It’s not a PR war—it’s a war for survival
There's been a crisis of leadership in Bangladesh ever since the threat of an outbreak of the coronavirus loomed large on our horizon. That crisis, unfortunately, has only deepened in the ensuing days. Even now, when fears about an undetected communal spread are growing, the authorities appear ill-prepared. They have failed to adequately respond to concerns about the scarcity of testing kits, lack of resources and personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and nurses, lack of ICUs and isolation units, lack of a decentralised laboratory testing mechanism, as well as lack of enforcement of emergency measures and guidelines. The health minister's comment on Monday—that "we are well-prepared" and that the country's situation was still better than many others—is thus misleading and unrealistic. If it is aimed at boosting public morale, it has the opposite effect since the public would like nothing more than clarity in these times of confusion. It also smacks of complacency which, as experts warn, may end up hurting us more.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a public relations war going on in the country, with the focus more on whitewashing our shortcomings and less on addressing them in a manner befitting the urgency of the situation. There's no shame in admitting that the healthcare sector in Bangladesh is in a shambles. There's no shame in admitting that health professionals, even in developed countries like Italy and the US, are struggling with the lack of PPEs and other essential items. Such admissions, if made with an honest intent to remedy the problem, are rather welcome. But our response to the coronavirus is still reactive rather than pre-emptive, trapped in a "will do" mentality. In a country of 160 million, only 620 samples have been tested so far. With such poor testing records, we don't even know the real extent of the outbreak. How well-prepared can we be, really?
If the devastations left by the virus in other countries are any indication, the government needs to do more, much more, to be able to address the crisis with any measure of success. It needs to expedite local testing kit production so that more kits are prepared to identify the infected, foreign or domestic. It needs to make testing and treatment opportunities available in every division, and every district if possible. It can partner with private hospitals to prepare more beds, ventilators and additional staff for this purpose. Equally importantly, it should put the wellbeing of health professionals, who are at the highest risk of infections, front and centre. It should also strictly enforce the emergency protocol so that the virus doesn't spread far and wide. The list of things to do is long, none less urgent than others. There is no room for procrastination anymore.
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