[ad_1]
Karolis Žukauskas, advisor to the mayor of the capital Remigijus Šimašius, shared a comment on his Facebook, emphasizing that the MAMA awards were not a television filming, but an event, but agreed that an unprecedented event could lead to decisions.
We share the comment of Karolis Žukauskas:
Three points in brief:
1. It is very good that MAMA happened to Lithuania yesterday
2. It is bad that the organizers of this event have made law.
3. Mood: these events and happenings will repeat themselves. It is time to decide and choose: we will do it legally, with the possibility of safe controls and we will help the closed sectors to recover, or we will continue to keep everything officially closed until the end of the pandemic, but sometimes we will. see illegal cases and discuss each one in public.
Details:
Yes, the MAMA organizers did bad things: the events are still banned, which was not just television filming without spectators (because some guests have nothing to do with music). Their responsibilities will have to be decided by the relevant authorities, and I hope that they will. This is where the whole question can end.
Another interesting question is how soon we as a state will recognize the new reality and trust it.
Yes, the third wave of the virus is threatened, new strains threaten in great numbers, and the number of free COVID beds in hospitals is declining again. In other words, the situation is deteriorating again, as if tougher measures are necessary. On the other hand, it is important to take into account new factors that did not exist last spring or autumn:
We have at least 0.5 million. population with immunity (vaccinated, sick). Probably even more.
The long quarantine of half a year exhausted everyone; it wasn’t the two and a half months of last year. quarantine and maximum concentration of all.
The weather is warming up, people will be outside; whether we forbid it or not, we will not prevent it. It’s funny when others are outraged that there are so many people in Vilnius, and what do you want to forbid even fresh air after a long winter? And that’s not bad: it’s better to have a full sports field outdoors than small indoor clubs. Whether we take advantage of the hot air and the open country, or ignore them, is our choice.
We have the vaccine and we have already protected a large number of the most vulnerable citizens with it. Quarantine is a public agreement: by protecting the weakest, we ourselves restrict our freedoms. The weakest will be vaccinated immediately, and those who voluntarily refuse vaccination cannot hope that the public agreement will continue with them: there is a vaccine, the option not to vaccinate is the willingness of a person to risk their life, so they do not we can wait for the rest of the vaccination. responsible society. And this deal is clearly coming to an end.
IT opportunities: The virus was also quarantined in the 18th century, but now in the 21st century. – It is time to take advantage of the technological opportunities that the world has already created.
Quick tests: it is already possible to buy them in large quantities, so it will be possible to test them en masse.
People’s emotional health is very bad. I’m not just talking about angry discussions about FB; we don’t know much about the situation in the families, which are at least supervised by social workers during the existing schools, and now during zoom Cameras may not actually see what happens behind closed doors.
Many companies or even individual sectors are on the verge of bankruptcy. Keeping them closed will cost the state huge sums of money so much from time to time in fighting the sad consequences (unemployment benefits, defaults on state taxes, etc.).
For both these and other human reasons, the quarantine is no longer working as it did at the beginning and as the government or all of us who adhere to the quarantine rules would like, no one will dispute that, otherwise the number of new cases would be greater. close to zero a long time ago. Now we have all its worst aspects: human freedoms are restricted, business, culture, events are closed, we will have to pay huge compensation to everyone, unemployment and other bad consequences will increase, but the virus continues to spread (no quarantine, Of course it would quickly break down our hospitals, but that quarantine no longer helps to achieve the desired goal, it is also obvious).
There is a great sense of social injustice in society: swimming in the Indian Ocean is possible, looking at the Baltic Sea is not. It is not possible to go to my hometown with my mother, but on TV you can watch an event with MAMA guests pretending to have a regular TV show. Some follow the rules and continue to wear masks outdoors, being among people, others to instastories He poses for photos of private parties where there are no masks or distances.
On the other hand, check Booking or Airbnb Overnight stays for the Easter weekend in Palanga, you will realize that the police are only slowing down the flows, but those who want to ban are still circumventing the bans. And in fact I don’t know if it’s really worse for a family to go to the sea for a weekend getaway where restaurants don’t work either, it’s possible to join unless in open spaces than staying in your own city and possibly meeting others. families, in the interior and, therefore, with much more risk between them.
And that those meetings are held, and no one is hiding, alcohol sales also show it. Although the cafes and restaurants are closed, people seem to be sitting alone at home, not socializing, but the sales of alcohol during the quarantine not only did not decrease, but on the contrary, they increased and very significantly. Parties are not allowed, do people consume much more on their own? Hardly. The number of private parties is probably only growing, we just don’t see them. Just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen (as with weed, as with prostitution, etc. – bans don’t eliminate things, they just reduce the chances of controlling them).
So maybe it’s time to think about whether we will continue to wait until the day virus numbers cross that magic limit of 200 and approach zero (and that day may not come this year), or after considering all the reasons. above, we will. start thinking about how we will slowly emerge from the clutches of a pandemic in a month or two, not a year.
I see opponents: “Crazy people, virus strains are spreading fast, is any release dangerous?” Yes, but everything is risky (prolonged quarantine, bankrupt businesses, depressed citizens, etc.) And here we have the opportunity to find a safe way out of the pandemic. The immunity passport that Vilnius offered a week ago is one of them, and I was not surprised myself that MAMA basically implemented a pilot version, but it is sad that they did it illegally.
This is not only happening with us, there was a concert in Barcelona tonight with 5000 spectators, without any social distance, but with tests (out of 5000 only 6 tests before the concert were positive) and with quality masks (given by the organizers of the concert.).
Unlike MAMA, an event of this type had exclusive permission from the Spanish Ministry of Health, and now the result of this experiment will be closely followed. If it doesn’t become a hotbed, it is only a matter of time before such events become a new reality in Europe this year. We may not call this system an Immunity Passport, but basically both in Barcelona and yesterday in Kaunas it happened (only in one place legally, not in another): experiments were started with Immunity Passports: that is, bubbles are created for the citizens who have immunity or accept the test. It seems to me that this is an inevitable new reality this year, again, for the same reasons that I have written.
We can choose:
After a long pandemic, fight massive depression or allow people to seek emotional inspiration in nature and by the sea?
To instruct him to continue watching television at home to meet his cultural needs, or to slowly and safely open cultural institutions for those who are immune to the test?
Angry about every semi-legal, semi-illegal event like MAMA yesterday and guess if really all the participants had tests, or if they organize such events so that we are all calm, that all participants are evaluated and safe, and that no one felt the injustice social possible for others, right?
To pretend that the virus does not exist at closed-door parties, which we do not see, is it better to take them to outdoor cafes for a limited time, where each passerby will be that observer, since the agreed rules are followed?
Will we ask people to do the test, even if we don’t have the motivation to do so, or will we give them reasons why the desire to test will increase dramatically, and thus we will notice new cases of the virus sooner?
Will we pay millions for businesses that have already closed, and millions more after bankruptcy, for unemployment benefits, or will we begin to consider allowing them to earn a living on their own? Because there are many people who want to pay for those who need funds while crying.
One hundred percent safe solutions are not and will not be, and quarantine is not: it is time to recognize and start thinking about how we can reap the benefits of vaccines and air warming in the face of a protracted pandemic: a society tired, on the decline. jobs and pressure from individual cultural or business sectors. In a bold way, but MAMA has only sped up this discussion, and thank you for that at least.
ps, but let’s not act as MAMA organizers – let’s not spread the virus to relatives during Easter, let’s not cut quarantine rules when necessary – let’s wear masks and don’t get together illegally.
pps: I thought we had to make sure that the current opposition did not use these ideas to criticize the current government – I would just like to remind you that the previous government shed the virus in such a way that we had almost tragic consequences and luckily the current government managed to reduce it n times . If we had Veryga in power now, I have no doubt that the chaos from October to December would have lasted a long time.
[ad_2]
