Infectologist: Post-Election Victory Celebration an Example of Irresponsibility during Epidemic

Virus

Dr. Dragan Delic, an infectology and hepatology specialist, believes that after the lifting of the state of emergency in Serbia, the precarious balance established by the stern restrictive measures has been shaken by the mass gatherings in football and tennis courts, night clubs, and at wedding parties.

“By celebrating their election victory, the authorities’ representatives have given a blazing example of how to be irresponsible and destroy the common-sense approach to fighting a pandemic. The message they were sending was extremely negative, especially for the younger population, who has repeatedly been told by the Crisis Staff that the freedom of movement and gathering implied personal responsibility,” Delic, a full professor of the School of Medicine and former director of the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, said for the July 2 issue of the Nedeljnik weekly.

He believes that “the Crisis Staff’s loss of authority and credibility has led to the emergence of unacceptable and destructive attitudes, such as, for instance, that nobody knows anything, or that we all know everything, with nobody trusting anyone else.”

“Even a statement by a Crisis Staff member six months into the pandemic that ‘we don’t know a thing’ has introduced a sense of defeatism. And to say that ‘the virus is returning’ was also wrong – it never went away,” Delic said.

He added that “the constant involvement of politicians as either saviors or ambitious ignoramuses increased the divisions and confusion in the already divided nation.”