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The COVID-19 issue is being\u00a0<\/span>addressed through scientific information, political judgement and ethical decisions.\u00a0 Behind each statistic issued by the health authorities there are concerned individuals and worried families as well as those who have unfortunately lost their lives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The barrage and advice being issued might be confusing f<\/span>or the general public<\/span>\u00a0and may even be excessive. Without a doubt, this is being intensified by the false news circulating on social media. How are we going to evaluate what we hear and see every day? What do we know about who is the most and the least at risk? Is the Government reacting well to this crisis and is the economy being sufficiently safeguarded? Why and how are the restrictions that were imposed on the general public being lifted? These are not academic questions but ones which concern the physical, mental and economic health of\u00a0each and every\u00a0one of us and of society in general.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Those elderly people who suffer from medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems are most at risk, especially if they suffer from more than one condition at once<\/span>. These people need to take<\/span>\u00a0even<\/span>\u00a0more precautions.<\/span>\u00a0The general advice is to avoid contact as much as possible and maintaining social distance and simple hygiene is very important if they are to stay out of danger.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the next level of risk are members of the general population who are instrumental in protecting these vulnerable groups from the spread of the infection. Even those who are at minimal risk can end up in hospital, in intensive care or on a ventilator, so it makes sense to avoid unnecessary exposure to the virus.\u00a0 At the end of the day, this can lead to a lack of resources to support those who are most at risk.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Part of our problem is lack of information on the spread of the virus<\/span>\u00a0because of lack of testing of members of the general public who do not show symptoms. Some studies suggest that a section of the population could have been exposed to the virus without developing any symptoms<\/span>, but they could still have passed the virus on to others.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Within the\u00a0<\/span>general\u00a0<\/span>population\u00a0<\/span>there are also youths and children who are not badly affected by the virus, though it is vital to mention that some could still develop a serious illness that could even lead to death.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This lack of information makes it very difficult to answer another question:<\/span>\u00a0is our economy paying a high price in vain?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Information is essential if the restrictions that were imposed in the country are to be lifted.\u00a0 How are we going to lessen the risk of infection in the population while keeping the cost of the economy down? Those who are less at risk and who had to stop working should be the first to start contributing to the economy once again, followed by other groups. In the\u00a0meantime\u00a0protection should continue to be given to those who are most vulnerable among us and the risk of another wave of the virus should be minimised.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Political judgements and ethical decisions should\u00a0still continue\u00a0to be made, with the hope that these are backed up by better and more objective information than we have had to date.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The COVID-19 issue is being\u00a0addressed through scientific information, political judgement and ethical decisions.\u00a0 Behind each statistic issued by the health authorities there are concerned individuals and worried families as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3595,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[165],"issuem_issue_categories":[7],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3594"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3600,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3594\/revisions\/3600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=3594"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=3594"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=3594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}