Y tu Luna también: Pan y circo: Season 2, Episode 1 – “Access to Healthcare” (2021)

“Season 2” is a slight misnomer, because Pan y circo doesn’t really have a full second season. By virtue of the simple fact that it’s a show about people coming together around a dinner table, filmed in 2019 but released in 2020, that made it difficult to move forward with a second season. As such, the show has only filmed three further “special” episodes, two in the fall of 2021 and one in the summer of 2022. This first special is really set in the “new normal” era, which makes for bittersweet viewing these days.

Understandably, the topic for the episode spends a lot of time looking back on the early days of the pandemic, examining the present in-between period of vaccine rollouts, and thinking ahead to the future. Diego Luna and the guests are concerned, not just with addressing inequalities in healthcare access during the pandemic, but with improving healthcare access in all areas of life for generations to come. Here are some highlights from the episode.

• Just generally, it’s striking to see the COVID mitigation strategies and considerations in effect here. In Luna’s opening narration, he stresses the work the show has done to ensure that they can film in the safest format possible, we see people wearing masks, and several guests participate over Zoom instead of attending the dinner. It’s thoughtful and inclusive in a way that we’ve since almost entirely lost
• The episode includes both a chef and a restauranteur, the latter of whom supplies the drinks for the evening – He mixes a cocktail using sake from his restaurant, billing it as “Japanese sake with a Mexican heart.”
• The first Zoom guest, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., recites a familiar line that makes me want to weep in the present day – “No one is safe here until everyone is safe.” So much for that!
• The ambassador also explains the progress of attempted reforms within the WHO – “We’re trying to clearly establish that public health issues, once they become global, should be considered issues of international safety.”
• I really like this statement from a political scientist – “I’m troubled by this idea that health is only something that allows me to work. Why do I want to be healthy? To be able to work. Otherwise I can’t support my family.”
• A surgeon shares an excellent, succinct quote with the table – “The pandemic has been a triumph of science and the failure of political leadership.”
• One of the developers of the AstraVeneca vaccine, appearing over Zoom, has this to say (again, I weep in the present day) – “First of all, we need to get populations around the world vaccinated. Because we know that if we allow this virus to continue to spread without check in different countries, more mutations will arise, and then those mutant viruses will start to circulate around the world and possibly evade the immunity that we’ve managed to bring about by vaccination—and make things worse for everybody.”
•  An activist in the group discusses the issue of misinformation, noting that Mexico’s traditionally high vaccine uptake has taken a nosedive since the start of the pandemic – “In a country with so much inequality, with so many living in poverty, with no formal education, we need to find a way for everyone, regardless of education level, to come back to the belief that science is good for us. It’s fundamental.”
• A traditional healer contributes over Zoom by looking at the larger systems in the world that impact health – “Capitalism is trying to finish what the colonizers started. Capitalism doesn’t care about death and destruction or if it causes greater poverty.”
• I like this remark from the surgeon – “Even across party lines, we can agree on what we want. We may differ on how, but if you agree on the what, the rest can be worked out.”

Luna does a nice job with his hosting duties here. Again, it’s something of a balm to see him considering the safety and health of his guests, even as it’s disappointing to think about how much we’ve lost in the last few years. As for the dinner conversation, he tells the guests, “The nice thing about eating is that, while we chew, we have to listen. Unlike social media, where everyone yells and no one listens.”

As usual, Luna takes a light hand in directing the conversation, although he has some longer remarks to make at the end of the evening. I enjoy some of his lighter comments. One guest, the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, takes issue with the prevailing opinion that the government fumbled their pandemic response and urges everyone to ask people in government about the actions they’ve taken. Not missing a beat, Luna responds, “They won’t take our calls.” And when the surgeon repeatedly grades the meal’s courses, giving everything an A, Luna tells him, “I’m going to invite you for every episode.”