Daniel Lopez Rosetti cannot walk more than two or three steps through the corridors of the Central Hospital of San Isidro without being stopped. Patients, their visitors or other colleagues: everyone wants to say hello to this cardiologist who has been coming to their homes for years through radio and TV, as a columnist for Telefe and Radio Miter, where he is recognized for explaining in a clear and concrete way all kinds of medical topics. He has also spent years spreading the knowledge of him through books, with best sellers like “Clinical History 1”, “Clinical History 2” and “Balance: how we think, how we feel, how we say”. These days just released “Stress, suffering and happiness” (Planeta), tackling a topic that he is passionate about and in which in fact he stands out in the hospital: he directs the Stress Medicine Service, the only one in the country to treat this syndrome in such a comprehensive way. “Stress is nothing other than suffering, and the basis of the work has to do with the Buddha’s statement that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. In suffering one plays a role, and that is stress”, he describes.
News: Is stress the real pandemic of this century?
Daniel López Rosetti: Yes, I have no doubt, because a number of pathologies emerge from it. One of the most frequent symptoms is anxiety, and it rides with depression, there is never one or the other isolated. These two conditions are avoided and that is the phenomenon of stress syndrome.
News: At what point did you go from office doctor to disseminator of these issues?
Lopez Rosetti: I consider myself a chronic student and I always had teaching activity, even before starting college. Today I do it at the University of Buenos Aires, at the Favaloro University, at the Argentine Medical Association, at the Maimonides University and at the San Isidro Hospital. The subject of stress syndrome from human physiology interested me since I was a student and I developed it. I came to the media assisting journalists, because it is one of the most stressful tasks. And one day they called me to appear on the radio, because they liked me to speak simply. Today I have two large offices: Telefe and Radio Miter, and on the other side there are many patients. At the same time, although I started late on social networks, today between all of them I have about 4 million followers.
News: He calmly communicates public health issues. Don’t you feel that in the media there were people in these years of pandemic who did it through fear?
López Rosetti: I saw doctors who were frightening, and that seems frankly negative to me. The truth can be told in different ways. Tita Merello used to say “girl, get a Pap smear” and she generated a change in the woman’s behavior. I like to transmit tranquility by saying what is medically competent, with a calm voice and without frightening. You have to know the responsibility involved in speaking in a medium and prevent makeup from going to the frontal lobe. It helps me to be a hospital doctor, because I treat simple people, and that’s how I speak.
News: Two years after the pandemic, do you feel that we did things right?
Lopez Rosetti: No, but you also have to transport yourself to the moment this appeared. No one knew where it ended. In the hospital it was quite an issue, I had to integrate the crisis committee, with which I learned a lot. When this started we were scared. Then everything became clear. In the hospital we even did the mate ceremony to say goodbye to that habit. And now we are looking forward to welcoming you back.
News: Did we get out of hand with isolation?
López Rosetti: Yes, clearly. Especially at the school level. I said it on TV, I did not agree and that closure seemed premature to me. In epidemiology, borders are porous, we men are all interconnected and the story of 100 years ago does not count today, this is a totally different pandemic due to communications. Fortunately, the scientific epic of having a vaccine at 10 months and being able to manufacture them for the entire world occurred.
News: But there are still places in the world with very low vaccination, such as Africa.
Lopez Rosetti: I always insisted that we all live in the same boat. Everyone has to have vaccines, the 7,500 million inhabitants, that is, 15,000 million vaccines for two doses. That too is part of the “technical miracle”.
News: Having so much presence in the media and with a voice that people respect a lot, were you tempted to do politics?
López Rosetti: Many times, for a long time. But politics is not for me. They have offered it to me from all the parties. One has something internal of wanting to collaborate with something else, but I don’t like the actions of traditional politicians.
News: Although there are doctors in politics who have deserved the outcry from all sectors, such as Fernán Quirós in a pandemic…
Lopez Rosetti: I think it was extremely important. I found it superlative for simplicity, humility, capacity for work. It was very important. But I don’t see myself in a political role.
News: How is your routine? He occupies many roles…
Lopez Rosetti: I am quite organized. Seneca said that life is short for those who do not take advantage of time. We all have a mission, which is to develop our own skills and abilities. And that is to dignify the task and the work. Time is not enough for me, I would like to live several lives, but I enjoy what I have. I have my leisure spaces and I also confuse pleasure with work, because when I write, I enjoy it.
News: And what else do you enjoy doing in your spare time besides working?
López Rosetti: I am an airplane pilot, although I am not currently flying. I have enjoyed it very much, it gave me the technical, the adventure, the freedom, knowing places. I went twice to Malvinas, I crossed the Andes, very powerful things. And now I settle for riding a motorcycle.
