Fernando Simón Soria, an epidemiologist, and doctor from Spain interposed a sexist remark on nurses during an interview on YouTube with Iker and Eneko Pou on 30th October 2020. He is currently serving as the Director of the CCAES, Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health.
In the course of the interview, he was asked a question to which he, as an Emergency Health Services Chief, gave an undignified answer infuriating the General Counsel of Nurses. His disgraceful comment has stirred up a controversy. The nurses vituperate him calling his comment “sexist and mortifying”. According to them, such outrageous utterance by a person of Simón’s station, that too, for the people who are putting themselves out and holding the fort for the whole nation during this time of crisis, is very degrading and vexatious. They are also insisting him to expiate for his deplorable deed.
Not only the General Counsel of Nurses, but also some other personalities condemned him for his words. Carmen Calvo, the first vice-president of the government, urged him to apologise for his indiscretion. Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Minister of the Interior, berated him for his inanity stating if a tactful person like him can possess such notions about the women, what can be said about the society. While some of them are awaiting his apology, the others are asking him to clarify his statement.
To put an end to this controversy, Fernando, on Tuesday, softened the blow by apologising to the nurses’ guild and all the people who were deeply distressed because of his contemptible remark. He said that he regrets replying to a ridiculous joke in a very inappropriate way which does not foster a feeling of regard and equality for women. Such an answer by him has mocked the sentiments of a lot of people and he is truly apologetic for the same. “I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn even after so many years of experience” exclaimed Simón before beginning a press-conference on pandemic data of Spain.
