BELGRADE – Healthcare workers in Serbia gathered in the “United Against COVID-19” initiative, published on their website that more than 1000 doctors signed a proclamation because, as stated, they do not see another solution to the public health catastrophe in which Serbia finds itself, daily Danas reported.
In the proclamation, doctors demand that the authority over the official COVID-19 portal base be explained to the public and that a procedure be organized to reliably determine the number of infected, sick and dead people from COVID-19, both in the general population and among healthcare workers.
The signatories of the proclamation requested an independent investigation for those responsible if it is determined that the data were intentionally concealed. As they pointed out, the responsibility should be taken over by the Crisis Staff as a whole.
“It is necessary to stand in the way of intimidation and politicization, which otherwise, and especially in the epidemic, interfere with good practice and violate the personal dignity of passionate workers,” they stated.
Doctors are asking for the formation of a new Crisis Staff, which would consist of experts with proven professional and moral qualities, and the reasons for the failure of the current Crisis Staff should be urgently clarified to the public and new members.
They stated that the lifting of counter-pandemic measures prior to the elections led to a loss of control over the pandemic situation which, it said, can’t be justified with any professional motives.
“The confusion over the number of people sick and dead was caused by discrepancies between statistics and expectations, daily experience and contradictory public statements which have all disrupted the healthcare system and broken the trust of the public and medical staff in the system”, they said.
Vučić: A petition is an act of violence over targeting the best doctors
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučič described the letter as bullying of the best doctors in Serbia.
“I won’t keep silent about the attack on the best of us. The job of some is to destroy everything that exists in Serbia. No problem, Aleksandar Vučić is the worst in the world. Leave these doctors alone, leave these great people,” Vučić told RTS.
Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Lončar said that the petition is not about the profession but also about politics adding that the letter was signed by members of political parties.
According to the minister, the public should know that the parties that lost the elections are expected to take the side of the signatories of the letter because they are pushing the whole thing forward.
Government pandemic Crisis Staff epidemiologist Predrag Kon said that he respects the doctors who signed the petition to disband that body even though they didn’t have enough information before they signed it.