The corrupt Lebanese government put the country in lockdown to flatten the “revolution”. As a result of the worsening economic situation, many healthcare workers were laid off and now the Lebanese people are paying for it by being denied access to care. 1/n

Here’s what would reduce mortality in #Lebanon:
1) protecting the vulnerable
2) increasing healthcare capacity
3) supporting healthcare workers

All impossible to do in a country that is gasping for dear life. 2/n
And yet the #Lebanese people are being blamed for not following guidelines and not following the rules.
The Lebanese people are not to blame. Wearing masks, social distancing, lockdowns and stupid curfews don’t do anything. 3/n
It is those politicians who transferred their money to Swiss accounts, while #Lebanese citizens can no longer transfer university fees for their children studying abroad, who are to blame.
Stop shifting the blame to the people. 4/n
Public health practitioners like @firassabiad and @petra who have bought blindly into the narrative are reinforcing this displaced scapegoating.
Please be aware of the harm of supporting the government’s narrative. 5/n
The Lebanese people are now dying not because they were not obedient enough but because the corrupt politicians have stripped Lebanon of any hope of standing on its feet. They have shattered the economy and devalued the Lebanese currency. They have left #Lebanon on life support.
Decimated economies lead to weakened healthcare system.

Weakened healthcare systems cannot deal with an annihilating #beirutexplosion and cannot deal
with a respiratory virus. 7/n
If only the #Lebanese soil could speak, it would scream enough is enough.
Get those politicians out of office.
They continue to rape the country without remorse. 8/n
The Lebanese people are very resourceful and perseverant people. Civil society has always come through to save the day whenever the government has failed. I trust that they will rise for the challenge in this dire state like they have many times before. Or at least, I pray. 9/9
@threadreaderapp unroll

More from Abir Ballan 😊

Fear is being used to subdue you and make you compliant.
How can you untangle yourself from the tentacles of fear?
How can you regain freedom over your life and your mind?
1/n


“In the totalitarian regime,...the doubting, inquisitive, and imaginative mind has to be suppressed. The totalitarian slave is only allowed to memorise, to salivate when the bell rings.” 2/n
Source 1:
https://t.co/gTVyiQfKaB
(Pavlov's dog- classical conditioning experiment)


"human beings, already being quite smart, need to be dumbed down. You won’t disobey an order if you lack the cognitive ability to question it." 3/n
(Source 1)

How do you dumb down humans?
"the common denominator for increasing suggestibility is switching off executive function in the prefrontal cortex – disabling the superego, the conscience, the internal monologue." (Source 1) 4/n


How can you switch off the frontal cortex?
By activating the amygdala: the fear centre. This tiny little red dot, part of the limbic system. 5/n
A brief tutorial in health education to show you how sound health education models have been used for manipulation instead of creating health awareness during the COVID 19 pandemic. We'll uses masks as an example of a health behavior.
Are you ready to explore? 1/n

The Health Belief Model (HBM) consists of 5 components: perceived threat (lethality + Susceptibility),
perceived benefits,
perceived barriers and
cues to action.

Familiarise yourself with the definition of each concept in this table. 2/n
https://t.co/1tOz1cJFvc


Study this diagram to understand how the components are interrelated. 3/n
https://t.co/iUoaqNkgyP


Now let’s apply this to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Review this diagram to see how the HBM applies to the behaviour of mask-wearing.
“perceived susceptibility appeared to be the most significant factor determining compliance” 4/n
https://t.co/xF6uwUx12N


Part I: The HBM
Increase the perceived threat of a disease
1) increase perceived severity: Confusing the general public with CFR & IFR- 2 indicators that are an order of magnitude apart.
People understood wrongly that the fatality rate of C19 is

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