My reply to Tim Anderson’s statement on the “Great Viral Debate”

My reply to Tim Anderson’s statement on the “Great Viral Debate” (also see Denis Rancourt’s statement) hosted by Off Guardian:

Tim Anderson’s analysis of covid measures in Syria is that of a deluded person living far removed from reality, and very desperately clinging to his predetermined narrative.

Writing from afar, Anderson did not have an actual clue how Syria’s measures played out **in reality**.

Anderson:

“What did the more independent countries (China, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria) do?

– they built and extended public health systems;

– they extended universal guarantees and made more inclusive systems;

– they promptly imposed protective quarantine measures, led by health personnel;

– they generated shorter ‘lockdowns’ which, with testing and tracing, could be more focused.”

*

All good on paper, but not reality.

Anderson is implying that “testing and tracing” was a widespread policy, if a policy at all.

Yes, SANA will publish near-daily updates on “cases”, and yes there was testing done, primarily new arrivals to Syria.  But there was not country-wise “testing and tracing” as he would imply. [And that’s without addressing the false positives the test is known to give…]

The “lockdown” in Syria was far from a lockdown. [See my early May post with numerous links showing life in Syria.  See also: Syria is not under lockdown, is not the dystopian society of war propagandists]

Shops closed for a month or so, then the President decided the cost was too brutal on the people and shops opened anew.

Even during that time, Syrians were walking shoulder to shoulder in market places (I know, I was there among them), or waiting to buy food at the government subsidized shops.

There was a curfew for a month or so (I can get the actual dates by going through my posts), but that was from 7:30 pm to 6 am, and friends in other provinces told me they would go out at night and police turn a blind eye.

Parks were closed, but social distancing never enforced: in fact, just outside a closed park you could find people sitting side by side on park walls, business as usual.

Masks were nominally mandated for shopkeepers, but if you were actually there you would have seen people chinning the masks, or simply not wearing them. Likewise, they were mandated for official/government offices, but I did a ton of runs to immigration and virtually no government employees inside, much less people, wore them. At best, some chinned the masks.

Point being: there were *nominal* measures taken in Syria but not strictly at all enforced.

Which means Anderson’s theory of “defeating” covid due to these “strict” measures is utter nonsense.

Reality was that Syria had to do some measures for various reasons. One is that the people, confused (at the start) might have demanded action had none been taken (although in conversations I had over the past half year, most I met were not concerned about covid and saw it as global political theatre).

Patrick Corbett raises a good point on just why Syria and other nations followed, to some degree some of the WHO dictates:

“One thing few people are aware of is that the WHO in either 2005 or 2007 (back when they still had some credibility) signed an agreement with 192 countries that they (the countries) would follow the WHO lead in any health related emergencies in the future. The WHO would dictate and coordinate the response.

Thus when Cov’d was declared a pandemic the countries followed their agreed upon response and directives.

But they didn’t do it 100%, Sweden for example.

And some countries like Syria prudently took precautions as they didn’t have all the information to simply turn their back on it. But apparently they very quickly saw what was going on.

Another example was Nicaragua. They reacted very minimally and mostly carried on with normal life.”

My question is: how can Anderson defend the brutal lockdowns that have caused untold poverty, deaths, depression, suicide, domestic abuse and a staggering amount of other ills?

Anderson wrote: “It is important to go beyond the fantasies that the current epidemics were not serious public health threats, which demand a social response.”

But, at least in regard to his assessment of how things played out in Syria, he is the one living in a fantasy.

UPDATE:  

Since I was doing a lot of filming while in Syria, you watch and decide whether you feel Syria was put under strict measures which “saved” Syria from Covid:

-April 1, Damascus, no physical distancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWaxWsmyBSU

-April 2, Dweila, no physical distancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjO5Y3ixNJUMid

-April, park in Qassour, no physical distancing or mask: https://www.facebook.com/EvaBoBeeva/videos/3148379745171998

-April 21, old Damascus, busy streets, no physical distancing, few wearing masks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5np-3vXt48

-Late April, around Damascus, no physical distancing, few wearing masks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ZvkFuX09s

and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8PGoGz_2HA

-Early May, around Damascus, no physical distancing, few wearing masks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyE-ZCAClEA

I have many more videos following those dates, but you get the point.

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