By: Dr Janez Remškar
The past week we experienced and had the opportunity to see a lot of intolerance, aggression, threats from the “street”. Speakers encouraged, better said, urged, I cannot write otherwise, protesters by quoting populist phrases, untruths that are misleading to people and dangerous to their health. Among the protesters who had time to protest in the middle of the working day, there were probably a few to whom covid crisis really threatened their livelihoods, however, there were more who had so far lived well at the expense of the state, with their rather modest contribution to people and country. In this way, with privileges, so to speak, insignificant, not poorly paid jobs, the “left” was able to gain supporters among the people. Even more. In the past, the UDBA also operated on this principle.
If we look around the world, similar protests are happening in Europe (Italy, France, Germany) and not elsewhere (Denmark, Portugal). How come? Where politics has unified, and understood that it poses a serious threat to the people and did not seek political benefits in the plight of the people in the pandemic, the epidemic is calming down, due to participation in action, including vaccination! The latter, as well as other severe restrictive measures, are being taken by people in these countries as urgent, scientifically proven measures to combat the virus. On the contrary is where politics does not want or does not know how to find unification in the fight against covid-19, as is the case with us! In doing so, we can see dangerous moves for human health by the opposition. The latter does not make it clear that “anti-vaccination” is dangerous and, on the contrary, even incites it. It also underestimates measures like wearing masks and maintaining distance between people! Moreover, in our country, even the news programme of RTV SLO, in its reports, is not able to critically respond to the many untruths reported to us by individuals, including some politicians!
I am also surprised by individual intellectuals (not only politically engaged) who, in the case of much-needed vaccination and expert knowledge of the social health benefits of vaccination, refer to the inviolability of the human body and thus approach the “anti-vaccinators”, certainly do not deserve the name “intellectuals”! In any case, with action around the world, it should be noted again that we have encountered a hitherto unknown virus, which we still do not know enough about today, after more than a year and a half! Remember the completely misguided instructions that came from the NIJZ during the government of Mr. Šarec, until the middle of March 2020!! Let me remind you in this regard that the WHO, at the transition from 2019 to 2020, was not prepared for a covid-19 pandemic! But! Probably for political reasons, the WHO did not want to disclose, because of China (a regular member of the WHO), what was prepared in 2005 (after the emergence of SARS 2002-2003) in Taiwan (because of China it is only an observer in the WHO). Definitely inadmissible! What can we say about our profession and its instructions in February and even March 2020, at the outbreak of a pandemic. And this at a time of easy access to professional information! There can be no excuse for both the WHO and our profession, given that the reasons for “silence and ignorance” were different!
And now to the conduct of RTV SLO
As a rule, any measure taken by the government, similar to those abroad, has been criticised on our television! Everything keeps repeating itself. Politically engaged individuals on TV talk about the strictest, longest measures in our country against covid-19!? All lies. Again, I ask all serious people who wish us all well to at least look online at: POLICY RESPONSES TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, where the countries indicate both the severity and length of individual measures against covid-19, from the very beginning until today. We are in the middle of the scales in all actions! So! The lies of individuals, opponents of the government, are “served” to us through RTV SLO! Editors-in-chief, journalists just silently observe this! Do you seriously think that the news programme does not have the task of commenting “for and against” when informing? No doubt sometimes illogical measures have been issued, as everywhere in the world, in ignorance of the virus! Many measures, however, just seem illogical and become completely clear when the profession explains it! No! In our country, every action of the government has been criticised! At the same time, I cannot forget and I repeat what a colleague, a doctor from Nova Gorica, who in the show of Mr. Štefančič (Studio City – I cannot ignore the fact that this show is a prototype of the harmful agitation of the “national TV” against the government) stated that it is obvious that the mask, the distance between people and quarantine, do not work! At the same time, of course, he did not say that it is enough to spread the virus if only up to 5 percent of people do not follow the rules. It was even more unacceptable that the leader, Marcel Štefančič, did not problematize this. But why would he, since, as is obvious to the editorial board, it suited him to spread the “knowledge” that the government is “raping” us with measures! I could go on and on!
This way of “reporting” on the “national TV” continues and is becoming unacceptable! Last week, they also reported on a refusal to wear masks by some schoolchildren in Zagorje! It is extremely depraved when the elderly, for political purposes, exploit children, as has happened this time. It is extremely dangerous and discarded if untruths are spread in the media, which, I am convinced, are being uttered by young people under the influence of adults! I will not go into professional proof of the benefits of masks, even for children, especially those over 12, as well as for their surroundings! The children’s message was wrong, misleading, false and, as such, inadmissible, and in addition left without comment.
Unacceptable manipulation
This was an unacceptable manipulation of RTV SLO and the involvement of children in politics! Unheard of! The left and with it RTV SLO morally collapsed on the whole line! It would be interesting to know the purpose of such a message. Was it a demonstration of how not to act in school and a demonstration of the ignorance of the youth and thus a critique of teachers, or was it an attempt to show the “stupidity” of government action? For me, and probably for most people, the exploitation of children and youth is an utterly discarded act used only by extremists! Nothing about this on RTV SLO! Just for a taste and to know that wearing masks in the case of covid-19 in children is beneficial, I quote and recommend: American Academy of Paediatrics: MASK MYTHBUSTERS: COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT KIDS & FACE MASK! And many more like it can be found! Please, look! RTV SLO! You can be ashamed!
Dr Janez Remškar is a doctor and publicist.