Siarhei Chaly: How Can We Fight With Lukashenka's Fakes?

What about the statements regarding the vodka, bathhouse, tractor?

Commenting to tut.by on the actions of the authorities in conditions of coronavirus epidemic, independent economist Siarhei Chaly referred to the meeting on the epidemiological situation in the country as an example.

According to him, instead of recognizing the scale of the problem and explaining it, we heard unfunny jokes and an anecdote about Zhirinovsky.

- It becomes obvious that it is not enough to have an adequate government and Ministry of Health. Lukashenka says that Karanik has enlightened him: the RNA of this virus is 90% identical to the known ones. And what follows from this? Our DNA is 90% identical to that of the pigs. Well, that's not the question.

The expert noticed that the authorities have failed to communicate with the public:

- Now you can tell all you want that you have to fight fakes and telegrams, but you have created a situation of distrust to official figures. (...) Now they want to fight against fakes. But then what to do with statements about the vodka, sauna, tractor? It all doesn't help with the virus. Is that a fake? How do we fight it?

Speaking of the global economic crisis, Siarhei Chaly drew a parallel with the coronavirus and the risk group:

- Whether you die or not depends not on whether you are infected, but on the state of your body at that moment. It depends on how aged it is, whether there are chronic diseases. It's the same with the economy and its test for coronavirus. We barely survived the last crisis when we were saving enterprises, not people, in 2015, and this still backfires in the regions. We may not survive the second such crisis. We need anti-crisis measures that will make the economy more sustainable in the future.