Covid-19: Downright Disinformation Should Be Worse Than Rumour Mongering

By M.M. Janapriya –APRIL 1, 2020

Dr. M.M. Janapriya

This article should not be construed as trying to undermine and /or belittle the good work done by members of the anti-corona Presidential task force. Sri Lanka is doing a sterling job of containing the spread of this deadly virus. Fortunately the job is being done in military style with military precision with great results which is indeed the only way to go about it. There is a good chance that any other government presiding over this pandemic could well have made a mockery of it. All the same if any individual ‘expert’ comes on popular TV and misinforms the public we, as educated and senior members of the public have a duty of care by our brethren to try and highlight it.   

This is exactly what my endeavor is, by trying to correct the barrage of disinformation delivered on the management of Covid-19, directed towards an unsuspecting public at a recent episode of a weekly panel show telecast over a private albeit nationwide television channel. The show is “Aluth Parlimenthuwa” and the date is 25th March 2020. There were 3 medical personnel, a high ranking police officer and another person on the panel. The factual inaccuracies were glaring and staring at one’s face but yet the other two doctors were either too timid to correct this particular panelist or the misrepresentations flew over their heads or indeed the poor doctors were genuinely unaware of the correct facts. 

You can watch this entire episode below. Please concentrate on what the participant says from 1:12:35 to 1:15:12.

This program is being conducted in Singhalese and for those of you out there who may not fully understand what is on the video here is an English translation.

“When you ask us to quantify the number of beds (he means ICU beds) in hospitals it is a case of 12/100,000 in Italy and 2/100,000 in Sri Lanka. However there are specific ways in which this should be factored in. When we take these numbers in to consideration we have 570 ICU beds but there are only 2 (Corona) patients in the ICU as at present. The question is this. This is the amount of resources physically available. If we fail to push the spread level backwards from 3a to 2 with all our containment measures and it goes from 3a to 4 even the hospital employees would be affected. We need enough personnel to be able to put the available resources in to full use. If people act irresponsibly and if the hospital employees need to be quarantined we will not be able to use the available resources as we would be short of staff to use them.  

This is what happened in the said Italy. Not that they lacked resources but their trained staff also had gone in to self-quarantine. This is why I am reiterating the importance of pushing back the spread from 3a to 2 again. If by chance the spread moves to 4 then we will have to face a major challenge. This is what the arithmetic says. (Comment MMJ:  So far so good. Argument stands to reason. The crunch statements however start with the next paragraph) 

How did the so called developed countries face this situation? They declared no ICU bed should be given to anyone over 70 years of age. They brought in legislation to stop those over 50 years with malignancies being entitled to an ICU bed and you showed us how people in the so called developed world protested over this using abusive language. This is what has happened to us who have been so jubilant about globalization, today.

Because of this, people in developed countries want to come back to Sri Lanka. Even today some asked me if they could come back chartering a flight and were prepared to pay any amount of money to go straight in to quarantine.

People must know we are not a nation that do such things. We are a country that says “siyak ayu leba, mageth ayu gena matath wada kal geewath wenna” meaning “please take the hundred years of my life and live longer than me”. Hence we are not prepared to deny the said machine (ventilator) not only to 70, 80, 90 and 100 year olds but to even 110 year olds. Our health workers want to save the lives ranging from infancy to any age.”  

This is bordering on drunken gibberish. Those of us who are medical professionals who would have watched this program must have, no doubt, been angered the way I have been at the dissemination of false information to the innocent public. In my near half a century long medical practice I have come to respect our public more and more as they proved to be a lot that have utmost faith in our doctors. So much so Sri Lankans are a nation who would unreservedly thank doctors almost falling at their feet, for according medical care to their loved one who has just passed away not despite but, because of the treatment the person received. This is why I feel so aggrieved about the matter. 

Please pay your attention to the first para of the highlighted text. This was said exhibiting a high degree of pomposity and a similar degree of contempt towards European countries worst affected by the Corona outbreak. You would appreciate it as an utterance coming from a person occupying an imaginary high pedestal in the vast expanse of the unfamiliar field of the Corona virus. He is talking as if we have won the virus and the western world have gone completely crazy. I agree as would most people that there is a much wider spread of and a much higher mortality rate from the Covid-19 in these countries than in ours and in the south eastern part of the globe. There are so many reasons why this could be so over and above being a bit late on bringing in social distancing. 

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