After the hustle and bustle of the beginning of the new academic year, we seek to restore some peace and order to our lives, remaining focused and committed to giving our best in a new month, which brought us the coolest time of the autumn season, shortening the days where we move on among the pleasant smell of roasted chestnuts, which begins to permeate the streets everywhere.
And now that we are increasingly more familiar with the pandemic, which has burst into everyone's life, marking the pace of our days, we try to keep ourselves informed with the confidence that Science brought us, making us adopt preventive measures and behaviours and gain new habits.
It was, therefore, the pandemic that was on the agenda, with the national press focusing on the increasing daily number of Covid-19 cases (over 2 thousand per day), as well as on the growing number of hospitalizations due to the disease, a situation that brought back the state of calamity to our country. In October, the State Budget for next year and the current economic and social crisis were at the centre of the daily public discussion on the impact of Covid-19 on the most diverse sectors of activity.
The announcement by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, that he had been infected with the new coronavirus also made national and international headlines. The antibody therapy to stop the disease he undertook was explained in detail by Professor Miguel Castanho.
Still in the aftermath of the “Restart” and the “Introduction Days”, we started by sharing the account of the face-to-face opening of the academic year, recalling what was an act of civic responsibility. We also highlighted one of the most important moments, due to its solemnity and significance, which was the oath of the new students and the declaration of the Code of Honour, a fundamental commitment to raise awareness of ethics, rigor and professionalism in the exercise of their activity in this Faculty.
We continued to research actively to understand more and better the current pandemic and shared important data, presenting the first results on the prevalence of Covid-19 in Portugal and on the incidence of infection in health professionals, in a study with the participation of Professor Francisco Antunes.
We defended the importance of the mandatory use of masks everywhere, reiterating the growing need to avoid gatherings, in a comment by Professor Fausto Pinto on the epidemiological situation in Portugal with a focus on the increasingly difficult challenge of controlling transmission chains.
We acknowledged the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the three scientists responsible for the discovery of the virus that causes Hepatitis C, in a comment by Professor Rui Tato Marinho, who is also a great driver and made the fight against Hepatitis C his career.
With regard to pandemics, fear and masks, we went back in time and revisited the Black Death period, establishing a parallel with current times, in an interesting dissertation by Professor Francisco Antunes.
We shared the opinion of Filipe Froes, Pulmonologist and Coordinator of the Crisis Office of the Portuguese Medical Association, about the situation of the pandemic in Portugal and what needs to be done to avoid the rupture of the National Health Service.
We looked at the numbers that marked the start of the new academic year, in a new issue of FMUL in Figures. And we also talked about figures in the analysis of the exponential increase in daily cases of Covid-19 which, according to Professor Miguel Castanho, happened “earlier than expected”, also commenting on the advances and setbacks of pharmaceutical companies, especially Johnson & Johnson, with regard to the development of the much desired vaccine against the new coronavirus.
On World Food Day, we nourished our spirit of solidarity with the presentation of the Quarantine Cookbook, an initiative by Kiddy Cook Portugal in partnership with the FMUL, at the start of the second phase of the fundraising campaign for the National Health Service, within the scope of the “Aid this cause - COVID-19” project.
And given that knowledge is the antidote to misinformation, we also share the evidence from Science in the new Nutrition Laboratory e-book, in which some of the main myths about food and nutrition are deconstructed.
The pandemic brought with it a new habit, which is the use of the mask. And despite the recognized benefits that led to the discussion about its mandatory use also in outdoor spaces, some resistance on the part of the population is still evident. But what the scientific evidence tells us is that we should regard the use of masks as the best decision to control the spread of the new coronavirus, which is why we reiterate the imperative need to use masks, whose use is “possibly the most effective measure to fight the pandemic”, as Professor Fausto J. Pinto explained to the national press.
Regarding the vaccine, whose forthcoming availability has been widely announced, Professor Miguel Castanho commented on the growing pressure on the scientific community, explaining that “the time of researchers and of the industry is not the same as that of civil societies”.
Precisely at a time when prompt action and response are required from the medical and scientific community to combat the pandemic, we consider it crucial to rigorously analyse the truth of the facts, presenting solid positions of world scientists, whose disclosure is necessary to fight the battle of disinformation and opinions that feed on fake news.
We returned to the topic of medical education in our country and again noted the “inappropriateness” of creating more medical schools in Portugal, where “there are already too many doctors” and last year alone “600 doctors did not have access to the specialty”, with the comment of our Director to Jornal Médico on the new medical degree offered by Universidade Católica Portuguesa, recalling that “modernity lies in the evolution that has been made by medical universities”.
As we consider that critical analysis of the scientific literature is fundamental, especially in relation to the new coronavirus and the Covid-19 disease, and the fact that most of the publications become news headlines without having been reviewed by “peers”, independent researchers, we evaluated the possible effects of Covid-19 in the brain in a scientific discussion led by Professor Joaquim Ferreira.
We attended the inauguration ceremony of the new governing bodies of the AEFML, in an event that will go down in history for its exceptionality, on the same day we disclosed the news of the 2nd edition of the Master Degree in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation.
We shared the result of a new national study, signed by FMUL and published in the scientific journal European Journal of Immunology, which demonstrates the effectiveness of antibodies against SARS- CoV-2 up to seven months after infection.
October was also the month of Breast Cancer awareness, marked by two important dates when awareness and prevention were the main messages. World Breast Health Day and the National Day to Fight Breast Cancer, on 15 and 30 October, respectively.
And “between so much”, we celebrate the life and career of Professor António Barbosa, in a tribute that marks the Jubilation of a lecturer who is an expert at work, in his commitment and in the way he dealt with all the members of our community. It was a farewell which was not, in fact, a goodbye, because, after all, “we are made up of so many people” and these people are the ones who leave their imprint on us, determining, together with each person's experiences, the essence of who we are and how we give ourselves to others.
We are ready for another month, with the right convictions and values towards the new World to which we are invited, every day, to be part of, “converting walls into steps and with them, building bridges”, establishing their solid construction, similarly to what António Barbosa did during the 50 years he spent at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.
Sofia Tavares
Editorial Team
