Propaganda that kills

There are books that are worth reading, although they may not surprise you with anything - apparently -. This is the case with the interview on the river with prof. Wojciech Maksymowicz, former deputy minister of science and higher education in the PiS government. Earlier - the minister of health in the government of Jerzy Buzek, which in the context of the leading topic of the conversation conducted by Jarema Piekutowski is not without significance. "Propaganda that kills" was published by the Nowa Konfederacja publishing house in the noteworthy series Dialogi Międzyepoki.

The political paths of the former minister of health and the United Right not only diverged, but even - they have already diverged some time ago, and the issues related to the strategy of fighting the pandemic were a considerable reason for this - suffice it to say that prof. Maksymowicz, while still a member of the government (though shortly before his departure), sharply criticized the new opening of the fight against the pandemic, presented by the newly appointed Minister of Health, Adam Niedzielski. The fundamental axis of the dispute was testing, or rather - limiting testing to symptomatic people, which Niedzielski announced at the turn of August and September. - Not that Niedzielski thinks that no more testing is needed. Mainly because he knew what resources he had and wanted to fit in them - says prof. Maksymowicz. The professor also recalls the conversation with the new minister at the threshold of his term in office, during which he was to convince Adam Niedzielski, among others to change the decision to limit testing. He heard a declaration of cooperation and openness, besides that one aspect. - He agreed to almost all the proposals, except for one exception - as I said - testing asymptomatic patients, because - firstly - there are no such possibilities, and secondly - he made such a decision based on expert knowledge and it is final.

It would be extremely important - if only from the point of view of historical truth, but also to gain a complete picture of the past two years - to get to know the sources of this "expert knowledge" on which Adam Niedzielski based his decisions. Which of the experts subscribed to such a recommendation, going not only against common sense, but also against the patterns used in other countries? Who, to put it bluntly, is jointly responsible with the leadership of the Ministry of Health for the course of the second, but also the third wave of the pandemic, with their record mortality?

There is, of course, a second possibility. Prof. Maksymowicz casually reveals the mechanism of making other decisions that are crucial for the course of the pandemic. - Minister Dariusz Piontkowski was still fighting to open schools. He had problems with remote teaching, because the schools were completely unprepared for it, they lacked the appropriate equipment. Piontkowski heard somewhere that children do not transmit the virus. He stuck to this argument very much and decided that the schools would be opened - because he had such a warrant. No arguments reached him. Later it was already known that children can spread the virus, but they do not get sick themselves - so the minister said again that there is no such threat then, teachers are not always old either ...

Prof. Wojciech Maksymowicz argues that the fight against the pandemic has been 100% subordinated to politics. Firstly, the politics and balance of party gains and losses were more important than limiting the tragic consequences of the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and secondly - that the fight against the pandemic itself, when it became the axis of the government's actions, also had a political dimension, but also propaganda. That's why so many bad, harmful decisions have been made. That is why we have failed in so many areas. Therefore - ultimately - Poland has one of the highest excess death rates in Europe and among highly developed countries. And while this is certainly not the only reason, it is hard to forget. We should not.