Dreadful situation
We are all traveling from one hellish nightmare to another. The sense of scare some segments of the society feel while many people appear ignorant of the dreadful threat posed to every single individual on this planet, reflects an acute perceptional polarization.
Is there need for announcements every evening by the Health Ministry, often by the minister through his social media accounts, on the COVID-19 situation in Turkey, or the panic-ridden comments by leading professors or by some know-all pseudo experts to understand the dimension of the pandemic?
There are sporadic cases even in remote isolated settlements. The Health Ministry has been announcing that there was an increase in many cities including Ankara, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and other metropoles in the number of COVID -19 infections. of Turkey. How has it happened that the number of new COVID-19 cases dropped to less than 800 per day in June, only to exceed 1,250 now?
Was it because of mass prayers at big mosques? Farewell ceremonies to new military recruits? Wedding ceremonies? Visiting relatives just discharged from hospitals with an instruction that they should apply 14-day house quarantine?
Who is faulty if on a crowded municipal bus a young man and her girlfriend, complaining that social distancing rule was disobeyed can take off their masks? Obviously the Turkish society might require a massive effort to understand that it is their individual health at risk and thus must abide with the measures announced.
The other day a young man was quarrelling in Ankara with some other people demanding him put on his mask. He not only refused to put on his mask, bu smashed the face a man who reminded him of the rule. He was not fined at all by two police officers watching from a distance. “We are traffic police,” one explained. Nice, is it not?
Unfortunately, some people still believe that they do not necessarily need to wear masks. Turks anyhow have genes protecting them from the virus. Turks are great and strong people. But what about those who lost their lives? The doctors who perished while trying to salvage lives of others?
They must of course have some alien blood… They might be mixed race. Anyhow, Turks because of their genetic immunity most probably were all affected in the pandemic, did not realize they were infected and got cured, developed antigens and as opposed to those “super virus carriers” they have become a society with super antigens who cannot be affected by the virus.
Most of the cases are anyhow foreigners. The media reports on the Turks that have lost their lives are just lies or products of a western conspiracy, very much like the surge of the value of the dollar and the euro against the Turkish Lira.
I can imagine the bitter smiles on faces, but such a perception is not just real, but more dreadful than that, also widespread.
Otherwise, how can a mother diagnosed at a hospital of being infected with COVID-19 but with a promise that she will adhere to house quarantine was discharged, can attend a wedding ceremony saying “Yes, I am COVID-19 positive, but how can you expect me not to attend wedding ceremony of my daughter?” End result? Including her daughter over 50 people are now COVID-19 positive and under treatment.
The situation is so normal in the country that there are pressures from the owners of private schools and school bus companies on the government not to decide to make online primary and secondary education. However, excluding certain topics, most secondary education might be carried to online.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus threat is not yet over. More so, worse might be in the tunnel because in many countries there appears to be some serious signs of a second wave. A letup in the COVID-19 fight might pose existential threat that no one should have the luxury of neglecting.