Ph.D. Oleg Maltsev. Acting in the conditions of the epidemic and post-epidemic period
The recent several months have been a massive problem for the whole world; people are faced with an emergency, which prevents the majority of the population of the planet from conducting their professional activities as they did before, to maintain their lifestyle, educate themselves and are impacted by the global economic environment which became fragile among many other things. COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed almost all means of transportation, not to mention imposed restrictions that interfere with the normal way of life. I have witnessed pandemic related events almost all over Europe, as I was conducting scientific field research with Expeditionary Corps in March 2020, which coincided with the outset of the pandemic. When we arrived in Germany, it was not in the state of an epidemic emergency yet, meanwhile in China and Italy virus was rapidly spreading, killing hundreds of people. Initially, the expedition’s scientific plan was the study of Southern Italy psychology, but I was obliged to study the psychology of Europe because events began to unwind at a heightened speed. As a result of our in-field work in five European countries in thirty days, I wrote a monograph titled How I was obliged to study the psychology of Europe or the moment of truth, which was recently published in the Russian language (It can be downloaded in Google books free of charge).
The monograph has a detailed description of what had been happening in Europe at the beginning of the emergency illustrated with facts and evidence. Given paper for PALE-2020 provides only partial and superficial consideration of the issue as one paper is not enough to convey what is outlined in a full-length monograph.
At the moment, I am still inclined to think that this pandemic is a well-prepared action, although this does not mean that the virus is not real, it is very real and has destructive consequences. Question is different, last year and preceding years people were sick as much as they are now, but no one paid much attention to it. This time COVID-19 was dramatically in the spotlight of literally everything and everyone, leading to a declaration of a pandemic by WHO and other subsequent events. What hits the eye is the incapability of states to handle epidemic situations, particularly Italy and Germany (certainly the Chinese government too).
“Civilized world” as we refer to ourselves should be capable of operating in a pandemic status and demonstrating “class” of working in such circumstances. What is meant by “class” is performing and coping with the task set before the state without violating the constitution, human rights and freedoms, European Union agreement, and international conventions. For instance, in Italy, there were rather strange incidents taking place, starting with riots in the colonies to complete freedom of action and movement, which significantly stirred Europe’s epidemiological condition. Many Italians began to emigrate en masse from Italy to France, Germany, Spain and other countries, aggravating the contamination of COVID-19 all over Europe. Germany, Austria, and other states could have jointly closed temporarily their borders with Italy and send their best specialists and help the Italian state to localize the epidemic and demonstrate cohesive work of the European Union, alas that was not the case. Instead, state institutions of all these countries have done the same thing, mainly:
1) Introduced military troops on the streets. It has instantly raised questions, why military formations are used to “fight” the people. Why fight people, not the virus? After all, the army should stand up for the people, not against them. If the officer was ordered to go out and act as a “jail keeper” to keep the entire population of the country under control, so that people are at home like cages, such an officer had to write a resignation report. The argument for the resignation could have been fairly the fact that as an officer of the armed forces, he must protect the state from external attackers and not intervene with internal issues as such. None of the officers in Europe acted this way, suggesting that there is no army in Europe. The situation with the pandemic has clearly shown that there is no army in Europe, but the police (army and special services became the police). Furthermore, the police are related to law enforcement agencies meant to fight crime and not to violate citizens’ rights. Those above were done by almost every EU country except some states like Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands, which refused to cooperate during quarantine, asserting that they will cope on their own.
2) Violation of European Union Law and its treatises. The first country to violate the Schengen Agreement was Germany, which led to mass protests against extended quarantine and the formation of a new political party, “Widerstand 2020” fronting decisions of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Obviously, this is just the beginning, along with Black Lives Matter, we see emerging riots in different countries around the globe.
3) They started “searching” for a vaccine. Most virologists affirm that it is unlikely to find this vaccine because the virus constantly mutates and adjusts to different factors.
4) Gradual strengthening quarantine measures based on the Chinese model to defeat the so-called virus that spread around the world. Alternatively, in simple words, it would have been possible to organize:
- High-quality preventive measures of morbidity by strengthening citizens’ immune systems, inform about preventive measures that could be implemented by anybody.
- The development of fast treatments for diseases associated with influenza and other infectious forms. (To provide treatment faster than people start having severe symptoms).
These two procedures organized by the state would ensure order in epidemiological situations as such. Nevertheless, most desperately searching for a vaccine. From an economic viewpoint, such policy is clear; it means having vast financing to “hunt for a vaccine,” which allows some people to earn on the global community’s misfortune. If to hypothesize and assume who benefits from the pandemic, I would draw attention to two points: First, it is most likely that a certain country would be interested in creating these circumstances — which has been functioning for almost seven years in “isolation” and sanctions. During those years it has readjusted for those conditions and import issue has been resolved by state production. Thus, the pandemic did not influence it the way did other countries, and it is the wealthiest country by now, with the most powerful army.
Europe can hardly continue as it is today, from my viewpoint, the European Union ceased to exist when Germany closed its borders unilaterally violating the Schengen Agreement. Angela Merkel’s official address on March 16, 2020, has already demonstrated her approach: [not to allow “outsiders” to consume our food and take up beds in hospitals].” It must be said that other EU countries did the same in the name of “security”. However, it looks like a fiction movie; if you keep breaking laws, situation becomes less secure. It is unfortunate that the rule of law ceased to be the highest value for the European community, and security became a fiction because the absence of order leads to an insecure and dangerous environment. Instead of remembering the law, most people got scared at the beginning of the quarantine due to massive bombarding of death statistics and stories of media reporting. At the moment, “full-scale robbery” of Europe is coming to an end, and once declared European lifestyle does not work anymore. The entire introduced system with lockdowns and other restrictions will leave a continual mark on the psychophysiological level on the European continent. People will contemplate how they should organize their lives in case this kind of emergency happens again in the post-pandemic era.
Taking into consideration different forecasts, most seemingly Europe will go through extreme industrial and economic reconstruction. There will probably appear some different forms of associations and connections of European states among themselves. From the managerial viewpoint, who is to be blamed for what has happened? Certainly, governments, but no government will be punished for its inadequate actions and ones who come to power next time will acknowledge that no matter what they do, no matter how many lives are lost, they will not be held accountable for it. As a consequence, in the middle of the pandemic’s peak already, some began using the situation to their advantage. Even those who did not organize it have found ways to use it for their benefit. Many people are exploiting the situation to their own advantage since some do not mind prolonging the “pandemic” for another 3-4 months to gain more money (which is very anthropological). Anthropologically a man is organized in a way he cannot act in the interests of the species but only in his own interest. Thus, most states cannot handle the situation and operate under these conditions. Meanwhile, some states such as Belarus, Sweden, Portugal, Russia are handling the situation quite effectively. The primary reason being that these states have centralized leadership and capable of confronting threats that arise. (It is written based on evidence found out from different scientists that I cooperate with, outlined in the monograph as well.)
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that private individuals, private rescue services are much more effective in handling emergencies than states. This problem has not been on the radar for a long time, but it is elementary. States do not have competent people that can effectively solve the before-mentioned tasks on a professional level. The weakness of governments rests precisely in the area of incompetence. Incompetence is the conditions created for high-class specialists in the state so that they can help or serve their country.
There were incidents when the head of the government resigned in the critical emergency, and a hired specialist temporarily fulfilled the former’s role. The specialist solves the issue, hires relevant people, maintaining his income he would have had earned during his temporary role in the government. If such individuals have been hired during corona-crisis, it would have been resolved quickly, circumventing the law and human rights violations. On the contrary, new recommendations to revise the legislation and adopt new laws could have been introduced to eliminate potential issues. However, there are no such rules or opportunities; accordingly, even A-class professionals who could have managed the situation do not have any mechanisms to help the state.
From another side, “The rescue of a drowning man is the drowning man’s own job.” Everybody fights for himself, and it has been like that at all times. From my viewpoint, the involvement of relevant professionals, private emergency operations services, and private companies could have played their role if it was possible — at the moment, we do not have relevant laws that could allow this.
Ph.D. Oleg Maltsev
Author, researcher, criminologist, psychologist. Academician of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Founder and director of The Memory Institute, head of Expeditionary Corps. He is an author of numerous books in areas such as applied history, sociology, depth psychology, philosophy, criminalistics, criminology.
