About the “critical reflections” on the Municipal Epidemiological Resilience Index

In June 2021, a group of renowned Colombian scholars submitted to your Journal1 an article with some reflections on the Municipal Epidemiological Resilience Index (IREM by its acronym in Spanish) proposed by the Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection as a tool for decision-making in the country’s territories to boost economic reactivation and overcome the social and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to take advantage of this space to provide some analytical and interpretative insights on these reflections with the aim of enriching the discussion.

Reply to the letter to the editor entitled “About the ‘critical reflections’ on the Municipal Epidemiological Resilience Index”

We greatly appreciate the comments made by Rojas-Botero et al.1 on our paper entitled “Critical reflections on the Municipal Epidemiological Resilience Index used for public policy decision-making regarding the control of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia”.2 We acknowledge that public health, understood as the well-being of the community, should be the focus of all our efforts as health professionals. In this sense, decision-making amid a major emergency, such as the one we are currently experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a balanced and calm judgment that considers both the general context and local specificities, as well as the best available scientific evidence, that is, evidence that not only supports decisions, but also prioritizes benefits over risks.