SARJAVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) – Dennis Zikik was on his daily video call with his parents in Bosnia early August when his father said he was probably coming down with a fever. Less than a month later, both of Zikik’s parents died, with the global toll of coronavirus epidemics rising to 1 million.
Zikik says his mother, Safeketa, and father, Muharem, were relatively healthy before he died at the age of 68. They were followers of the regime who practiced social distance in the city of Zenica. Before her father was admitted to the hospital, her mother wore gloves and a face mask while caring for her, but ended up in the same intensive care wing as a Covid-19 patient, Zikik said.
“I saw her on her feet walking to the hospital. Remotely. Protective masks covering our faces, ”he said. “Honestly, I believe it will move forward.”
Yet Zikik and his sister soon discovered that some neighbors and acquaintances had little sympathy for their sudden double loss, but many opinions and, at times, cruel dislike. At one point, a random person taunted siblings at the store, alleging that officers paid to call them coronaviruses who killed their parents.
“How to answer it?” Zikik said.
Bosnia’s coronavirus rebels in recent months, million in a small, poor Balkan country. As the number of confirmed cases of the virus increases by one million, more and more voices are being raised. The comment sections of social media and news websites have become a platform for vicious arguments that sometimes turn into aggressive confrontations.
Some recent studies on coronavirus-related media content in Bosnia, conducted by the independent organization Mediasendra Sarajevo, have concluded that comments on epidemics on news sites are dominated by “offensive and obscene” comments.
“We are now paying the price for our media illiteracy with our education system, our political system, and the neglect of the years,” said Elvira Julik Mujakik, editor-in-chief of Media.Bana magazine online magazine.
A conference hosted by the European Union in Bosnia this week brought together fact-checkers, science journalists and experts from the Balkans and the EU to discuss the epidemic’s disintegration during the epidemic. One of the findings of the incident states: “The damage caused by the fringe ‘scientists’ is extensive and serious. The scientific community in the (Balkan) region does not seem to be strong enough to answer this at present. ”
Coronavirus conspiracy theorists in other parts of the world are also clear that voices denying the virus are likely to resonate further in Bosnia, which has economic, political and social signs from the unnatural ethnic war fought during 1992-95.
The epidemic has exacerbated many of the country’s problems, including a severe shortage of doctors and nurses and corruption in public. Numerous leading public and government officials are under investigation on suspicion of malpractice in the procurement of much-needed medical equipment.
“After years of reliance on the government and public institutions, the public response to the alleged incompetence of our officials in the early days of the coronavirus epidemic will cast doubt on everything they say,” said psychologist Tanja Tankosic-Gert.
These allegations further undermine public confidence in the government’s efforts to stem the spread of the disease in Bosnia. The country has more confirmed cases of the virus than many other countries, but 60% of its approximately 28,000 confirmed cases have been reported since the end of July.
Still, more people across the country tend to bend or ignore the rules of social distance, gather in uncomfortable nearby quarters and take off face masks. At the same time, like many other issues in the country, public discourses around the coronavirus are becoming increasingly divisive, Tankosic-Gert said.
He said, “Black-and-white thinking is becoming so prevalent that we reach the point of complete loss of empathy.
The early August death of 37-year-old philanthropist Belma Soljinin, director of the Institute of Maternal and Child Health in the capital, Sarjevo, sparked days of hot friend online discussions, sparking a few long-standing friendships.
Hours after news broke of Solzhenitsyn’s death, people were flooding through his mother’s personal Facebook account and sharing a post in which he said his daughter, who was hospitalized in the Covid-19 isolation ward late in pregnancy, had died due to doctors. Alleged to be. Negligence
The post virus became a fodder for diners, who quickly took over the conversation.
“Coronavirus is a scam. His mother also says he is not infected, but you just wear your face mask and trust the service they render, ”wrote one person. “When you hide from incompatible viruses, they rip you off, remove the face mask and get rid of it.”
The head of emergency medical care in Sarajevo, Dr. A. Adam Zalihik, said he was convinced that “virus receptors were contributing to the spread of infection and the number of deaths” by reassuring people that they should not wear face masks and should be maintained. Social distance.
“The virus is among us. It infects and kills people, I don’t understand how they can deny it despite all the evidence. How can they sleep at night? Zalihik said.
Basem Pronzavorek, a pulmonologist and director of the COVID-19 hospital in the central city of Tesanj, said people use COVID-19 as “happens to others” or “does not exist” until it is too late.
“Only when their loved ones get sick or die do they realize that the coronavirus is real and very, very dangerous,” Pronzavarak said.
Ira Amira Telek, 38, who is currently recovering from a serious case of COVID-1 of Tesanj-hospital hospital, has all the evidence to deny the deniers: anyone who struggles to breathe Is.
“I thought Covid (-19) was wrong, but look at me now,” Telek said. “Now, I’m sure it’s not wrong.”
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Video journalist Almir Alik contributed from Zenica, Bosnia.
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