Ukraine on the Installment Plan
Living in the sequel
(Photo c/o president.gov.ua)
Physical distancing on March 30 morphed from a public-health to political act in Ukraine, where the consequences are already disastrous.
Since all the world is a stage, acting is the thing. Volodymyr Zelensky has learned how to attract and to hold the active sympathy of his nurses, by singing out: "Victory! Victory! Victory will be ours!"
Nothing looks more idiotic, nothing is more irritating than a sluggish spectator who turns up on stage by mistake. When you're up there, you've got to join in, come to life, act a part, take the plunge or clear out.
Thanks to yesterday’s well-calculated bit of histronics in parliament, Zelensky enjoys the highest moral standing. The president really knows his stuff.
Recall Zelensky told us there was nothing to worry about.
That was two months ago.
As of March 31, only about 3,000 Ukrainians have been tested for the COVID-19 virus, with about 500 testing positive. The operative word is about, because no one knows for sure. The true dimensions of the epidemic can only be estimated because testing is rare.
“In fact, today there are more than 5,000 people walking around my region with the virus spreading it every second,” Chairman of the Zakarpattia Regional Council Mykhailo Rivis said on Facebook on March 29.
He added that local hospitals are not ready for the outbreak.
“Other countries are converting stadiums and shopping malls into hospitals. We don’t even have spare beds, bedding and matrasses, not to mention medicine and professional equipment, he said.
It’s the same story in several villages in Ternopil and Cherkasy regions. Efforts have been made to keep the truth away from inhabitants of these places, but it comes back again and again, to grieve for everybody. Drinking is no help.