Are the Lebanese mislead as to corona-virus situation?

30 March 2021

One year later, nothing changed. 

Today I heard a representative of the Parliamentary commission for Covid-19 say that the decrease in death rate is due to vaccination.

Get real! 

Less than 1% of the Lebanese population has been vaccinated. In the US more than 20% of the population has been vaccinated and Fauci will not dare to make such a declaration.

At a rate of more than 15% rate of infection in persons tested, and knowing that testing is not free and the percentages low, maybe the logical conclusion is that herd immunity is starting to hold because of the very high number of infections.

Anectodical evidence is that I rarely talk to anybody in Lebanon who does not inform me of at least 10 persons he knows that caught coronavirus. A friend of mine whose sister suffered a stroke and was hospitalized caught the virus in the hospital, her sister who was 'taking care of her' caught the virus too. The two nurses who took care of her at home after she was released from hospital caught coronavirus too!

Another friends informed that both her father caught the virus in hospital, her mother was infected, and both died in hospital.

An aunt informed me that her hairdresser gave coronavirus to all those who visited him. Nobody contacted her or asked her to be tested.

I could go on for pages and pages of stories about people catching the virus in Lebanon.

Today too I heard from another person from the ministry of health saying that the news about safety of AstraZenica will boost the vaccination rate as people will be less reluctant!!! Really?  

It is as if people are being offered the vaccine and refusing it. There is a lack of supplies and it is badly distributed. A fact that the anchor person interviewing him did not bother to mention.

Update 30 July
On Rathausplatz | Opera and Ballet Are Still Larger Than Life

Coming across this post from Vienna I wondered if we may dream and hope. Notice that these events are free. Notice that ''At the gate, we were asked to fill out a form – name, email and phone number – so they could track us if necessary. '' This is how proper measures are taken and not like Lebanon Cabinet just total lock-down and then open everything without real planning!

Update 24 July 2020
The latest figures show a rapid increase in infection rates with a total of 3,407 cases and took the death toll to 46 people.
Health Minister Hamad Hasan warned Thursday that Lebanon was at a “dangerous turning point” with the spread of coronavirus, adding that the country was now facing a community outbreak, "which is a negative and discouraging indicator.”

The media and official sources always stress in their reporting on the opening of the airport, yet the recent surge in cases has largely been detected among the local population.

Of the new infections, 119 were found among the local population and 28 among travelers arriving from abroad, the Health Ministry reported.

Lebanon has seen a surge in cases since the country’s only international airport reopened almost one month ago. Beirut's airport reopened to tourists July 1.

Nobody is informing the citizens that without proper testing, tracking, and tracing no sane person can say that the curve was flattened. 
The government and the media did not stop clamoring of the Lebanese success in the fight against Covid-19.
With inflated ego the word was ''we are doing better than Europe''
The Government proceeded opening the economy without proper social distancing and other preventive measures. They did it without staging and with no proper testing and tracing.
The citizens went to full normal mode without considering that the 'new normal' is what is needed.
The result, a critical situation where the health system might not be enough.

So I say it again; the Lebanese are mislead about the situation, by their government and by the media who does not take the time to do some research and prefers the ease to informing people in bites and clichés.

The below part was published 4 May 2020
Yes they are!

Figures reveal that what we think we know about the Covid-19 numbers and death toll in Lebanon is wrong. Here’s why.
Only about 10,000.- tests were carried out. This is quite low for a population of 4 million if we compare to more than 100,000.- in a country of 8 million like Austria.
So the total number of about 600 cases is not representative of the situation in the country.

In addition testing is not available in all regions, for example, the low rate of confirmed cases in Tripoli / Akkar as well as Baalbeck / Hermel is because almost nobody was tested.
The refugee community of about one million is not tested or included in the confirmed cases toll.

All over the world one fifth of those tested are positive, meaning that if 100,000 tests were carried out in Lebanon the number of cases would be 5,000.- instead of the 500 reported today.

Many deaths of old people in villages are not reported as corona-virus related, old people regularly die in winter, don't they?
These people don't go to hospitals or see doctors because they cannot afford it. They just dies at home. So the death rate is also flawed and unrepresentative.

If death rate in Italy jumped to 25% due to the failure of the health system in comparison with 0.3% in Korea and below 2% in Germany, what do you think the situation will be in Lebanon when the infection rate reaches it's peak?

I think that the Lebanese in the Gulf countries and France would reconsider ask for repatriation if they were aware of these numbers. Maybe those in African countries that suffer from insufficient medical facilities would want to come back but why to leave Gulf countries or European countries where health systems are better than in Lebanon, and where, if you are a resident, you can benefit from unemployment packages?

Anyway, the media is failing to ask these questions and are just praising the governmental measures to fight corona-virus. And mostly today praising the governmental measure for repatriation as if it was a feat, while all other countries do it without the hoopla!

Sad.....