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The total number of people with coronavirus in Belarus is almost 26 thousand. In the last week before the event, the number of patients increased in geometric progression. At least that’s what the official data says.
The worst that happened in the recent history of independent Belarus before the coronavirus was the gradual death of the institutes that ensured genuine democratic elections. The worst that is happening now is the deaths from COVID-19.
The acquisition of collective immunity is one of the hypotheses not confirmed in practice. The world is waiting for the vaccine. And it is for this reason that countries whose governments feel responsible for and can control society have introduced quarantine or at least abandoned mass events.
In all channels, the Belarusian Ministry of Health announces that patients suffering from various chronic diseases are dying from COVID-19. Relatives of the deceased show death reports to independent media indicating the new coronavirus, but not as the main cause of death. Some simply cannot believe the wording of the ministry and claim that their loved ones suffered no comorbidity.
The decision on how many people will become infected and ill, including the lack of quarantine and the organization of mass events, is a purely political one. It is accepted by the supreme government.
The parade is not the most dangerous event, virologists say: President Lukashenko explained the chosen format of the Victory Day celebration with such a rational character (if we compare it with Easter services in the house of prayer).
Emotional ideological statements were made at the parade: “In today’s crazy and historical world, there are people who condemn us for the place and time of this inspiring activity. I want to tell you in a simple human way: don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions, much less condemn us, the descendants of Victoria, the Belarusians … We simply could not have done otherwise, we had no choice … (…) “.
We were not in a hurry. We were in no hurry to systematize all the comments and resonance. Humanly.
Those who were sincerely in favor of the parade, and certainly there were, and those who came because they were forced despite the president’s public statement that “we will not remove anything by force,” gathered a maximum of 15,000. Five years ago, almost 600,000 people participated in Victory Day events. people.
No official foreign delegation participated in the parade this year. Less than half of the accredited ambassadors in Belarus attended. Of the Member States of the European Union, only the heads of the diplomatic missions of Slovakia and Hungary. Russia was represented by Ambassador Dmirtiy Mezencev. The parade was not broadcast on any Russian state channel.
Belarusian state television reported that the broadcast from Minsk was watched by residents of more than 80 countries.
Judging by the comments left on the parade’s webcast, we can limit ourselves to two theses: “Putin’s nose was wiped” and “Now Belarusians, not Russians, descendants of the Great Victory.”
Putin himself participated in a chamber ceremony (compared to what was conceived before pandemic-adjusted plans) for Victory Day in Moscow in the rain.
During a parade in Minsk, Lukashenko appeared as a character in a Soviet film: an extended commander leading soldiers into battle. And he also expressed such a parallel on the eve of the celebration. Supposedly, we were at war and we were not afraid of any viruses there.
The worst thing that threatened those who refused to participate in the parade was the loss of promised vouchers or other privileges.
Glory to the Belarusians and personally to A. Lukashenko – “Great people, duly commemorated Victory Day, not like those frightened neighbors of East and West” on May 9 and the following day there were praise from the channel reports Belarusian state television.
What awaits you at the end of the show’s incubation period?
The incubation period for the new coronavirus is from five days to three weeks, according to different estimates. Although somewhat remarkable in the global media sphere, foreign media sources wrote little about the parade in Minsk. And for a specific reason, the new coronavirus pandemic, which gave European governments a pretext to cancel massive events.
What awaits the country that decided to celebrate the festive parade on May 9, I asked the readers of BelGazeta. Of the five responses in the online version, the majority (47%) chose the “not good” option. In second place in terms of the number of voters (42%) was the variant: “new wave of coronavirus”.
Experts from the Minsk Center for Strategic and Domestic Policy Research speculate that “the reluctance to abandon mass events, including the May 9 Victory Day parade and concert in the traditional format (rather than remotely), has chosen the most pessimistic scenario possible for a possible epidemiological situation. “
The same experts predict: “There is still a week to prepare the national health care system for the peak of the workload, as well as all state institutions, with all the relevant information and political consequences. Other games with morbidity and mortality statistics will become much more complex and dangerous, since it will be almost impossible to hide true information. The most important element of the social contract, the government’s ability to take care of the health and well-being of the country’s population, will also receive a particularly severe blow. “
Control both the epidemic and anyone who disagrees with government policy.
For more than a week, new cases of coronavirus in Belarus have increased by a thousand every day. Lukashenko and his health officials say in public that everything is normal and under control in Belarus. Everything is said to go according to forecast, both the spread of the epidemic and the number of deaths.
“The Belarusian Ministry of Health has raised the limits of the body temperature standard to 38 degrees.” The Belarusian Ministry of Public Information has denied this message and has done so on a website famous for satire where many such texts are published. “We believe that the publication of such ‘grotesque parodies of reality’ is simply unacceptable today,” the document says.
When Lukashenko, in his own opinion, joked about the coronavirus, that no one saw it, did not fly, the ministry was silent. He was also silent when the president shared absurd recipes for treatment.
No state institution has resisted elections and decisions by the president that run contrary to any common sense during the pandemic.
It is very difficult to objectively assess the “normality” of a situation. In face-to-face communication with doctors, it becomes clear that there really is reason to be concerned. There really are many places in Belarusian hospitals. But you don’t just need a bed, you need lots of CT scans, rooms where the patient gets oxygen, lung ventilation equipment, hemodialysis equipment. And it is in this order.
Belarusian doctors, speaking behind closed doors, say there have already been situations where they had to choose who to give oxygen first. The number of free lung ventilators is advertised, but everything else is muted.
Authorities say “we have everything” to provide medical care with the necessary personal protection. The reality is that it is far from everywhere and not always. Only here are the units of doctors who dare to speak about it in public. Such initiatives simply involve punishment.
Therefore, two ambulance doctors, Oleg Kravtsov and Pavel Paleichik, were detained in Lida and placed in the dungeon for 7 days, who dared to respond to the request for voluntary medical assistance. On the eve, during an interview with the Belarusian radio station Svoboda, they told about the pressure at work and the danger of becoming infected with the coronavirus due to poor conditions.
Authorities also drew attention to the bloggers, who had never been involved in politics before, and who are now broadcasting live reports on Belarusians dissatisfied with the current situation from different regions of the country. After arrests and trials, they began to be dragged on May 6, the cleanup takes almost a week. According to the Vesna Center for Human Rights, nearly fifty people received “days” on May 13.
More than 100 people have been detained in various Belarusian cities. Among them, four journalists: Alexander Burakov, Dmitry Lupach, Alesis Asipcov, Mikhail Arshinsky, were sentenced to several days and another journalist Alexander Borozenka was released without trial. Sergei Tichanovsky, the creator of YouTube’s “Country to Live” channel, who announced his intentions to participate in the presidential campaign, and his comrades, who organized the anti-Victory Day parade, received a court decision in the evening.
Youth Bloc activists received the same punishment for protests against the Victory Day parade. During the rehearsal of the parade, they carried a cardboard coffin made of cardboard on Independencia Avenue. A day ago, at the bottom of the sign with the inscription “The achievements of the nation are immortal” in Pergalė Square, activists held up a sign with the inscription “Oh yes”.
On May 13, Peter Markelov, who came to court to support like-minded people, was sentenced to 10 days in prison for “lying on a bench with thug incentives.”
For actual and potential protesters in Paros, it is common practice in Belarus to isolate any dissatisfied person during the election campaign.
The new coronavirus epidemic (even in prisons) is not a sufficient reason to change it.
We could not have done the opposite, President Lukashenko of Belarus said of the parade. The same is said about the elections, which will take place on August 9, the head of the Central Electoral Commission, Lidija Yermoshina. Like the infamous pranks on social media, all deadly Belarusians are going to participate in them.
On the afternoon of May 13, the Central Electoral Commission received documents from ten presidential candidates requesting the registration of initiative groups.
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