The Commission on Infectious Diseases has come under political pressure, eased
the measures too early and the country has a new peak of the dangerous virus, and
politics is increasingly influencing the decisions of the Commission, say doctors in
relation to the rise of newly infected with the coronavirus and diseased in Macedonia
in recent days.
The Commission on Infectious Diseases must not allow to succumb to political
pressure, said Dr. Nenad Lazarov. He assessed that the Commission came under
political pressure, eased the measures too early and this is the reason why there is a
new peak of the disease.
"It is necessary for that commission to give exclusively medical opinion without
allowing their decision-making to be politically motivated, nor succumb to any other
pressure, and that is the pressure from the business sector. It is an obligation and
what is expected from the Commission on Infectious Diseases is to give an
extremely expert opinion on the procedures that need to be done from a medical
point of view. They should not think about the economic consequences, the political
consequences, but absolutely stay with the medical opinion. If they do, there will be
no problems. However, I feel that the pressure on them, both politically and from the
business community, is enormous," says Lazarov.
Lazarov stressed that at the moment the state apparatus, the Government is not
focused on dealing with the coronacrisis, but on conducting elections and that this
must not happen.
Professor Dr. Zoran Spirkovski from the Clinic for Thoracic Surgery, on the other
hand, pointed out that the numbers of infected people are not from when the
measures were relaxed, but the infected ones are from the time when the measures
were in force.
"I think that despite the fact that politics must not be like that, more and more people
have started to influence the decisions of the Commission for Infectious Diseases,
which is not good," Spirkovski stressed.
He added that in conditions of pandemic, to put pressure on the Commission for
Infectious Diseases and to influence it is not good.
"Medicine needs to get rid of political influences. Because in the Balkans,
unfortunately, everything depends on politics. But medicine is one of the main areas
where politics must not be involved in the decisions of health professionals,
especially doctors," Spirkovski explained.
