Veryga on the communication of the Seimas with the NSVC: he did not show much enthusiasm neither to indicate contacts nor to communicate

Acting Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga, head of state-level emergency operations, calls on the ruling authorities to suspend the work of the Seimas for at least two weeks, and the news portal Delphi He promised to make recommendations to MPs today, along with the National Public Health Center (NVSC), on how to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Parliament.

– The coronavirus is spreading rapidly among Seimas MPs. Do epidemiologists work there? Why is NVSC not taking over?

– Epidemiologists work in each case, because it can be seen that the members of the Seimas are exactly the same people as any other. After receiving a positive test result, epidemiologists should contact them and find out the contacts.

Still, it appears that yesterday there were several photos shown by journalists, apparently waiting on the liberal faction to interact with the infected individuals. The National Center for Society was asked to look at the site in detail, but from what I got the feedback, no one was overly enthusiastic about pointing out contacts or communicating because everyone, as epidemiologists say, explained that they were busy.

Now perhaps there will be more of that desire to communicate, but even without epidemiologists, without NVSC, there is not something very complicated here that epidemiologists must necessarily handle. People who know they have interacted with an infected person should opt for self-isolation, etc.

Epidemiologists are not even needed here. After all, most people do it if they find out they have had contact.

I will just remind you that several members of the Seimas were not even able to take the oath along with others because they were isolated, learning that they had interacted with an infected person, who later turned out not even to be infected when two tests were performed.

It is possible to act responsibly, and it is possible to act “bravely” and pose a risk to many Seimas members. For those who are young, that risk may not be very high. But there are people of respectable age in the Seimas, as well as those who suffer from more than one chronic illness; it is very dangerous for them.

– Specify whether the members of the Seimas refused to cooperate with epidemiologists.

– No. These are not necessarily members of the Seimas. As far as I know, there were contacts on the list, berods, factions of some kind of assistants that he referred to as people who could be questioned. It was difficult to communicate and find out with them. Because at first it is not clear who the people who participated are, epidemiologists do not know all this information. They collect that data over the phone by asking who they interacted with, who was where. Here it seems to us that when we are in the hallway, everyone knows everything: who is sitting with whom and things like that. Epidemiologists don’t know.

– Have you, as the head of emergency operations at the state level, recommended anything to be done to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the Seimas?

– No. There were no special recommendations for the Seimas. But after the news yesterday, I really believe that not only as the head of operations, but together with the NVSC, we will make such recommendations to the management, because, as I said, the Seimas is not an exclusive place for something. It can only be exceptional in the sense that remote Seimas sessions cannot be arranged without additional decisions. In other places, instructions are given for teleworking and the like to manage the infection; after all, the same self-isolation is not arranged in any other way for the Seimas. It is equally valid. Many members of the Seimas who had to isolate themselves knew those rules well. I don’t know who needs such special instruction of any kind.

Even before the first oath of the Seimas members, where the majority of the Seimas members took the oath, we spoke with the now Speaker of the Seimas and several options were offered for the Seimas members to spend less time in a space. That perhaps that oath could be coined in some other way, allowing people in groups. But then there were already such categorical statements from the president of the Constitutional Court, as I understand it, that here nothing can be modified in any way, everyone must be together and so on.

Recommendations were made. Unfortunately, no one followed them.

– On Thursday, one of the vice presidents of the Seimas, the conservative Paulius Saudargas, proposed to convene an extraordinary session of the Seimas to adopt all the necessary decisions for teleworking with extreme urgency. Do you think it is logical to call an extraordinary session of the Seimas now that the virus has spread in Parliament?

– I do not know. I will certainly suggest and highly recommend, and today we can even send such recommendations in writing, that we do not organize anything for two weeks.

Two weeks is the incubation period when it becomes clear how many people are sick, how many are infected.

It would be nice to take a break to find out. Not now, some members of the Seimas, even those who are infected, don’t even know it. Some of those who were tested, if they interacted with each other, initially and those tests will be negative because they have to go through a certain period of time again to be able to determine who is infected and who is not. The presence of negative tests does not mean that a person is not infected and cannot transmit the disease.

Although the test intensified and the members of the Seimas had a chance to test before the oaths, not even all of them did. We have certainly heard such strange interpretations that there is some kind of privilege created for members of the Seimas to try and similarly there is no privilege here. It is simply responsible behavior before large crowds of people gather in one place, something that we do not allow others to do; such massive things don’t happen anywhere.

The Seimas, what he chooses is small, I understand, they are constitutional, legal things that cannot be violated either. But there are things that should be changed or not chosen at all, unless possible. But not getting up and going boldly, showing “solidarity” with a society that supposedly does not call the Hotline and does not investigate it is a strange attitude. It is not in that place where the members of the Seimas show that solidarity.

– We will soon have a new Minister of Health, although it is not yet clear what the president will approve. What do you think will be the biggest problems you will have to deal with?

– Everything will depend on at what stage of the pandemic management this change will occur and what we will have at that time. Now, to predict what will be the biggest challenge at that point, as it may take a few weeks before the change of government and ministers, a lot can happen in the meantime.

If all goes well and if the numbers really go down, if we go back to a more or less normal life, one of the most important things will be to get the system back to normal, which we did in summer and it wasn’t very simple for a variety of reasons: both staff, fatigue, infection control. The system will need to return to normal to provide help to people who are not just struggling; there are many other patients who need help and who will naturally have a certain number of people; this will certainly be a great challenge. So it was in summer. Keep in mind that all this will happen at a time when the doctors will be overwhelmed, burned by the fight, by the tension itself, the situation and it will not be easy to do it. Here will be such an important and difficult challenge.

Clearly, a wide range of promises have been shared with the community – we heard them during the elections and there was a lot of discussion before the elections about the need to further increase salaries, make the system more efficient and more accessible to patients . What it is, I have a hard time imagining until I have content behind those words, because it is not clear what they mean and what the new minister or minister who has looked at those words would mean. But there are really many problems in the system, which the struggle itself highlights: the hospital network, which is completely dispersed and decentralized with us, there is a lot of discussion about the same drug policy, it is said that something will change. If you change something, you will have to say where the money is coming from and so on.

There will definitely be a lot of challenges. There is a very complex system: from here, both the interests of patients and those of doctors who need appropriate conditions. The psychological and bullying problems really disappeared during the fight or were relegated to the background. We certainly forgot them during the fight, but they didn’t go anywhere, there are many painful things that have been raised: the same e. Health problems that have not gone away will need to be addressed. There will definitely be a lot of work to do.

– How do you imagine your work in the Seimas Health Affairs Commission, chaired by Antanas Matulas, a representative of the Christian Democratic faction of the National-Lithuanian Union who has constantly criticized you?

– I really don’t see any problem working in the Health Commission and I will certainly work and try to be as constructive as possible.

Yesterday, when I approved the president of the committee, I voted against him because I think he was probably the most controversial member of the committee in the last legislature. From what I know of colleagues, other committees worked much more constructively, maybe there were fewer emotions, non-science based speeches, interruptions and the like.

I will definitely work, I will criticize where I see that it is not being done and of course not tell the ruling majority what to delegate there, what not to delegate, but I think the choice is really unexpected. Because if we want Lithuania to move forward, it would be good to have someone in this position who is not skeptical about the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other international organizations that we we have added. ourselves, and in order to get some experience, advice, get help, not to say well to that organization, but we know better. I think it is not a very credible election, but whatever it is, the majority have elected a president and we will work with him.