Cancellation of anti-COVID measures: joy with tears in the eyes

Tell me how one can get sick now, if covid is actually officially has won?

Irina Mishina, journalist

"Red zones", separate entrances for patients with symptoms of SARS, QR codes, all this is in the past. The mayor of Moscow declared victory over covid.

Personally, I did not win covid. On the contrary, he defeated me. I got sick a week ago and I'm still sick. Yes, and PCR was positive, and the temperature was under 39, and a cough with suffocation. And the queues at the clinic are the same as before, their mayor also could not win, unlike covid.

Being ill with an infection, for the last week I have often communicated with both doctors and comrades in covid misfortune. And here's what's amazing. There is not a single one among them who would approve the removal of anti-COVID measures. Because everyone is seriously ill, although Omicron is declared a “light” strain that does not pose any danger. I don’t know to whom it doesn’t harm, personally, for the second week I suffer in such a way that you don’t wish the enemy.

A natural question arises: who benefits from all this? Cancellation of masks, QR codes, restrictions on the operation of restaurants, nightclubs and other public establishments? And there is no need to go far. Businessmen in Moscow were the first to rejoice at the lifting of anti-COVID measures. “It was long overdue,” they say. “We asked about this a year ago.”

The business has been really affected by the covid. The pandemic left a third of Russian companies at a loss, millions of enterprises closed completely. Business Ombudsman Boris Titov recently published a report on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on businesses. It says that the profit of Russian business last year was almost 70% less than in the pre-pandemic era.

It is clear that now, against the backdrop of the departure of Western campaigns and the imposition of sanctions, the economy simply could not endure a double blow. After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, finances in the country in general, as you know, are tense. Instead of a pandemic, another enemy appeared: the West, which imposed sanctions on the Russian economy.

There is another point that significantly hit the Moscow economy: this is the actual treatment of covid. As you know, doctors of all specialties were mobilized to fight it, and even with considerable surcharges. Now, after Mayor Sobyanin proclaimed victory over covid, this costly part of the Moscow budget will apparently be curtailed.

The question remains: what to do with “covid” beds in the conditions of victory over Covid-19? As you know, the treatment of one patient with covid under compulsory health insurance costs 200-250 thousand rubles in Moscow. With oxygen supplied to the bed, with permanent drips and expensive medicines. Of course, this was also a significant burden for the Moscow budget. What will happen to all this now in the conditions when the mayor of Moscow declared victory over the coronavirus? How will the seriously ill be pumped out? This question arises for all of us, sitting in long lines at the clinic to the doctor, who are choking from coughing and going crazy from the temperature that is not knocked down by any medicines.

There is also the question of free medicines that were given to those who fell ill with covid and their families all the time until covid was defeated. As you know, only one drug that prevents thrombosis costs more than 4 thousand rubles in a Moscow pharmacy, and several such packages are needed for a course of treatment. Not to mention antiviral drugs, a set of which for a course costs 12-15 thousand rubles. How can, for example, a pensioner with a pension of 12,000-20,000 rubles survive in such conditions?

There is one more question. As you know, if a health worker becomes infected with COVID-19 while on duty, he receives a lump sum payment in the amount of 68,811 rubles. What will happen to these payments? After all, doctors continue to get infected and die, and these numbers are terrible.

However, it has become out of fashion to talk about mortality from covid in recent days. "Declining", and that's it. “Do not compare with the 5% that were at the beginning of the pandemic. Now it is 0.5%”, - say medical officials. I did not find exact numbers of deaths from covid in Moscow. “In July 2021, 6,464 more people died in Moscow than in July 2020. In just a month, 17,237 deaths were registered, ”the Moscow Department of Health says sparingly. But there are thousands of people!

Mortality from covid is generally a mysterious thing. Here, the well-known scientific journal The Lancet recently published a report by a group of scientists who calculated: in fact, the pandemic by the end of 2021 claimed 18.2 million lives worldwide, and not 5.9 million, as we were previously assured. But something tells me that after the abolition of anti-COVID measures in Moscow, we will no longer find data on mortality. Nowhere.