COVID-19 crisis: epidemiological and social perspective of an unprecedented pandemic in our lives

Increasing globalization drives complex human, biological and commercial interactions that affect the way we live and get sick. The pandemic risk that has appeared with the COVID-19 had already been anticipated by many institutions and experts, yet our governments and decision-makers have not prepared themselves sufficiently. This has meant that the devastating epidemic we have suffered has caught our entire system off guard. The SARS in 2003 and the MERS in 2012 were previous warnings of coronavirus mutations that presented a worrying infectivity and lethality, although they managed to be controlled with public health measures. On this occasion, the arrogance of many of our countries has meant that although the pandemic was coming progressively and announced, we did not do enough to prepare and strengthen the health system and public health. In this paper, we basically review the etiological agent, the incubation period, the mechanisms of transmission, the risk factors, the summarized clinical manifestations, the epidemiological analysis of the situation (including incidence or new cases, mortality and lethality, and estimating the excess mortality associated with the COVID-19), and the confinement and gradual stages of de-escalation. From the social point of view, the vulnerable groups that have been particularly affected by COVID-19 in Spain are identified. The article concludes by reviewing preventive medicine and public health measures in the face of COVID-19. This is articulated through the measures of basic hygiene and to investigate what we can expect from primary prevention through the mechanism of immunization that can provide us with vaccines. In the final part, the problem is discussed in order to develop, select, prioritize, and distribute these vaccines as a universal good, and it is emphasized that for now, and while we lack vaccines, our obligation is to continue insisting on hygiene and… on healthy behaviors. And to emphasize the importance of education for a better world.