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“The current situation in Lithuania is cause for concern not only because of COVID-19 worldwide and its consequences, but also because of the measures taken to control the spread of this disease. We see that certain measures applied in Lithuania can, in the long term, do more harm than good to individuals and society.
We feel obligated to help manage the negative consequences of Covid-19 for our country. We care that COVID-19 management measures are openly discussed from the perspective of law, medicine and science, ”said attorney Dr. Justas Sakavičius.
At the conference, scientists, doctors, lawyers and renowned representatives of society, art, culture and education, who want to contribute to the management of the COVID-19 crisis, questioned the scientific and legal validity of the current measures of management of the pandemic and convened to learn about ways to reduce the consequences of COVID-19.
The press conference was attended by the director of CTI, doc. Dr. Rimas Jankūnas pharmacologist, member of the lawyer dr. Justas Sakavičius, member of the oncologist-chemotherapist council doc. Dr. Rasa Jančiauskienė, cardiologist Loreta Strom, prof. Gynecologist-midwife Dr. Dalia Regina Railaitė, immunologist dr. Gintaras Zaleskis, crisis management specialist Darius Radkevičius and lawyer doc. Dr. Vaidotas Vaičaitis. These are just a small number of researchers and professionals in the organization.
Representatives of medicine, law, culture, education, sports signed a declaration on pandemic management
During the day, a statement was presented, in which the main problems of managing the pandemic, provisions that unite specialists and proposals were presented. It was signed by scientists, doctors, lawyers and recognized representatives of society, art, culture, education, sports. Lithuanian residents are also invited to sign the declaration on the sti.lt website.
The statement proposes:
1. Refusing to apply a legal emergency or quarantine regime without a legal and factual basis.
2. Respect human rights and freedoms and abandon unnecessary restrictions.
3. Abandon the policy of resistance of vaccinated and unvaccinated people; abolish the “passport to opportunities”, which discriminates and segregates both individuals and companies.
4. Ensure that vaccines are available to all, but not required; that people get vaccinated after a doctor has individually evaluated the benefits and risks of the vaccine, obtained free and informed consent and without imposing conditions on access to employment, medical care or any other service.
5. Develop and implement a mechanism to compensate for the health damages caused by vaccines.
6. Ensure continuous contact education and learning in all educational institutions until there are real signs of temporary isolation of outbreaks.
7. Ensure the right of all patients to quality health care, its accessibility and proper functioning of the health system.
8. Guarantee transparency in decision-making in expert councils, free and public scientific discussion, and public participation in political decision-making.
The signatories of the Declaration call for the search for proportionate, legitimate and effective measures to combat Covid-19 in a joint public debate and a free scientific debate.
The benefits of vaccines are obvious, but even a very noble goal cannot be achieved with measures like the “passport.”
One of the most debated issues is the quality of pandemic management. According to the lawyer for the CTI board member, J. Sakavičius, the management of the pandemic is not objective enough and the management measures applied are not proportionate.
“Under the appearance of derived rights not directly provided for in the Constitution, eg the” right not to be infected “creates the illusion of the superiority of one group in society over another and, at the same time, the obvious segregation and discrimination of individuals.
Medical experts unequivocally agree that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can develop Covid-19 disease and spread the virus. So we have a classic example of discrimination in which people in the same or similar situation enjoy fundamentally different rights and freedoms.
We see that the strategy to combat the coronavirus has become an effort to force as many people as possible to get vaccinated at any cost, regardless of the medical, economic, social and legal arguments, ”said attorney Dr. J. Sakavičius.
One of the best in the world for pandemic management is Norway.
Cardiologist Loreta Skrebelytė-Strom gave an example of managing a pandemic in Norway, when the country’s government emphasized from the beginning of the pandemic that the country’s society can control the virus only through joint efforts and mutual trust of the government, scientific institutions and all citizens. .
“The Norwegians call it ‘dugnad’, the Lithuanian equivalent of what would be ‘universal cleaning’, which is known to be based primarily on joint efforts and trust. This message has been and remains not only at the center of pandemic management policy, but also at the center of communication. Communication is a key issue: troubleshooting proposals are made on the basis of open data, both positive and negative, evaluating not only the virus itself and the disease it causes, but also the measures to control the spread of the virus : quarantine, masking, vaccines and all other methods of managing the pandemic, ”said cardiologist L. Skrebelytė-Strom.
Because the virus is new, knowledge about it is not definitive, but is constantly changing, so special attention is paid to the comprehensive collection and evaluation of various data. This has recently been reflected in the system for recording suspected adverse reactions to vaccines (side effects), which is publicly available and generally available to both individuals and their GPs.
It helps you learn more about the side effects of vaccines, be safer, and be more confident about vaccines. In Norway, a compensation system has been established to compensate for the serious consequences of adverse reactions.
“Of course, mutual trust between the government and the people does not come overnight. It is the result of long-term work and culture. Still, I think it is one of the main reasons why Norway has achieved one of the best results in handling a pandemic in the world: the country has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world and the consequences of managing the pandemic, especially for children. are among the lowest.
In elementary schools (up to and including sixth grade) all of last year there was basically 100 percent. contact training. Another important aspect is that the government has reached 95% without direct and indirect coercion. vaccination rates among populations at highest risk. This makes it possible not to overload hospitals and to provide the necessary medical care to all citizens who need it, ”said cardiologist L. Skrebelytė-Strom.
Crisis management expert Darius Radkevičius also shared his ideas that the current restriction of rights, based on unfounded assumptions, is quite irresponsible. According to him, the expert council works in a free and free time, lacks lawyers, risk analysts, economists and even doctors in certain fields.
“Health care is highly dependent on the quality of management, and today we have not heard about comparative analyzes of how medical institutions are meeting challenges, who is better, who is worse, what are the reasons and how. transfer good practices from successful to less successful, “said Radkevičius.
It is important to assess the possible long-term consequences.
Another important aspect is the possible negative consequences of the current measures. Dr. J. Sakavičius considered that the measures applied in Lithuania in the long term can cause more harm than good to people and society.
Gynecologist-midwife prof. Dr. At the conference, Dalia Regina Railaitė also expressed her knowledge about the possible harm of pandemic management measures.
“We need to talk about the victims in a much broader sense than we heard during the pandemic. There are several groups of victims, one of which is an obvious victim of the Covid-19 disease. Others will only be visible after a certain period of time. These latest victims are also very important, because they will determine the society in which we will live, “said the professor.
Cardiologist L. Skrebelytė-Strom drew attention to the risk of pandemic management measures related to cardiovascular diseases, the most common group of diseases in Lithuania.
Vaccines help reduce the incidence of Covid-19. The reduction in the number of cases of severe disease is highly dependent on age and various risk factors. The data is constantly changing, therefore, when evaluating the risks and benefits of management measures, this must be taken into account and the complexity of the problem must be evaluated, ”said L. Skrebelytė-Strom.
It is important to evaluate the benefit-risk balance of vaccination.
Pharmacologist doc. Dr. Rimas Jankūnas stated that mass vaccination enthusiasts who deny the risks posed by vaccines are as far removed from science as antivirals who deny the benefits of vaccines.
“This is the first time in human history that drugs whose clinical trials have not been completed are used so widely. There is no doubt that vaccines are necessary for people at risk, but the benefits of mass vaccination against Covid-19 has not been scientifically proven and its risks to individuals and groups in society have not been fully studied and evaluated.
The dangers of Covid-19 vary more than 1,000 times based on age and risk factors. For example, clinical trials have not shown whether Covid-19 vaccines protect children from serious illness or death. So is it moral to force young people to get vaccinated in rich countries, when the poor cannot receive vaccines at risk, for whom vaccines could save lives? ”- drew the discussion question from dr. R. Jankūnas.
“Although vaccines reduced the risk of serious illness and hospitalization, the impact of mass vaccination on the number of infections was short-lived. Vaccinated people also have Covid-19 and transmit strains of the virus. How resistant they are to vaccines is not fully known. In such conditions, masks and passports of opportunity can provide a misleading sense of security and, as a result, further aggravate the situation, ”said the STI director.
Invite to an international scientific conference
Health Institute Law 9-10 September. organizes the first international scientific conference “Democracy in quarantine and communication opportunities”. The conference will be attended by famous Lithuanian and foreign medical and legal experts.
Government experts, the Minister of Health and other specialists in pandemic management are also invited to the conference. The conference will seek the best solutions, discuss the best practices in the management of health facilities and make proposals for measures to combat Covid-19, which is the most divisive in society.
