Final Word from Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Is the objective of the government of Andrej Babiš to save lives, or to sell antigen and PCR tests? If it is the former, and this is a big if, the government is going about it completely wrong. It's concentrating on testing healthy people who are going to work on a regular basis, and it will soon be forcing all companies, sole proprietors, NGOs and the state to pay a total of about Kč 1.5bn per month for this. Testing these people is like trying to kill a swarm of mosquitoes at a summer camp before spraying the kids with insect repellent. Why isn't the testing targeted instead mainly at those who are most vulnerable? As of tomorrow, general practitioners are supposed to identify chronically ill patients and invite them in for a vaccine. This same process could be used for testing at-risk people. According to Babiš's own LN, one of the main causes of covid death is that patients aren't being identified and treated soon enough. For Kč 1.5bn a month, the government could start providing them with timely tests and therapeutics, thereby sharply reducing the number of people who end up in the hospital and in intensive care. [ Czech Republic covid-19 coronavirus nonprofit organizations Lidové noviny endangered children ]