Greece seems to be handling the pandemic crisis with much too many health experts committees who do not even bother to be in communication with each other. The result is confusion as to who proposes measures against the pandemic and which one is the committee whose proposals the government adopts and implements.
Healthreport.gr, a website focusing on health issues writes on the issue, citing well-informed sources:
Coronavirus: Lost in experts’ committees – How many do they manage the epidemic?
It is no coincidence that the government often states through its executives that “after a recommendation from the experts we decided this…”. At the same time the experts of the committee wonder when they suggested something similar, since they never met on the issue.
The answer is as follows:
There are three committees of scientists and health experts
One, the official one of the Ministry of Health, consisting of some 30 specialists.
The second committee consists of 11 experts. The country’s top epidemiologist, Professor for Infectious Diseases Sotiris Tsiodras participates in this one, and also in the first one even though not always.
The third committee where 5-6 experts participate belongs to the General Secretariat for Civil Protection. This committee meets and takes decisions for the measures to be implemented.
The point is that these 3 committees do not talk to each other.
The question is: With which committee does the prime Minister meet to decide on the measures based on “scientists’ suggestions?” And the opinion of which committee does it count the most?, healthreport asks.
It is recalled that before every measure affecting the lives of millions of Greek nationwide is implemented government officials keep reiterating that “it is the Prime Minister who takes the final decision.”
At the end of the day, it is a politician who decides on measures or not, when and for how long, given the impact on the economy of the country.
If all this is true it is a complete DISGRACE. This is a criminal offence. Another issue……. why do we not have a tier system? Why should the likes of Corfu be punished for the miss behaving people in Thessaloniki and Athens ?
The entire western world is in the same position. Open economy, lockdown, no, open again, no half lockdown, now half open. It has all been useless half measures. Governments just hem and haw all the time. A one-week lockdown accomplishes just about nothing. Politicians should just shut up and leave the solution in the hands of medical professionals who are competent and have no ties to Big Pharma !!!!! Restricting cheap cures just so some unethical company can make money on expensive ones is a crime against humanity. We have to ask why Japan and Taiwan have had such low contagion and death rates and how did China and South Korea clean up the pandemic so fast and efficiently. It is also obvious that respirators are not much more than a death sentence, but somebody made a lot of money from their sale.