Pure prescription PR

It has been known for a long time that health care and activities undertaken in this area are not a topic that sells well at party meetings and, in general, in party media. Yes, it can be mentioned - that we are increasing the expenditure, you can throw a few large numbers to stun with the nominally impressive increase, but in fact - no one understands the details (it can be presumed that including the one who throws these numbers from the rostrum). It was no different last Saturday, when the PiS president (73) encouraged and mobilized, beat his chest (joke, joke) and raised the bar for the prime minister (54), encouraging him to start in the marathon and beat Donald Tusk (aged 65). If something is disturbing to the reader on this timeline, something is not fully in line with the rules of fair play, then of course, absolutely right. But it's politics, not sports.

In politics, as you know, efficiency was what mattered in the past, today - only PR. Therefore, the deputy prime minister of the Polish government, the leader of the parliamentary majority, may say "we made it", summing up the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and the argument in favor of this is the fact that "no one died in the streets", which would indicate that the poorest are the benchmarks for Poland neighborhoods in developing countries' capitals where a significant proportion of the population lives and dies on the streets. In other countries, patients died in hospitals, homes and ambulances due to COVID-19 - exactly as in Poland. In Poland, the death statistics say exactly the opposite to the message coming from above: we coped with the COVID-19 pandemic much worse than other countries, and not necessarily much richer than us. Well, not so long ago we were glad that we left behind the two countries of the "old" EU when looking at GDP per capita including purchasing power - Portugal and Greece. The bad news - the excess death rate during a pandemic per million inhabitants is twice as high as these two countries. Experts have no doubts that this is not only due to the Mediterranean diet, but above all to the approach to managing the pandemic, especially its three pillars: testing, vaccination and compliance with safety measures.

The minister of health in the media argues that Poles owe the mortality rates during the pandemic to themselves because they do not care about their health, unlike many other Western societies. It is beyond dispute that in the area of ​​the prevention of civilization diseases, we - as a society, but also as individuals - have a lot to do. But this shifting the responsibility for the obvious - and everything indicates, consciously committed - cannot be ignored. When the PiS president talks about the level of vaccination against COVID-19 "as it is, it is already a matter of citizens' decision" - it is hard not to recall that the state has done really little, and compared to other countries that are leaders in vaccination, practically nothing to protect even the most vulnerable part of the society, ie seniors, as widely as possible.

The day before the PiS convention, the health minister stated that June 3 will be remembered by the medical community for a long time. It sounded ambiguous - whether it was a threat or a promise? You need to reassure - a promise. The "Healthy Life" campaign was launched. Under the auspices of the presidential couple, with the involvement of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of State Assets, the National Health Fund and PZU, as well as the scientific council, a mobile health zone was erected near the Presidential Palace, where it was possible, inter alia, to perform basic tests, including - as encouraged on Twitter - glucose and sugar (medics wondered what the difference was between these two studies, but it's pure malignancy ... probably). The zone will move to Poland, initially - as reported - to nine cities.

And so the question arises, have any conclusions been drawn from the Prevention 40+ program? Because one of the key factors was that the lion's share of those (a few in total) who tested were inhabitants of the largest cities. For various, very complex, but also not surprising reasons, they have radically better access to medical facilities, including prophylaxis, than residents of small towns and villages. If mobile health zones make any sense at all, apart from pure PR, it is there, away from the Royal Route and big city markets. Even if the TV crews have to go further.