Everything is Fine

What flattening the curve doesn't look like

KYIV. It’s day whatever of Ukraine’s epidemic disaster and my beloved award-winning Kyiv Post reports:

Ukraine has not taken the COVID-19 pandemic lightly. On March 12, it implemented a quarantine, shuttering schools and canceling mass gatherings. At the time, there were just three confirmed cases. The virus would claim its first life the next day.  

Since then, the government has gradually ratcheted up the restrictions. Today, the country is largely on lockdown, with non-essential businesses closed down, mass transit restricted and borders closed.

This is bullshit, of course. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s lack of preparedness, slow response and almost no testing until a week ago has resulted in a disaster that is just beginning to unfold.

In a nutshell, Ukraine was unprepared, slow to act, did not test, trace and quarantine, did not use data and tech, was not aggressive, did not get the private sector very involved and failed to respect privacy.

You can only get a positive result if you carry out a test in the first place. Ukraine only began testing for the virus in the middle of March. As of March 20, Ukraine had tested only 316 people. That explains why only a few cases were reported. 

Ukraine’s new Cabinet on March 25 declared an Emergency Situation Regime. Five days later, the country’s moronic former Health Minister Illia Yemets, a Yanukovych-era hack, was sacked. But by then community spread of the virus in all 27 regions of Ukraine was rampant, fueled by germy Russian Orthodox priests, millionaire members of parliament who didn’t wash their hands at Courchevel and tens of thousands of migrant workers, who were marched like cattle across the Poland-Ukraine border.

Zelensky’s decision in late March to install Maksym Stepanov, Ihor Kolomoisky’s gynecologist turned gas trader, as health minister brought a method, or “algorithm,” to the madness, but it changes often, sometimes several times during one day, depending on the president’s mood.

As of this writing, the result isn't unlike a horrible accident, except it’s been caused by an unemployed actor desperate for attention and applause. You want to laugh and be entertained, but you also want to avoid becoming a COVID-19 victim and paying too much attention to the horribleness of the grisly deaths Zelensky has failed to prevent.

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