Infectologist: Politicians Care More About Votes Than Health

Dr Dragan Delic (Photo:PrintScreen YouTube)

A Serbian infectologist, Dr Dragan Delic, said on Sept. 1 that a drastic increase in coronavirus infections that had occurred recently was the result of political interests, as politicians cared more about votes than public health, but it was also a consequence of breaking Covid-19 safety rules.

Dr Delic has said in an interview with BETA that since the pandemic broke out the restrictions have been coming late. "All of us, except for the authorities and the Covid-19 Crisis Headquarters, have realized that the essential part of a struggle against the coronavirus is to impose and implement anti-Covid-19 measures on time. The restrictions, however, come late, and those already in force are ignored and unsupervised," the medical expert has warned.

Dr Delic also said that it's absurd that the meetings of the Covid-19 response team were so few and far between, and that it's the cabinet scheduling them, instead of professionals. "The Crisis Headquarters is a political body discussing compromises, instead of public health. The government doesn't want its voters to hold a grudge, and I do resent my peers for having yielded to that pressure. A compromise of that kind is unacceptable," Serbia's leading infectologist said.

According to Dr Delic, Serbia is now paying the price for the nonchalance of the authorities and individuals alike. "The virus is relentless, and will not forgive us for our mistakes. As long as there are unprotected parts of the population, that is, persons who are not vaccinated, the virus will be there, spreading without limits. Frequent mutations of the virus are particularly concerning, because at some point they can diminish the effect of the existing vaccines," Delic has cautioned.