Nowadays, practically everybody knows Nina Pirnat, the former director of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), who often appeared on television after the first case of a coronavirus infection was confirmed in Slovenia. She repeatedly told Slovenian citizens that there is no need to panic or wear protective masks. Although the public broadcaster RTV SLO was very critical in its reporting of her dismissal, as they claimed that she really managed to gain the public’s trust, it is a fact that her indifference was threatening to the lives of Slovenian citizens. However, NIJZ’s inefficiency is not really surprising, given that they are blindly following the World Health Organization (WHO), for which we all know that when it gives out advice, people die.
On January 14th, WHO wrote on Twitter that there was no clear evidence that the covid-19 virus can spread through human contact. Well. Anyone can make a mistake, right? But WHO makes mistakes way too often. In 2003, the Global Fund, which is run by WHO, spent 41.2 million dollars on malaria medicine. In 2004 it turned out that the medicine is outdated and ineffective.
WHO saved some money, but killed tens of thousands of children. When WHO set itself a goal to reduce the number of malaria victims, in 2010, the story was repeated. The death toll increased. A similar thing happened in 2014 when there was an Ebola outbreak in Africa. WHO proved to be completely ineffective. In 2017, WHO “forgot” to mention tuberculosis in its priority list, even though it kills 10.4 million people a year. Why? Because this was the advice given to WHO by the pharmaceutical industry. It just does not pay off.
During a pandemic, the Director-General of WHO exchanged tips with Lady Gaga?!
When it comes to the covid-19 virus outbreak, WHO chooses to believe the Chinese communist authorities and share harmful advice with the world. Among other things, they believe that protective masks aren’t needed. By now, it has become almost symptomatic that when WHO shares its advice, people die. And if you still trust the WHO, the following will probably convince you otherwise. During the pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus found the time to speak to a “healthcare expert” over the phone. Who is this expert? Lady Gaga. They exchanged views on what we could do in the fight against coronavirus. After he wished her all the best for her birthday, of course. You will probably sleep better tonight, knowing that Lady Gaga is protecting you from covid-19. And the Slovenian Institute of Public Health is listening to this advice and then passing it on to Slovenian citizens.
In neighboring Italy, a crisis is happening, while NIJZ claims that protective behavior is not yet needed in our country?
Let’s recap. Although it is well known that many Slovenian families go skiing to Italy and Austria during the winter break, and it was already known on February 24th that our western neighbors had declared an epidemic, NIJZ behaved completely carelessly. At a press conference on February 24th, Pirnat argued that protective behavior is not yet required – including the wearing of masks. She advised all travelers who returned from abroad, to contact their doctor if they start noticing signs of illness.
In the following days, NIJZ’s carefree attitude continued, so no wonder many Slovenian families, including those of healthcare workers, went skiing without a worry. While at least a hundred Italians died every day because of the coronavirus, Pirnat even stated: “People who are returning from the crisis areas but are healthy, may be normally included in the workforce and do not need to self-isolate at home.” As the northern provinces of Italy were facing a state of emergency on March 2nd, the health experts in SDS and NSi began to warn of the danger of the spread of coronavirus to our country. At that time, families with children began returning from vacation, children returned to school, and their parents went back to work. Despite the spread of the virus among Slovenians, Pirnat said that while it is possible the virus is already among us, its symptoms are clearly so mild that it is not causing us any problems.
Šarec’s Government made it clear that it trusts the experts at NIJZ. Therefore, they decided not to close the border with Italy. On March 4th, the first case of infection was recorded in Slovenia. If anyone was expecting NIJZ to start acting more decisively then, they were wrong. Pirnat reassures everyone, stating that close contact is needed for the transmission of the disease. “The likelihood of infection for patients and their companions in the emergency room is very low, as is the case with passengers on a plane,” she claimed. It was only after Janša’s third Government was elected by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on Friday, March 13th, 2020, that urgent measures were taken. Within three days, emergency measures for limiting the spread of the covid-19 epidemic were adopted. Today, it is painfully clear that NIJZ was misleading the Slovenian public, and because Šarec so blindly believed and followed these “experts,” we now have 28 deaths and almost a thousand patients with covid-19.
WHO advises everyone to use protective masks in public – starting in April!
Following WHO’s advice, NIJZ did not advise the use of protective equipment; however, Slovenian Junior Doctors decided to help citizens become aware of the importance of using protective masks and the proper way to use them. In doing so, they also showed a graph that clearly indicated that masks can help curb the epidemic. A month after the first case of infection was recorded in Slovenia, WHO apparently just realized that it would be good to advise people to wear protective masks in public, South China Morning Post reports. “Surgical masks should still be reserved for medical professionals.” When it comes to the general public using home-made protective masks, the World Health Organization stated: “A situation may arise, in which wearing a mask may reduce the possibility of infected individuals infecting others.”
As we can see, this is very different from what we’ve heard from WHO in the recent past. They previously said that for an individual, wearing a mask will only present an unnecessary expense, which can further burden the state budget and give us a false sense of security, because: »Wearing a medical mask when it is not necessary to do so, may lead to unnecessary costs, the burden of procurement, and the creation of a false sense of security, which can lead to neglect of other essential measures, such as hand hygiene,« they argued. WHO has thus interfered with the public budget and every individual’s budget, even though they are not competent to do so. If WHO did not do so, many would have gotten the protective masks, thus protecting themselves and their loved ones. The latest figures show that we are approaching as many as 65 thousand deaths worldwide. If WHO’s response was professional, this would not have happened. It is a shame that NIJZ does not see this. After a series of fiascos by Pirnat, we have now also seen the acting Director of NIJZ Ivan Eržen publicly trample the Government’s efforts in implementing the necessary measures which, among other things, further restrict the movement of citizens and impose the obligatory regular disinfection of surfaces in the common premises of apartment buildings.
With NIJZ, it is the politics that are in the forefront, not the expertise, and that is the reason why we already have 28 deaths, which is completely unacceptable. Many deaths and infections could have been prevented if we had acted quickly, professionally, and without fighting each other. How can the Slovenian public trust the professionals, when it seems that they aren’t even aware that every life is precious?!
Hana Murn