After all the incoherence in management, we paradoxically arrived at the narrative that declared the corona virus “dead.” An intolerable mistake, but moreover, it is determined by the dismantling of the government earlier, when it allowed it to be included in the calculations with political spices. The dissent of the Minister of Health that “the virus is still among us” will not be enough for the comprehensive dissolution of the trust. It seems that we are moving beyond a magical reality, where scientific thought comes as a tickling joke!
Author: Bardhyl Zaimi
Each time has its own challenges and responsibilities. Especially the time we go through. It is not normal time and as such, we must understand it. The time of the war with Covid 19 does not tolerate political acrobatics, nor the ease of interpretation by anyone, because the last word on the situation we are in and the presence of the risk of the virus “persistent” must be said by professionals in the field, doctors, experts of medicine, biology, etc., who know best from all to read the reality displayed as a threat to everyone’s life.
After a long period of isolation, due to the corona virus, it is more than normal for people to already feel bored, deprived of many things, especially deprived of the opportunity to ensure their existence. There is already a long period of self-isolation, which is reflected in their social life, but above all in their well-being. This is so understandable, especially when we consider that the government failed to provide coherent measures of assistance to citizens and failed to properly manage this whole situation, which further left room for various interpretations that no longer had to do only with the economy, but erupted in forms of distrust of the whole perception of pandemic.
The moment the government allowed other factors to be implicated in the perception and management of the coronavirus, such as religious communities, it really gave up its competencies, its seriousness to manage like all other countries with pandemics. The government failed to create a functional coordination in terms of perceiving and managing the crisis with the corona virus, thus creating space for the emergence of alternative interpretations unfounded in science, in fact based on the frivolity of actors impregnated with fake news, which throughout time have been present in large quantities in the media space.
Without a well-thought-out strategy, with accidental and tolerant discussions of other actors seeking their own presence and power in pandemic times, the government allowed real, objective, and scientific discourse on the presence and risk of the virus to be decomposed. Both in terms of measures and in terms of information as fair and comprehensive as possible, the government failed to impose a framework of real risk reception, because somewhere in the peaks of power, political games, electoral calculations were emerging and not vital interest of the citizens.
These are the faults of the government during this time, which are not the only ones that have created this situation of deep distrust. The inertia of political and governing distrust that earlier, over the years, in some way, was reflected in this period of pandemic, which should mark another stage of citizen-government, or citizen-political relations. It was precisely these weaknesses in crisis management that were exploited by various speculators, by certain media outlets, which gave them space, but also stimulated the false news of major conspiracies against the corona virus.
In the absence of media education, fair perceptions, the ability to distinguish what is false and what is good information, a large number of citizens have fallen prey to these distortions, which appear in various forms of benefits that remain too difficult to guide in the coordinates of scientific explanations. Moreover, all of this is already reflected in an increase in the number of cases of coronavirus infection, at a time when a gradual opening was really needed.
It is these “black holes” of tolerance and political calculations that have made it possible to completely distort reality with the corona virus, which is no longer known to end. Despite this, the irresponsible situation of the citizens was prompted by the frivolous debate on the elections, which also created a very wrong perception that everything ended with the corona virus. The climax of this misinterpretation was not long in coming, and we should not be surprised why a spiritual leader had already declared the virus “dead.” For the comedy to be played to the end, the response of the Minister of Health in the form of a ‘diss’ from the rappers that “the virus is here among us” and did not disappear.
There are no longer any dilemmas that due to mutual irresponsibility, the possibility of overcoming the crisis with the corona virus will last in North Macedonia. What should have been overcome as a situation is already returning with potential danger. While other countries in the region mark the opening stage with very few cases and in some countries with zero new cases, we have a situation of proliferation and increased active cases.
When a government and politics play with other calculations and do not focus entirely on the vital commitment to come out with as little damage as possible from the limitations of pandemic, the result always remains disappointing. All these “black holes” of management, unfortunately, created and continue to create space for unscrupulous people, who endanger an entire process of protection from the corona virus. All other citizens are already caught between the pressure of two banalities, that of the government that allowed other calculations in pandemic times and a part of the egocentric and irresponsible citizens, that at the time when everyone was put in defense of human life, they chose unreasonable stubbornness to violate the measures and thus make unclear the duration of the presence of the “enemy” which is also stubborn.