Corona is not smallpox, and paranoia is not based on reality, it is based on fear of reality

By Kemal Dizdarević

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Fear of the unknown is at the root of the fear of death. We do not know enough about the virus called SARS-CoV2, and although the disease Covid-19, which this virus causes, is no more dangerous in outcome than
common flu, we have closed all our paths to avoid encountering it by chance or intentionally. But the English usually have an original answer. Britain remains open. Only those with persistent coughs and fever remain isolated at home.

Hospitals are not recommended because they are, as is well known, risky places. This approach relies on the fact that exposing a large proportion of the population to this virus will help develop collective immunity.

If we look at the numbers, we see that the mortality rate from Covid-19, for recognized cases, is 2-3%. Many more are unrecognized, infected but asymptomatic, so the actual mortality rate is significantly lower than the aforementioned figure. Out of 7,700,000,000 people in the world, about 130,000 are infected. The number of new cases in China today is only 11 (the total population in China is over 1,350,000,000).

There are three problems implied by this virus: fear of the unknown, virulence or ease of spread, and the lack of specific therapy (the latter particularly potentiates uncertainty). Covid-19 has a greater potential for spread than SARS and MERS, diseases that were stopped in a few months, but whose mortality rate was significantly higher. SARS-CoV2 is a successful virus, meaning it spreads easily but kills poorly. When in 1972 a pilgrim returned from Mecca to then-Yugoslavia, an epidemic of smallpox (variola virus) broke out, which is probably the last case of this disease in Europe (global eradication of the disease was achieved in 1980). With a serious approach and quarantine (an invention of the people of Dubrovnik, by the way), the disease was quickly suppressed. The risk of death from smallpox was over 30%, with blindness as a possible long-term sequela for survivors.

Every problem requires an approach proportional to its seriousness. SARS-CoV2 is not smallpox, and paranoia is not based on reality, it is based on fear of reality. Imagine data about something clearly defined, ubiquitous, and everyday, about something completely known that is not mystified and abstract. Consider the following facts about severe brain injury, which is pandemic (in terms of occurrence worldwide), and virulently in a figurative sense (without a virus, but unavoidable as a possibility).

Worldwide, 50 million people suffer severe traumatic brain injury with a mortality rate tens of times higher than the mortality rate of this virus. It is estimated that half of the world's population experiences one or more severe brain traumas during their lifetime. This severe brain injury is the leading cause of death in young adults and the main cause of death and disability in all countries of the world and in all age groups (Lancet Neurology-November 2017, http//dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30371-X).

This only refers to brain trauma, not spinal trauma or polytrauma involving other organs and organ systems. This is something that brings death, but as if this death is known because it has been around for a long time, it does not seem so mystical, and there is a cure for it. It is not extraordinary, but it should be considered when this viral paranoia passes. And it will pass quickly. Yesterday, a twenty-year-old woman came in with complete paralysis due to a severe cervical spine injury, while a few days ago, a young mother with severe brain and cervical spine injury, whose four children died in the same traffic accident, was surgically treated. A terrible tragedy somewhere in the Middle East. A tragedy close to our experience. It is similar for Chinese, Balkan, and Western people.

The other day, in a serious tone, she presented that she had a total of 36 ventilators. And that she would buy a few more. Ventilators for her KCUS. Probably with the help of a new 'scandal', orchestrated by her 'man'. And with the firm support of sycophants, experienced ambivalently (sycophant in the original meaning means coward; the path from coward to flatterer is short. Isn't it, Haso?). Imagine that there are ONLY 36 ventilators in the largest healthcare institution in the country.

Covid-19 demands little, but in serious cases, a ventilator is mandatory. As with severe brain injury. The lack of ventilators today, but also yesterday, can be clearly defined as an organizational failure. The virus, in this case, has provided the BiH public with useful information about KCUS's unpreparedness to deal with various calamities, epidemics, and traumas. It is obvious that she and the sycophants are not ready. Is this perhaps the real reason for redirecting patients to the General Hospital? Of course not, because with this new coalition, the General Hospital has again become occupied.

When her infectologist-politologist and budding demagogue recently called a large gathering to talk about the virus, perhaps he was just pretending to be English and unsuccessfully tried to contradict his director. Or maybe he had no idea what he was talking about, just as she and her man have no idea. In a serious tone, let us emphasize again at the end the old, timeless truth that hand washing, vaccination, and antibiotics are key achievements of medicine. A cut tongue is not an achievement, and it has nothing to do with the virus.

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Kemal Dizdarević was employed as a specialist neurosurgeon and subspecialist in cerebrovascular surgery at the University Clinical Center Sarajevo. He was then fired. After a dispute, the Municipal Court in Sarajevo issued a decision that should have returned Kemal Dizdarević to KCUS, but he was fired for the second time. He temporarily went to the Middle East