The Government illegally hides the composition of the Expert Committee for the coronavirus pandemic

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The Government is obliged to disclose the names of the team of experts from the Ministry of Health that decides the changes in the phases of the de-escalation in the coronavirus pandemic. Several legal texts urge the State to make public the composition of the committees - and even their reports - that work on public health content. And it does so under the premise of "transparency".

When on Wednesday May 6 a journalist asked Fernando Simón about the composition of the group that analyzes the requests from the autonomous communities to move from one phase to another, the director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies refused to reveal the identity of those technicians: "I am not going to give you the names of any person on the team because in all this process the pressures suffered by any person whose name is given by society in general and by the media in particular It ends up making it very difficult for me to work with enough freedom (...) If you allow me, I will not give the name of any (...) The best thing is that they do their job correctly and as independently as possible " .

The only information that Dr. Simón offered was that this committee is made up of 12 technicians "who work in the General Directorate of Public Health ."

However, in 2011, a law with the same surname, the General Law on Public Health , drafted, in its article 11 , some revealing quotes: "The composition of the committees or groups that evaluate actions or make recommendations for public health, the selection procedures, the declaration of interests of the participants, as well as the relevant opinions and documents, except for the limitations provided by current regulations. "

These limitations could be included in what articles 14 and 15 of the Transparency Law of 2013 define as "limits to the right of access" and "protection of personal data".

• Article 14 : "The right of access may be limited when accessing the information is detrimental to national security, defense, public security, economic and commercial interests (...). The application of the limits will be justified and proportionate to its object of protection and will attend to the circumstances of the specific case, especially the concurrence of a superior public or private interest that justifies access. "
• Article 15 : "If the information requested contains personal data that reveals the ideology, union affiliation, religion or beliefs, access may only be authorized in the event that the express written consent of the affected party was obtained."

In other words, according to Spanish legislation, the composition of the committees that study and recommend public health actions should be generally known, such as the 12 people who reason before the Autonomous Communities whether or not they should go through de-escalation phases and raise its opinion to the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa.

And, in light of the same Spanish legislation, the limitation to know these names should be justified for reasons of, for example, national security, defense or public security.

Should the Government communicate who forms the committee of experts?

"Of course. The Transparency Law obliges to facilitate the composition of the expert committees and post it on the website of the Transparency Portal . But in the state of alarm the Portal has been loaded, something precisely created to avoid administrative abuse and misrepresentations. An entire country depends on the decision of a committee of experts that we do not know, and I cannot know if they are experts or not because I do not know who they are.The paragraph of the General Law on Public Health seems to be written ad hoc so that we know them. But they have skipped it. " He is Ricardo de Lorenzo , Doctor of Law and President of the Spanish Association of Health Law , and he has an objection to the argument given by Fernando Simón: "His justification is not credible. They pressure you if you are open to pressure. The real reason is not make them known. "

Let us return to article 11 of the Public Health Law: "The requirements for the declaration of conflict of interest by experts will be developed by regulations (...)".

In other words, knowing who they are helps to know if they can be part of such a group or not. Adolfo Aguirre , a lawyer specialized in health law, considers that this team is a technical advisory body and that therefore the decisions taken under his opinions are subject to an appeal. "In order to file a claim or a challenge, it is essential to know who signs the opinion that gives rise to a later decision." "If we do not know who makes up a committee, we do not know if it can be part of it. We do not know if a certain person may have a conflict of interest about what he is going to decide. And, above all, they are people who will help make decisions affecting public health and our freedoms, which are now restricted by the state of alarm. " Aguirre also talks about the pressure: "Yes, the committee members will certainly be pressured by the press. But 100% of society is more pressured by the situation."

The spirit, and the letter, of knowledge is "transparency". The very Law 19/2013 on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance Committee develops a "Transparency Portal" must respond to the information demands of citizens within one month.

So much is the appeal to that informative clarity, that the 33/2011 General Law of Public Health says that the Administration must ask for light and stenographers from their own experts: "The Health Administrations will demand transparency and impartiality from scientific and professional organizations and individuals experts with whom they collaborate in public health actions (...) ".

Rubén Moreno , who was the general director of Public Health in the Aznar and Rajoy governments, maintains that the Pedro Sánchez Executive is obliged: "Although he did not want to, the law requires it. When we presented the plan against hepatitis C, We gave a press conference with all the members of the advisory committee. Some of them were even criticized later. You have to know who advises the subsequent decisions on public health. What if any member has actions in the industry that, for example, manufactures I'm not saying it happens, but obviously, you have to know everything by a principle of transparency. "

Other public health experts, such as Dr. Juan Simó , appeal to values ​​such as "decency" and "cleanliness."

And sources of health law return to transparency in administration with an interesting concept: the control of rationality. "The control canon establishes two rationalities: the material and the formal. The material rationality allows the Administration to limit the information but with criteria of proportionality. The formal rationality forces that the Administration's decisions are based on rational criteria, that is to say Experts. That is why you have to know who they are. And more when your decisions affect the rights of people. Public health is usually limiting individual rights because it protects the community to the detriment of the individual. Therefore there is a specific duty of transparency. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Coronavirus
• Covid 19
• Fernando Simón
• Salvador Illa
• Descaled
• Lack of confidence
• Pedro Sánchez

CongressAll the opposition rejects the government's de-escalation plan: "It is an empty and little concrete euphemism"

PoliticsThe Government pressures the PP: "They will have to answer to the citizens if there is an upturn in cases"

PoliticsThe end of the state of alarm would leave the management of the crisis in the hands of the autonomies