Today, April 22, it is 150 years since the birth of V. I. Lenin, the brilliant follower of Marx and Engels, a leading figure of the workers' and communist movement and of the contemporary World History, leader of the first victorious proletarian revolution and founder of the first socialist state - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

If it is true that we are living in times of great complexity and uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, which require preventive measures, expanding the National Health Service's capacity of response and protection in order to reduce and minimise its impacts on the health and life of the Portuguese, it is no less true that alongside this virus we face another one, also one of unpredictable dimensions and consequences, the virus that attacks workers' rights and increases exploitation.

We are facing a time of great complexities and uncertainties. The existing scientific evidence, but also everything that is still unknown to the scientific community about the new coronavirus, makes it urgent to combat Covid-19, reducing and minimizing its impacts on the health and life of the Portuguese, and placing as first priority the adoption of preventive measures, of expanding the capacity to respond of the National Health Service and protecting those most at risk while combating the spread of the disease and the necessary clinical response.

1. The epidemic outbreak of Covid-19 and the measures necessary to prevent and combat it, have brought to the fore the importance of defending public services, in particular a public, universal and just Social Security, an important pillar of our democracy.