Monks, athletes, workers. Lukashenko could have infected thousands of people. Nobody knows what's wrong with them
Things didn’t work out for Lukashenko from the very beginning with the coronavirus. The President of Belarus at first completely denied the danger of the new disease, calling it psychosis, then in public speeches he named the most ridiculous recipes for its treatment - bathhouse, vodka, hockey, working in the field on a tractor.
The recipes made the whole world laugh, but Belarusians were not amused - detailed statistics for the regions were not published, preventive measures were minimal, and at the height of the pandemic, mass cleanup days and parades were held. As a result, even according to official statistics, in terms of the number of cases per million population, Belarus at one time was even among the European leaders.
Of course, in terms of the popularity of Lukashenko, who continued to talk about “psychosis,” this was very decent. Propaganda tried to smooth it over, talking about the far-fetched danger of a pandemic, instead of the number of people who got sick, for some reason they flaunted the number of people who had recovered, and when talking about the number of deaths, they always added the phrase “people with multiple chronic diseases.” But these tricks did not help restore the shattered trust in the Covid-dissident Lukashenko.
Finally, yesterday there was an unexpected turn in the relationship between Covid-19 and the Belarusian presidents. Lukashenko admitted that he had the coronavirus in an asymptomatic form and suffered it “on his feet.” When this happened to him is unknown. Some believed this statement, some doubted it, but in any case it turned out ugly.
If we take Lukashenko’s words at face value, it turns out that by refusing, according to his own press service, examinations and pointedly ignoring any security measures, he was a real threat to the lives and health of many people. Since the start of the pandemic, he has constantly traveled throughout the republic, met with many people, and participated in public events. At the same time, no one saw him wearing a mask; he did not maintain social distance.
Although Lukashenko suffered covid-19 in an asymptomatic form, despite this he was a carrier of the virus and could infect others with it. In turn, these people around them, having caught Covid from Lukashenko, did not necessarily endure the disease as easily as he did. Some could get quite seriously ill, some could even die.
It is now impossible to establish whether there were deaths among those with whom Lukashenko came into contact. But there were mass infections. Thus, the epidemic covered the monastery that Lukashenko went to on Easter; there were also those infected in the ranks of his personal hockey club, with which he went on the ice. It turns out that the lives of nuns and hockey players, like the lives of thousands of other Belarusians, were not important for Lukashenko, since he risked them so irresponsibly? A very inconvenient question a week and a half before the elections.
This question turns out to be even more inconvenient if we consider that during this time Lukashenko met not only with Belarusian citizens, but also with high-ranking foreigners, including three heads of state - Vladimir Putin, Nikol Pashinyan and Viktor Orban. I don’t think they were happy about Lukashenko’s revelation.
There is, however, a version that the words about the coronavirus were just a political technique designed to emphasize the correctness of Lukashenko’s position on the coronavirus. This virus is supposedly not that scary, since the president himself had it and didn’t notice. Maybe so.
Still, it is doubtful that Lukashenko never actually took the tests. But then this is one of the most unsuccessful political technology moves, for which the authors should be driven out of the profession with a filthy broom.
Even without political strategists, we know very well that people experience illness differently. But they dealt another powerful blow to the reputation of both the president and the country.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.