Cantinfleando - El Comercio de Colorado

Jesús Sánchez Meleán

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I’m more than certain that everybody understands what the expression “Cantinflear” (talking gibberish/ waffling) means, since its initial inclusion in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE, by its abbreviation in Spanish) in 2011. Whomever is “cantifleando” or “cantinflea”, is the one who “speaks or acts in a preposterous and inconsistent manner without saying anything of substance.”

The word has a negative connotation. However, with the term being coined and elevated to the Royal Spanish Academy dictionary (RAE), it implies an homage to the work of the Mexican comedian, Mario Moreno. This artist’s cinematic character “Cantinflas” will be forever in the language of Spanish speakers, in current and future generations, truly an accomplishment.

And it’s for this reason that I’m totally convinced that any Hispanic American can easily identify public characters that “cantinflean” (talk gibberish). In my view, this is the case with Stephen Hahn, director at The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Robert Redfield, director at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It’s a sad fact having to assert that Hahn and Redfield “cantinflean”. They are both at the forefront of the FDA and CDC, respectively, which are two institutions that have earned an international prestige due to their flawless performance. Both abbreviations are a benchmark of credibility and certainty. And on the other hand, both are experts in the medical arena, Hahn as an oncologist and Redfield as a virologist.

In my opinion, Redfield has not honored the seriousness of the institution he leads. In his best “Cantinflas” mode, this doctor hasn’t managed to make himself understood when it comes to proper guidelines, so that the schools in the US operate with healthiness and security while there’s a battle against COVID-19.

The CDC director presented some guidelines at the beginning of May. President Trump disqualified those guidelines because they were “too expensive to be implemented”. And immediately after, Redfield immediately retracted the guidelines. And this is when Redfield, showing himself trembling, could not explain the reasons for presenting new guidelines that were more flexible.

Another “cantiflérico” (glibberish) act of Redfield’s was his abrupt change of mind regarding COVID-19 tests. Since the beginning of April, all centers of the CDC began inviting people who were exposed to COVID-19 but did not present symptoms to take the tests. Suddenly, in the last week of August, Redfield was once again seen as inconsistent when broaching the topic.

This virologist came out to inform the public that at that very moment all asymptomatic people were forbidden from taking the COVID-19 test. He said that it did not matter that is what he himself had been saying during previous months. The most skeptical came to think that Redfield wanted once again to echo President Trump, who wanted to reduce the number of tests for the virus.

And Redfield went on to “cantinflear” once again. A few days later, he came out again to contradict himself. The virologist had to recall the asymptomatic so that they could go to centers to get tested for COVID-19. But Redfield does not have a monopoly on the “cantinfleadas” (gibberish things). His colleague, the FDA director, also delivers.

Without batting an eye, Hahn urgently authorized the use of hydroxychloroquine, a medicine promoted by President Trump to cure the effects of the virus. A couple of days later, and after the complaint established by the medical union due to the lack of scientific evidence, Hahn had to come out to say that he suspended the use of hydroxychloroquine. His message was unintelligible.

And this oncologist did not learn the meaning of the “cantinflear” term. Escorted by President Trump, he spoke wonders about the unusual therapy of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients. In the tangle of his words he said that this therapy was approved because it was proven that it can reduce up to 35 percent of the number of fatal cases of the virus.

Again, Hahn got tangled in his own words. This time around, without Trump next to him, Hahn said he was wrong in using the 35 percent statistics. And the only thing that anybody could make of it was that “all the criticism that you formed against me for having authorized the use of plasma was entirely justified.”

The problem with this “cantinfleo” (talking gibberish) is that in hands of these “cantinfléricos” (Cantiflas-ish) characters, lies the authorization to apply some vaccines against COVID-19. With this background of Redfield and Hahn, what guarantees does the public have about the certainty of this vaccine? What if they make it mandatory to get the vaccine and days later, they say that they did not have enough conclusive tests about its effectiveness? This is not a game.