ENCOURAGING NON-COMPLIANCE WITH LEGAL PROTECTION MEASURES IS DANGEROUS

The adoption of the amendments to the Law on Health Care, namely the introduction of the measure mandatory wearing of a mask in the open space, divided the public and the medical professionals – whether this measure is needed, how effective it is and how risky. The media conveys the different views and opinions of doctors on this topic. That is the reason why the debate, i.e. the criticism of the measures, is spreading on the social networks at an intensified pace. In this regard, the activities of individuals and groups prevail, and even citizens’ associations, which even before this measure were made mandatory, were active on their profiles with announcements, criticizing all adopted measures as inadequate. From the individuals who base their personal views on their perception of the whole situation, supporting it with various videos, photos that are spread all over the region, certainly without any relevant evidence of what they claim, last week the Facebook post of a certain Mario Janevski. Namely, in the post he convinces the readers that there is no pandemic and calls it a quasi-pandemic, and states that measures such as wearing a mask and physical distance would not help. The fact-finding service Vistinomer assessed the announcement as half-true, which is one of the main features of disinformation. His post received a lot of attention, received about 2,600 likes, and had 841 shares and 208 comments.

Dissatisfied with the fact that his publication was described as disinformation, he again announced himself on October 29th , stating, among other things, that this was totalitarianism for him, and he was not on the side of Satanists and globalists. Conspiracy theories about Satanists and globalists are well known and have anti-Western sentiment, used to attack Western democracies and their values.

Another post was from a well-known anti-government activist, Dragan Ugrinovski, who stirred the public with his post of photos, allegedly of children in a kindergarten in Croatia. Without going into the authenticity of the photos, it is enough to quote his claim “..what a corona what coppers …”, to conclude that he denies the existence of the corona virus, which is another disinformation that circulating around the world since the outbreak of the virus. It is very normal for anyone who has children to be concerned about their safety, but the educational process, especially for the earliest categories, must go smoothly even in a pandemic.

Finally, in this group of activities from last week, we will add the petition against mandatory wearing of masks published by the organization From Us for Us on October 27th , as a concrete step taken against allegedly coercive measures “to protect the health of citizens” . They demand the abolition of the mandatory wearing of masks everywhere and for everyone, and especially in schools, until, in their opinion, these recommendations are based on a solid scientific basis. On the other hand, the main activities of the organization in its one-year existence are directed against vaccination, which is a scientific consensus. This shows that opponents of anti-virus measures are often advocates of one of the many conspiracy theories against scientific advances and technology, and also show that the same individuals and movements who previously advocated anti-vaccination views are now opposed to anti-virus measures. The petition was transmitted by the anonymous portal Free World, which often transmits the posts of this association, and the article had 1,354 interactions on Facebook.

It is interesting that in its publications this organization offers to the public alleged scientific evidence and legal validity, but still on their website there is a legal restriction that “the texts published on the site does NOT serve to provide medical advice, diagnoses and treatments, nor are they specific legal advice and do not always reflect the position of the Association. ”

With the pandemic, the organization expanded its activities against protection measures, creating public distrust. They argue that health workers are lying, and allegedly they are conducting the fraud. The right to free assembly and freedom of speech and expression are guaranteed. However, all these above-mentioned activities of individuals, groups, associations and others alike that encourage non-compliance with the measures, at this time of pandemic are dangerous to public health, because the world is facing a serious problem, as evidenced by the growing numbers of infected and deaths from the virus in recent times, both in the world and in our country. From the above it can be seen that these individuals and groups consider the protection measures to be a political decision, without considering the fact that such or similar measures are in force in almost all of European countries.

Therefore, the pandemic should teach us to be united in the fight against the virus and how we can better protect ourselves from it. Because the most important thing is to preserve our own, and the health of our loved ones, and only then will we contribute to public health. The government, like all other governments in the world, has faced this situation and must make decisions in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO, according to analyzes, algorithm, examples, and experiences from other countries. And it is our obligation to respect the measures and the laws. Encouraging their disrespect can only contribute to further aggravation of the situation, which can be damaging to all of us.