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
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More from Abir Ballan 😊

I disagree with you, Alastair. I believe @PanData19 is filling in the gaps that governments have failed to fill. I encourage you to have an open mind and listen intently to what we have to say. 1/n


Here’s how @PanData19 is approaching this crisis differently from governments:
We believe that "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."- @WHO 2/n

To tackle the problem holistically, we have formed a multidisciplinary team made up of immunologist, microbiologist, geneticists, data scientists, physicians, economist, psychologists, educators, public health professionals and business owners. 3/n

We have also backed ourselves with a scientific advisory board made up of prominent experts in their fields.
@MartinKulldorff
@SunetraGupta
@MLevitt_NP2013
@MichaelYeadon3
#JayBhattacharya
#SucharitBhakdi
They are supporting us every step of the way. 4/n

We believe that "the right to health is one of a set of internationally agreed human rights standards, and is inseparable or ‘indivisible’ from these other rights.” @WHO 5/n

More from Government

I am going to take the context for this thread from this piece by my good brother @mabziz in 2018-3 years ago. One thing I am so perturbed about is the response of our Attorney General's office to issues of state security. I have no personal grouse against @MalamiSan, but


2. I do have a professional grouse against him. I feel he is not alive to his duties. I feel that he is also not empowering his Director of Public Prosecutions or his Solicitor General. There is clearly a lot that befuddles me and this is because I am a seasoned lawyer and can't/

3. understand why law is not being used as the instrument it was designed for-to enforce law and order. Let us take the case of Nnamdi Kanu-this man was arraigned in Nigeria on a charge of treason/treasonable felony-he was on bail & he jumped bail. Why has he not been extradited?

4. Is it that Kanu is somehow bigger than Nigeria? What has happened to his surety who failed to produce him? Who is prosecuting him? Our Federal Ministry of Justice? Should Malami not explain to Nigeria why Nnamdi Kanu is still taunting Nigeria daily & still actively destroying/

5. our unity everyday. He is putting the lives of many people at risk and stoking ethnic dissent easily. The Fulani herdsmen dilemma, the burning of Lagos State and his coordination of same on phone-in radio channels, his videos are all stoking a Yoruba/Igbo carnage. Same with/

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