Please stay home… Even if the government isn’t requiring you to. Doctors in Pakistan have demanded a “strict lockdown to contain rapid spread of COVID-19” but Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan after ‘conferring’ with the ‘ulema’ has chosen to go with the latter, justifying his decision by saying that he cannot use force in the matter. Here’s my interview on Al Jazeera live about this, April 22.
The article I referred to in the discussion was: ‘It’s the math, stupid‘. Provides a logical dissection of the exponential nature of the pandemic and argues that “the real pandemic starts the day lockdown ends”. The current cycle of partial and lifted lockdowns will only prolong the problem. The only way to #stopthespread currently is to #lockdownnow – simultaneously around the world for 14-21 days. The economic costs will be horrific for sure. But “We have a choice to make: do we want to throw money at the problem, or throw bodies at the problem?”
Doctors are pleading for #LockdownNow, fearing that not doing so will lead to a situation like Italy – from where Aliya Salahuddin has been sending wonderful video dispatches on Independent Urdu — where doctors are being forced to make terrible choices. Here’s one she did at the start of the month:
See Voice.Pk’s report on Young Doctors Association in Lahore joining doctors in Balochistan in resorting to hunger strikes and protests because of lack of provision of PPE.
“If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague outbreaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place” – from an article in Newsweek, by Dr Craig Consadine quoting the Prophet Muhammad (on Him be Peace).
Also see this interview by public health offical Prof. John Ashton who has been warning about the dangers of delayed lockdown and inadequate testing in the UK, and is now being threatened with a formal complaint against him to his professional body.
Filed under: covid-19, Health | Tagged: imran khan, John Ashton, mosques closure, Public Health, Ramadan, Ramzan |
Journeys to democracy 
Excellent points, Beena.
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Thank you.
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