EDIN URJAN KUKAVICA - The Plague of Our Time

By Edin Urjan Kukavica

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Not much is the same anymore. Neither hierarchies, nor priorities, nor criteria... Will the change happen in 15, 45, 60, 90 days, or is it already here but we just don't want to see it, is not important. What is important is that at the top of all hierarchical ladders is the virus, and the priority above all priorities is protection from it, and the only differentiating criterion is personal ethics (discipline, knowledge, and morality with all that they entail, from changes in habits to changes in lifestyle). The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will find a way to accept it, to reconcile with it – and with all that it brings – and to find ourselves and our place in the new (world) order.

If not already, citizens will soon seriously understand the danger of the coronavirus. They respond to calls for help, even if it's by doing nothing: they have reduced their movement, avoided unnecessary contact, maintained hygiene, and to the best of their ability, followed the recommendations and orders of the competent authorities, thus, by fearing for themselves, they take care of public health. Three veteran doctors have also responded to the call and made themselves available, a gesture worthy of praise, but, to tell the truth – and may the esteemed doctors not be offended – the three of them represent potential patients more than healers. However, we know that our political parties are full of doctors; admittedly, we don't know of what kind or quality, but we know that among them there are those from medical disciplines... It will be interesting to see if they respond to the call of their profession, conscience, oath, or at least the director of the Sarajevo General Hospital and other hospitals, and thus show patriotism or their love for the people, even if just one group... Or at least piety? Piety – like love and patriotism, after all – is shown through actions, through the attitude towards the weaker and poorer, towards the older and younger, and the protection of those who have no one to protect them... And in a time like this, piety, ethics, discipline, and hygiene are of crucial importance.

Citizens will understand, accept, and reconcile. But will the negative criteria-based selection, irresponsible politics, and meritocratic and clientelistic staffing, which have placed people without conscience or awareness, let alone ability, in positions of unimaginable social responsibility, now come due? In the meantime, alongside SARS-CoV-2, three new/old viruses have emerged that cause diseases almost as dangerous and deadly as COVID-19, viruses that have claimed their first victims before the first case was diagnosed. The first is the exclusivity of the right to health and life. Will health, and finally, life, become a privilege of the rich, powerful, and influential, and illness and death the fate of the poor (er) and powerless (er)? Namely, when and how will those who are obliged to work for us, mostly "invisible people", from saleswomen and cashiers, through ladies at public administration and utility service counters, to ladies in kiosks, construction workers, those who ensure we have a regular water supply and that the sewage system functions flawlessly, police officers, firefighters, and why not, journalists... "due to milder symptoms that could indicate a condition similar to coronavirus and due to official contacts with a larger number of people, and in order to protect numerous individuals with whom they come into daily contact through their official functions, and for personal health" – approach testing like some political officials? The figure of 414 tested in the entire country is – even to medical ignoramuses like me – clearly far below the level of threat and danger.

If, from this number, we subtract the tested politicians who, it turned out, are negative for this virus, it is easy to conclude that extremely few truly exposed individuals have been tested at all. This is neither ethically right nor realistically smart. With all due respect, a lady at a kiosk comes into contact with more people every day than any politician. The second is the fear of hunger, which seems to be greater than the fear of infection. Irrational, panicked, even hysterical purchases and stockpiling of huge quantities of food, shortages of certain products, including not only food but also medications for chronic diseases... have swept through the population not only of Bosnia and Herzegovina but of the entire world, wherever it was heard that the virus might appear. If the claim that SARS-CoV-2 is most and most frequently transmitted and spread by those who have no symptoms is multiplied by the number of employees in stores... one does not need to be a mathematical genius to arrive at the conclusion that retail outlets are currently the most dangerous places in the world and that one must be most cautious there.

And the third is the spread of fear through the media and social networks, which has become as rampant as COVID-19. Google doctors, self-taught and self-proclaimed healers with goat's milk and garlic, pseudo-medical experts, and folk healers... a whole host of characters with pronounced messianic and other complexes who advise citizens on how to behave during the pandemic, along with a sea of instructions on what should or should not be done circulating on the internet, is a scourge that only those endowed with good reason can escape. Fortunately, one can only get diarrhea from most of the "medicines" they recommend, which, in the end, is not so bad if it "hits" those who need cleansing the most, primarily the advisors, and then those who fall for their "advice".

If we survive all the aforementioned viruses, as well as fb-"evangelists", religious fundamentalists, and heartless political predators – those for whom it is more important whether "this one" asked for help yesterday, or whether "that one" asked for the same help seven days ago – than whether that help will arrive at all... we certainly won't survive.