“The tractor will cure everyone from coronavirus”: why Belarus refused quarantine
“I call this coronavirus nothing else but an psychosis and I will never refuse it,” says Alexander Lukashenko.
The authorities of Belarus reacted to a dangerous disease in a different way. School children continue to attend classes, mass events are held, including a football championship, army exercises. Minsk left the borders open (but all neighbors closed them). Izvestia understood the causes and possible consequences of such inaction.
Vodka as a cure against the virus
The number of people infected with coronavirus in Belarus on April 23 reached 11,289. According to the Ministry of Health, 1,740 patients recovered and there are 79 deaths.
In neighboring countries, the situation is similar. In Ukraine, the virus has killed 220 people. Kiev has taken unprecedented security measures. Closed metro, shopping centers, restaurants, canceled classes in schools, intercity and international transport links. Limited urban traffic.
In Belarus, on the other hand, the situation regarding the pandemic is more relaxed.
- Despite some criticism, I call this coronavirus only psychosis and I will never refuse it, because I have already experienced many such situations with you, and we know what this led to. I am absolutely convinced that this is another psychosis that will be beneficial for someone and harm someone, says Alexander Lukashenko.
According to the Belarusian leader, one should not panic, but "just work."
- Especially now, in the countryside, it's nice to watch on TV: people work on a tractor, no one talks about the virus. The tractor will cure everyone. The field heals everyone, ”he says.
For prevention, Lukashenko suggested washing his hands more often, having breakfast, lunch and dinner on time, as well as going to the bathhouse and drinking vodka.
- I’m a non-drinker, but recently I’m jokingly saying that vodka should not only wash your hands, but, probably, on the day of 40-50 g in terms of pure alcohol - poison this virus. But not at work, the president advises.
There is no need to do anything
Belarusian students continue to attend classes. They were not transferred to distance learning, nor were they announced early vacations.
- Old people suffer, not children. Why do we now declare a holiday so that these children go to grandparents. Old people under 80 years old, over 80 years old: “Ah! Grandson arrived. ” We will kill the elderly! Therefore, there is nothing to do, says Lukashenko.
University students continue to study, including at BSU, where infected people were identified. Only the Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU) declared quarantine for two weeks, but the pause ended on March 15.
Students at the same time refuse to attend lectures.
- "In my group of 30 people, only 4–5 go to classes” says a student at the Minsk Linguistic University.
Mass events are held. The Belarus Football Championship remains the only championship in Europe. Moreover, matches are held with the audience. On March 20, 3.6 thousand people watched the game between the Brest Dynamo and Smolevichs, and one thousand spectators watched the battle of the Minsk Dynamo and RUH.
On March 23, the active phase of a comprehensive verification of the combat and mobilization readiness of the Armed Forces began. 6 thousand people took part in the maneuvers, including one thousand from the reserve. As part of the audit, border security is being tested, anti-tank systems, artillery, MLRS, and aviation are used. Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Makarov says the exercise program has not changed because of the coronavirus.
Belarus left the borders open. The irony, however, is that all neighbors closed the borders in turn. First, Ukraine took restrictive measures, then Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, and the last - on the night of March 17-18, Russia. Moscow explained that Minsk is ignoring the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Minsk Airport is not as active as before. Canceled 70 flights to Europe and Asia. According to journalists, a third of Belavia's planes are on the ground.
Passengers, however, are seen at the carefree airport staff. - They don’t check the temperature, they don’t ask what country they flew through, they don’t take any tests for coronavirus, there are no thermal scanners. Nothing at all. You take a suitcase and you leave, ”one of the passengers says.
The officials do not greatly reassure the citizens of the country. The situation is getting difficult by economic difficulties. In the third week of March alone, the national currency fell 9.35% against the dollar (22 kopecks).
There was a stir in the shops.
- Selling everything that is cheaper. And not only from the category of "necessary", but also from the category "let it be." Great demand for buckwheat, rice, pasta, vegetable oil. Take tea, coffee for future use. “Hapun” has been going on for several days, we only have time to lay out the goods on the shelves, the manager of one of the retail chains told reporters.
Queues are also noticed in household appliance stores.
- The demand for TVs, refrigerators and other large household appliances has grown, as is usually the case with our devaluations. Those who need it anyway buy it, but they put off the purchase. Buyers are well aware that then it will be more expensive, ”says the seller.
Several dozen petitions appeared on the Internet demanding quarantine. One of them collected 16 thousand signatures.
Experts say that the introduction of quarantine is has many negative psychological effects.
- Lukashenko has long been creating the image of Belarus as an island of stability and security. To a certain extent, he became a hostage to this picture of the world, ”political scientist Valery Karbalevich says to Izvestia.
Belarusian analyst Dmitry Bolkunets explains the behavior of Minsk with a set of political and economic reasons. According to him, companies and educational institutions are not ready for the transition to a remote mode of operation.
- For this, there is no experience, no funds, no online colaboration platforms. The quarantine will lead to a halt in the industry, and this is an additional cost, the source said.
According to expert estimates, the introduction of quarantine, together with a collapse in world markets, will lead to a reduction in republican exports by 30–40%, and a drop in GDP by 20%.
- This year the presidential elections in Belarus will be held. It is clear that the deterioration of the economic crisis will anger the electorate. Therefore, it was decided to pretend that there is no infection, as the Bolkunets emphasizes.
The President of Belarus says he sees zero benefits from imposing quarantine in the country
Quarantine measures introduced in Russia and other countries due to the spread of coronavirus pandemix will not give any positive result. Such an opinion was expressed by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday, April 26.
“They tried to isolate the virus in Russia. Did it worked? No. And we are the same as in Russia. You cannot isolate us, ”Lukashenka said during a live broadcast at the Belarus 1 television channel.
According to Lukashenko, under quarantine, "someone in isolation is sick, they are pulled out of there, treated while everyone is sitting in these apartments."
“Now they have opened the gate - people have come out. And the people infected by this virus is going up again. And the second wave of incidence will turn out. The first one didn’t go away, and the second wave will cover them wither, ”the Belarusian leader believes.
Therefore, according to him, he “decided to go his own way,” reports TASS.
The number of people infected with coronavirus in Belarus over the past 24 hours has increased by 873 people and reached 10,463; 72 patients died in the country. Due to coronavirus, no quarantine has been introduced in Belarus; preparations are underway for the Victory Day parade. From April 20, the schools have been opened
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended quarantine and curfews. However, President Alexander Lukashenko refused to close state borders, calling this measure utter stupidity, and also condemned some other preventive measures, including the closure of churches.
"You cannot milk cows remotely" - Lukashenko’s reason not to impose quarantine in Belarus
Experts believe that the situation with the coronavirus epidemic in Belarus is at the point where an urgent decision is needed. The number of cases began to increase by 30-40% per day.
The population of Belarus begins to complain against the fact that the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko, does not introduce any quarantine measures in the country, but, on the contrary, practically denies the existence of an epidemic. Residents made a petition calling on the authorities to quarantine. It has already been signed by more than 150 thousand people.
Moreover, the son of a resident of Polotsk, who died of pneumonia, Lidia Matveeva, who was diagnosed with a coronavirus, wrote a statement to the police demanding to institute criminal proceedings against the president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Economist Aleksnadr Rogers believes that it is too early to talk about the alarming situation, Lukashenko still has time to maneuver.
Here the situation is not simple: Alexander Grigorievich is a stubborn man, if he has decided something, he will not give up. So I'm not sure that he will make another decision. But, on the other hand, it’s also impossible to say exactly how much sick, the tests in Belarus are few, the influx of patients, a certain critical mass is also not observed, and the statement to the police is, excuse me, a cry of the soul, one can only sympathize with a person, - says Rogers.
The expert noted that, according to rumors, an epidemic has been going on in Belarus for a long time, and the death toll is increasing, they just make doctors hide everything, but it is not possible to verify the plausibility of such statements.
Alexander Lukashenko himself laughs at the quarantine question, saying that you can enter quarantine in 24 hours, but "who will feed us" or that "cows on a remote place do not milk."
Political analyst Dmitry Rodionov believes that he has no other option.
Lukashenko will pull to the very last. It’s hard to say where the hell is, when he realizes that you can’t do without quarantine. He may try to hide it, somehow manipulate data, but corpses are corpses. You can’t hide them, ”says Rodionov. - This is a double-edged sword: Russia can survive the quarantine - we have reserves, but Belarus has a small economy, and the country is not rich. You look at America, there over a month already ten million have lost their jobs. And in Belarus, and 100 thousand unemployed enough to start a crisis.
Rodionov believes that the key to this pandemic is the very free manipulation of the number of deaths. On the one hand, it is possible to call all victims of the coronavirus its victims, on the other hand, the death toll from the virus can be underestimated in the same way, transferring death to other causes. Whether Lukashenko adheres to one of these strategies, time will tell.
Dmitry Rodionov noted that elections will be held in Belarus this August, so the absence of economic disruptions is one of the priorities of domestic Belarusian policy.
It cannot be said when Lukashenko will change his attitude towards the epidemic and whether it will, however, most likely, in April it will become clear how the epidemic will go across Belarus. So, Russia should also be ready for such a development of events, since Belarus, despite the specific relations in the field of hydrocarbons, remains our main ally and brotherly country, ”he added.
The publicist Anatoly Wasserman, on the contrary, believes that it makes no sense to cheat with numbers, since the result will be exactly the opposite.
- To hide such things is more expensive. When they try to hide something, they distort the picture for themselves, which means they do not have the information necessary for making decisions. By the way, historians therefore trust the documents of internal reporting more. I note that many quarantine measures in Belarus have been taken for a long time. Borders are controlled by neighbors, even with Russia, transit flows have been supervised from the very beginning, much is already being done.
Also, according to him, there is no consensus among epidemiologists on which system to combat this infection is the best. So Belarusians could experiment.
Everyone is talking about Coronavirus (COVID-19) and everywhere there is information about the virus and how to protect yourself from it.
The coronavirus is spreading to more and more countries, air traffic with the whole world is interrupted, those who have been abroad are self-isolating, resorts, shopping and entertainment centers, cafes and restaurants are closing. Every day, the news of the coronavirus pandemic snowballs.
In response, photoshoots, memes, and funny videos are spreading at the same speed on the Internet, and entrepreneurs are beginning to redesign production and release creative "anti-coronavirus" products.
Being in this situation, again in quarantine, there was nothing left to do but joke. Bemorepanda has collected the top of the funniest memes and jokes.
1.Coronavirus lockdown
2.Lets go, man!
3.No eating
4.Dont ever go
5.My dog and quarantine
6.Gamers be like
7.Normal lifestyle
8.Pep talk
9.You know the rules
10.Because of corona
11.Not coming down
12.Waiting
13.My travel plans
14.Before and after
15.Lockdown 2020
16.Isolating is your ally?
17.Day 25 of quarantine
18.Remember the time
19.Man=Bush
20.Right now
21.Any mask
22.Oh yeah!
23.Novel Coronavirus
24.Birthday in March
25.Turining ito potatos
26.What year it will stop?
27.Corona is a person
28.Uno game +4
29.Mood for everyday
30.All day the same
31.Full effect
32.All is on fire
33.Protesting again coronavirus
34.That would be great
35.Me in quarantine
36.It's gonna be may
37.Coronials
38.Can't be alone
39.Titanic be like 2020
40.Coronavirus be like
The COVID-19 pandemic could have killed 40 million deaths by the end of 2020 in the absence of any preventative measures, according to Imperial College London (UK).
Researchers included a number of scenarios, such as
- What would have happened if the world had not reacted to COVID-19,
- Two scenarios incorporating social distancing, which result in a single-peaked epidemic
- And several scenarios for suppressing the spread of the disease that can have the largest overall impact in terms of reducing disease and deaths.
It is noted that ignoring all security measures would lead to a worse development of the coronavirus epidemic and infection of seven billion people. This number would be halved if the number of contacts had been reduced by 40 percent for children, young people and adults, and 60 percent for older people.
Dr Patrick Walker, an author of the report from Imperial, said: "We estimate that the world faces an unprecedented acute public health emergency in the coming weeks and months. Our findings suggest that all countries face a choice between intensive and costly measures to suppress transmission or risk health systems becoming rapidly overwhelmed. However, our results highlight that rapid, decisive and collective action now will save millions of lives in the next year"
The study shows that poor countries will lose far more people than developed ones. A press release from the British university emphasizes that the problem of COVID-19 is common to all countries on Earth.
The modelling showed that implementing measures early on can have a dramatic impact.
If all countries were to adopt this strategy at 0.2 deaths per 100,000 population per week, 95 per cent of the deaths could be averted, saving 38.7 million lives.
However, if this strategy is adopted later (1.6 deaths per 100,000 population per week), then this figure drops to 30.7 million.
In March, Chinese experts published a study in JAMA Cardiology, which claimed that diseases of the cardiovascular system increases mortality by almost 4.5 times from coronavirus.
The French, Spaniards, Czechs and Germans took off their masks to drink a cold beer on the terrace
The week of May 11-15 is an important one for many European countries! Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria and the Czech Republic are among the first to start the "great relaxation" of the restrictive measures imposed by COVID-19. Even if the rules imposed by the authorities are simple, no one respected the social distance and did not keep his mask on when he reached the terraces.
WHO experts and local authorities have imposed four simple rules of countries trying to return to normal:
1. keep a social distance of 1.5 meters;
2. to impose frequent hand washing;
3. to impose the wearing of protective masks in public spaces;
4. to do everything possible to prevent social overcrowding.
None of these rules have been followed since Monday in the main European countries.
The banks of the Seine were flooded by thousands of Parisians eager to socialize after being isolated for more than 50 days. The beautiful weather erased with the sponge from the collective memory the devastating balance caused by COVID-19: 178,000 sick and 27,000 dead. But they were not the only Europeans to "relax" over a beer.
In Prague, Czech Republic, thousands of locals took advantage of the beautiful weather and drank huge amounts of beer right on the sidewalks. However, only 8,200 contaminations and 260 deaths were recorded in the Czech Republic, due to prompt action by the authorities.
The Belgians also forgot about masks for months, but they respected social distance. They drank their beers in the parks, because the terraces and bars are still closed. Belgium recorded 54,000 illnesses and 8,800 deaths.
The terraces were also opened in Switzerland on Monday, after the authorities announced the balance of the two months of nightmare: 30,000 contaminations and 1,800 deaths.
The terraces and promenades in Madrid, Barcelona and Tarragona were stormed and people drank cold beer forgetting that they are not allowed to gather in groups of 10 people and must wear masks.
After recording a record balance of 270,000 contaminations and over 27,000 deaths, Spain's population of 47 million seems to ignore the recommendations of the government led by Pedro Sanchez, which recommends caution. “The temptation of a cold beer is too great and no one thinks about the consequences ".
The Austrians were more cautious than their German neighbors and have not yet opened the terraces and bars, preferring to drink beer in the parks at the appropriate distance. In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the restaurants opened on Saturday, but only two people sat at the tables and drank beer in a mug with surgical gloves in their hands.