The hope is… from the lessons of the pandemic, Hossam Badrawi

The hope is… from the lessons of the pandemic, Hossam Badrawi

 

(1)

The bright young man spoke to me and said: We have been defeated, Doctor!! Statements about Covid-19 have become contradictory! Even the guidelines sometimes seem conflicting! We understood the importance of social distancing and the absolute necessity of physical distancing. Then, it convinced us of the necessity of conducting “mass examinations”, similar to South Korea and Germany. It also introduced us to the importance of community involvement through electronic applications to report and register any disease symptoms. Then she told us about distance education, as well as about expanding and raising the efficiency of the country’s health system to accommodate the possibilities of future infections. You also convinced us of the need to strike a balance between the need to return to work in order to avoid an economic tragedy, and the dangers of breaking the instructions for social and physical distancing, with a focus on the importance of raising the awareness of the masses and their positive participation!

I said: Yes.. True.. I said all of that!!

He said: So…bear me a little! We are in Egypt..we have not done any of what you suggested! However, we are one of the least affected countries in terms of the spread of the new Corona virus! Why?!!

I smiled, during Mona’s attempt to find a scientific, curative answer!

However, a colleague of him .. She added: We have not circulated the examination tests, and the picture of crowding in the streets clearly reveals a lack of commitment to social and physical separation, and we have not yet heard of an effective treatment protocol that we use, and electronic applications have not spread! Rather, the government, on its part, reduced the curfew hours during the month of Ramadan to allow shops to operate for longer hours, and accordingly citizens to bypass the instructions for social and physical separation .. while I consider it a clear indication of a greater relaxation of restrictions, and leniency! In spite of all that, as my colleague said, you affirm that we are in a better position than others!!

I said: I do not have a scientific explanation based on study or research that justifies that.. and you have every right in what you say! But.. it is good policy and management of the crisis.. to be precautionary, and to monitor so as not to be surprised by the spread of the disease beyond our capabilities!

The glancing young man returned to ask: So… what has the West failed in, and I mean specifically, the major European countries and the United States of America?! Why did they appear so fragile, and the infection spread to them?!

I said: The truth is that the Egyptian government has dealt with the pandemic in balance, according to the available capabilities so far..and we have to commend that.

But in response to what happened in the West, my opinion is that it is a political failure of the first degree! These countries knew in advance about the possibilities of the pandemic spreading before it happened..but they did not prepare for it!!

The money and budgets of the West that were spent on armaments and fabricated wars, especially on the part of the United States of America, and on intelligence agencies to cause revolutions and revolutions all over the world… Only a part of it was sufficient to make the necessary preparations and equipment to protect their citizens, and indeed the entire world from the ferocity of this pandemic. !

(2)

In short, the failure of the West’s policies and politicians is the cause of this crisis we are experiencing!

All the agreements that were concluded, and the pressures that were applied for the entry of all countries of the world into the free trade system, the belief in globalization, and the interconnection of production lines to each other…have fallen in their first real test!!

For every people, the pandemic is a local tragedy, and its solution cannot be solved without international cooperation and international leadership.

In the hour of grandfather – unfortunately – the major powers withdrew from the scene, and diminished to become local forces without an international role! Rather, the United States of America stopped funding the World Health Organization, as it withdrew before from UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as if it recognizes that it is withdrawing from the leadership of the world, and declares its locality! In this context, the leadership of the White House in Washington showed its inefficiency in managing its country locally, and the states floundered separately from their side, and bartered against each other to obtain their needs!

As for the European Union, unfortunately, it was not better off, and there is nothing wrong with it!

The intelligent young man asked me: So… what is the real political antidote to the crisis?!

I said: The political antidote is to raise the word of science above the requirements of politics, and to spread the hope that comes from a vision of leadership that brings out the best in people, by inspiring cooperation, common purpose, and taking advantage of the possibilities available among all countries of the world. It is true that peoples love and appreciate hearing happy and optimistic news from their leaders… but only if it is based on reality, facts and correct data! In moments like these, when the choices you make are so influential, people desperately want to believe that their leaders know what they are doing. However, they also soon realize that in such times… Either the capabilities of those leaders will grow and rise to the level of challenge, or their worst weaknesses will be magnified, and they will fall to new levels of inferiority!! And epidemics .. fortunately .. do not leave anything in secret! The epidemic rushes into every small corner…holding and revealing all the strengths or weaknesses in societies! It shows the extent of the citizen’s confidence in his government, the amount of societal trust available to achieve joint cooperation, the strength of the balance sheets of public and private sector companies, the extent to which governments are prepared to deal with the unexpected, the number of citizens who work daily and live on this daily wage, and the quality of public health care safety nets established by the state. before the crisis occurred. Meanwhile… the importance of leadership appears in every location… in many areas and levels, for example: in education, teachers, school administrators and parents. In health, hospital administrators. In the media, as well as the governors in their governorates… Everywhere… these leaders must confront moral issues and confusing exchanges… because what appears as a health crisis may explode and turn into a humanitarian crisis… soon it will become an economic crisis and a state of unemployment. Unprecedented! In this way, it becomes a crisis that forces the leader to balance saving human lives and…\

Save Livelihoods!

The naughty young woman rushed out, saying: You tell us, Doctor, that the Egyptian government has succeeded in confronting the pandemic in a balanced way.

(3)

I said: It is a valid question, and the response to it has a political split, as you mentioned, which is what I salute the country’s leadership on. It also has a business side. Here, I think that there are seven pillars that must be ensured that they are available to judge the state’s readiness, efficiency and ability to confront if things get tough:

1- Availability of diagnostic tests (mass examination).

2- Availability of preventive supplies such as masks, gloves, protective clothing and disinfectants…whether for medical teams or for the community.

3- Transparency in announcing statistics on cases of infection and deaths, and comparing them with global ratios.

4- Availability of intensive care beds, respirators, infrastructure and laboratory.

5- The efficiency of the health system and its ability to absorb large numbers of patients in the event of an epidemic.

6- The extent of the effectiveness and sustainability of spreading health awareness among citizens.

7- Continuing to provide basic services to citizens. We focus here on education, providing food needs, protecting the homeland internally and externally, as well as the logistical services required to sustain life.

The glimmering young man returned to ask: Someone predicts that by the end of this crisis… the liberal and democratic systems will fall… and the socialist and dictatorial systems will return… as political solutions, and they will become more in control of peoples?! Indeed, there are those who talk about the nationalization of major companies in the West, to ensure their continuity of production?!

I said: First, this is illogical nonsense! It has been proven beyond any doubt that the state management of companies ends in a tragedy of loss, and low efficiency of production! The Soviet Union fell for this reason, and its regime went bankrupt!

Secondly, the human right to freedom is exactly the same as the right to life. Returning to dictatorial regimes appears to me as a human setback that cannot be accepted.

Third, the emergence of a new world order seems logical. Neither capitalism that is blind to human needs and social security nets.. seems right, nor does the state control the tools of production, which has also proven to be a failure.. it seems right!! As for democracy, from my point of view, it enters into a new framework, close to the model of the Nordic countries, which requires an increase in wealth, so that everyone can be sufficient.

* And believe me, the world’s wealth is enough for humanity to live in peace and prosperity… if it abandons wars and the manufacture of weapons, and the desire of some to control everyone (!) and focuses on construction, development, and science. The Covid-19 pandemic may be the wake-up call… if we understand the hoped-for lesson!