Yesterday, July 14, Krišjānis Kariņš did not use a face mask indoors, presenting a letter of commendation from the Cabinet of Ministers to the main financial intelligence Ilze Znotina. However, already yesterday – on July 15 – Krišjānis Kariņš announced that indoor masks should be worn by all Latvians.
Kariņš said that when considering the issues of restrictions in Covid-19 conditions, the key is to understand how we can protect ourselves from getting the virus. The internal system is in control of everything and it has information about newcomers from abroad.
One of the messages that the people were able to peel off from the caring father on television was that the ruling elite was itching to find outlets for most of the masks they bought, and therefore, whether or not they were needed, they would be ordered to use them indoors.
It is to be hoped that the interior will not mean your own apartment, but it will probably have to be worn in concerts, museums and gyms. And then also in the workplace – in hanging workshops and offices, where people also have to faint without breath. Everyone will disguise themselves.
But logically. Otherwise, if the coronavirus crashes and people are not afraid of it, 50 masks will no longer be able to sell for 40 euros. The price will fall and fall almost to the true value of this rag, which could be a little more than three masks per euro cent. No drug dealer or arms and human trafficker can dream of the profitability that coronavirus has brought to dealers and pharmacists close to power.
The government still has all sorts of measures and tools in its arsenal. One of them was powerfully advertised a month and a half ago, it was praised by Kariņš and everyone who was not lazy. More than 85,000 people have downloaded the mobile app “Stop Covid” in response to calls from popular opinion leaders. That’s less than 4.5 percent of the population.
What is the point of this application?
The official explanation is that the app is a solution to help limit the spread of the virus in Latvia and find out faster if you have been in contact with a Covid-19 sufferer. By using the app, you will be able to isolate yourself earlier, so as not to endanger family, colleagues, friends and other residents, as well as pay attention to the symptoms of the disease and seek help more quickly if necessary.
How many users does the app need to be effective?
According to epidemiologists and scientists, even if only 20 percent of the Latvian population will use the app, it will already be an important support for risk identification and further control of the infection in the society. However, the more people use it, the greater the effect, the app implementers explain.
So at least for now, this “if only” number 20 is as far away as the moon. As Latvia is defined as a democratic state in the Satversme, at least for the time being, the government will not dare to impose the application as something mandatory. Or – do not dare yet…
The developers of the miracle of technology, including the Prime Minister’s sister Andris Bērziņš, admit that they created the product at their own expense and have not taken anything from the state budget. You can get the application for free, and that’s nice too. So nothing more than drawing and painting a head of government on a high-tech man with “Stop Covid” these people don’t get. Well, it is not the case that the Center for Disease Prevention and Control maintains the application outside working hours and at its own expense. However, it can be written off in such a way that the task of the center is to take care of limiting the spread of the disease, and the new application facilitates this work.
“Stop Covid” has already warned people that they have been in contact with covid infected people for 15 minutes. True, it is unknown how many such cases and how many people. The application is not so fine as to warn of the approach of an infected person. A person finds out about his contact with an infected person when it has already happened. Frightened and so conscientious that he checks and sits at home for two weeks.
It is unlikely that in the current circumstances, when the economy is in a state of collapse and people’s wallets are being cut, when it has been proven that there is no hope to expect any support from the government, a person may not go to work for two weeks. Therefore, he will probably not reveal to others that the application has warned him.
The user of the application, after learning about contact with a sick person, walks around with a heavy moral burden: “What if I’m really sick, if I can infect others?” But where does he feel if he can’t move and not get up?
There is also a threat of punishment. Those who are obliged to sit in self-isolation and who do not do so face a fine of up to 2,000 euros.
The application does not report contacts with infected people who do not have a mobile phone. The whole crowd is only 85,000 people inside, which makes the event pointless, not to say pointless. Even the ancient computer game “tetris” may be more helpful in curbing the virus.
The story of “Stop Covid” and the masks characterizes the essence of the current power elite – the drying of the chick and announcing to the public that it is something grandly excellent. An ill-considered, chaotic Brownian movement that does not coincide with the real course of the spread of the virus. Exaggerations and inconsistencies. While the use of masks was mandatory on public transport, people in crowded supermarkets could cough as much as they did without masks. At domestic events, non-observance of the number and distance of the gathered is punished and punished, but the Old Town is full of foreign tourists, including many who speak the “yellow” and “red” languages of the list of countries.
Greed is a hallmark of this government and those close to it. Trying to “boil” money at the expense of the coronavirus, or at least get some public relations benefits. If you can’t stop with “Covid” and go to the retail outlets, grab even the former party building, inventing it to demolish and build a concert hall. There is no money for medical salaries, but the super-expensive prison in Liepaja will have. Kovidbizness. Corrupt coworking business seems to be gaining momentum.
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