vote in the plenary session. The confidence was such that even the director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) and the public figure in COVID management, Fernando Simón, attended the session from the guest gallery. But everything ended up going wrong: against all odds, Junts and the PP joined Vox and defeated the initiative.

"No Spanish agency is above the farmers and ranchers of Catalonia," explained the spokesperson for the regional government, Míriam Nogueras, upon leaving the plenary session. Nogueras' complaint refers to a clash with the Spanish government over another initiative voted on in the same plenary session, the law against food waste. Together with ERC, they sought to introduce an amendment to protect Catalan cogeneration plants for slurry treatment by extending their useful life by two years. The Spanish government vetoed this possibility and refused to reconsider, as requested by both parliamentary groups. The People's Party (PP) also participated in this battle. The Popular Party (PP) also wanted to debate their own amendment to reduce the VAT on basic foodstuffs from 4% to 2%.

Republican MP Etna Estrems, who also defended the amendment on slurry, distanced herself from Junts and criticized the "tantrum" of Carles Puigdemont's party, which goes "against the interests of Catalonia" because positive aspects had been introduced into the law that created the regulation. Speaking to the media in the corridors of Congress, the visibly upset Minister of Health denounced the "incredible gravity" of this move, which "punishes the health of citizens" for mere "revenge." García announced that "a way will be studied to bring" the initiative back to Congress because without this body, citizens will be "more unprotected" if a new pandemic hits.

The importance of strengthening surveillance

Now, what does not having a State Public Health Agency mean? One of the many lessons learned from the pandemic that swept the world five years ago is the importance of having a strong epidemiological surveillance system, capable of tracking many cases and identifying potential threats. The more and better information we have—and if the criteria for data collection are unified across all territories—the easier it will be to anticipate emerging pathogens and diseases. On the contrary, a lack of data and coordination, especially in a state where health powers are devolved, can hinder the containment of infections and the work of healthcare professionals, as was seen during COVID-19.

The president of the Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration, Eduardo Satué, believes that the agency's non-approval "has been more of a temporary issue than a substantial one," but, in statements to the specialized medical media outlet SMC, he stressed the importance of deploying it quickly to respond to future threats. "The agency is more necessary than ever; I think we're all aware of this, and we're confident it can become a reality this year," he argued. Valencian epidemiologist Salvador Peiró also believes this institution is "necessary for the protection of health" throughout Spain. "The world is becoming much more complicated: climate change, desertification, migration, international mobility, increasing inequalities, technological deregulation, industrialization of animal production... All of these are significant risks that increase communicable and non-communicable diseases," he explained to SMC.