Did your favorite influencer express an opinion on vaccination?

“In July, August, and during the tourism high season, things will be a lot like an ordinary summer,” PM Mitsotakis said at German tabloid Bild on 27 May. 

Reality certainly is here to verify that his predictions have not come true. Registered daily cases are increasing at an alarming rate since 29 June, when they increased to more than 600, within the following two days they increased to more than 700, on 3 July they have surpassed 1,000 and on 8 July they surpassed 2,000. The positivity rate increased to 2.46% in areas with increased epidemiological load, the rate is much higher. On 8 July positivity climbed to 3.24%.

At the Live Briefing on Thursday, health experts said that the average age of the recently infected has decreased to 23, a “decrease of almost a decade within a week.” The majority of the recent infections concern the age group 15-24, while there has been a small increase to the age group 35-55 and no increase to the over 65. For example, 14 young people of an average age of 17 tested positives after they arrived on a ferry from Ios island to the Port of Rafina (Attika).

It remains to be seen if these cases will evolve into an increase in intubated patients and deaths. As the Delta variant has appeared in the country, there are reasonable fears that there is no sufficient number of people vaccinated to shield the population with immunity.

As of July 7, 5,120,640 citizens (49.1%) had been vaccinated at least with one dosage  Out of them, 1,014,987 are partially vaccinated and 4,105,653 fully vaccinated (39.4%).

Meanwhile, a decision on whether vaccination against Covid-19 will become mandatory for specific professional groups is expected to be announced the following week, according to government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni. Top at the list of mandatory vaccination will be health care workers, staff at care homes, and teachers.

Despite some delay, it has been reported that vaccination of citizens in remote areas started on Tuesday on the island of Crete and is expected to expand to other remote areas on the mainland soon. The news was good, as reportedly participation in vaccination in Cretan remote areas surpassed expectations. At the same time, the Health Ministry is going to start vaccinations at home for home-bound citizens. However, the program has not started yet even though it was announced it would start “soon” in January, April, and May. It was reported on Wednesday that the first vaccination of a home-bound citizen took place in Crete.

Moreover, the Greek government seems to turn to local “influencers” to convince citizens to participate in the vaccination program. Artists, mayors, athletes, and even priests are among the “influencers” the government wants to mobilize as they realize the vaccination program has slowed down, media report. We remind you that the Church has continued all along with the pandemic with practicing the Holy Communion with the same spoon, not to mention the many priests that reportedly have preached against vaccinations and masks and now deny the Holy Communion to vaccinated faithful.

The need to increase the vaccination rate becomes even more imminent as the tourism season has started. Tourism-related numbers do not seem particularly gloomy at the moment. June is being considered a “lost” month, while tourism-related turnover is at 40-50% in comparison to 2019. But the UK decision to finally lift quarantine from 19 July for fully vaccinated UK residents arriving in England from amber list countries such as Greece is expected to increase visitors to the country: after this was announced reservations rose by 400%. In any case, the country has to be shielded against the virus and its mutations.

SYRIZA accused the government on Monday that it is building a “false covid-19 success story,” after an epidemiologist said that the national committee did not recommend “no masks outdoors.” The government ruled recently that outdoor masks are no longer necessary.  “The fact that the government once again ignored the Committee of Infectious Diseases and asked the citizens to throw off their masks while the whole planet is warning about the ‘Delta’ variant confirms that Mr. Mitsotakis learned nothing from his criminal mistakes,” SYRIZA said.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras made a plea to citizens to vaccinate and wear masks. Plus, to “reject disunity.” It is worth reminding that the government has called on catering facilities to choose if they would be exclusively for vaccinated people or “mixed” concerning their inside spaces. Till now, however, the majority of restaurant and coffee bars owners reportedly say that they will open the indoor spaces both for vaccinated and unvaccinated customers.

Worried by the spike in cases, in an extraordinary live announcement on Tuesday evening, Civil Protection head Nikos Hardalias announced that restaurants, bars, and clubs will operate exclusively with seated guests and detailed heavy fines for violators. He attributed the spike to “night entertainment” and blamed the youth.

Keep in mind, however, that the problem could very well be because there is crowding in combination many times to not wearing masks in closed spaces such as public transportation, airplanes, and ferries - as has been often documented and everyday life in cities and more “relaxed” countryside and island places has proved.

We kept the most important news item for the end. Despite the fact severely understaffed and suffering from the crisis’ huge budget-cuts public hospitals shouldered heroically the pandemic burden -and still do- PM Mitsotakis in effect announced the closing down of some hospitals in an interview.

“...in certain cases, we have more regional hospitals than we should have,” he said in an interview with “Kathimerini” newspaper. “We can’t have three hospitals within a range of 20-30 km, because they all wanted a hospital in their city, and expect to have three good hospitals. This doesn’t mean that the hospital would close down, it could be turned into a chronic diseases clinic. But we will redesign the map of health,” he said. Mitsotakis had previously said in the interview that primary health “Gordian knot” should be solved, “so that not all people go to the hospitals.”

It should be remembered that the 2021 Health Budget was reportedly cut by 572 million euros with 2020. An increase of only 74 million euros in the hospitals’ budget was registered. However, this amount reportedly stemmed from restructuring an already decreased budget - and specifically in this case reallocating money from the Primary Health Units - thus, teething them out.

In this light, it can be understood why Mitsotakis’s statement on regional hospitals’ “abundance” raised fears that plans to close down some of these hospitals are underway.
 

Police officers accused of attacking Turkish political refugees within a courtroom.

For the third news section of our newsletter this week, we chose a very underreported news item: Policemen of the Special Transfers Unit (EOM) reportedly attacked eleven political refugees from Turkey within the Korydallos Women’s Prison room where their trial was taking place for the second day and during the break, according to Omnia TV reporting. One of the prisoners with a heart condition fainted after a policeman kicked him on the chest.

According to Omnia TV, the policemen hit the defendants so that they return to their cells during the break, “while it is common practice that the defendants stay in the courtroom, as during this time they can consult with their lawyers -as is their right. The policemen demanded for them to return to their cells, and when they refused, they hit them. 

The defendant who fainted had in the past undergone a double by-pass heart surgery. He was transferred to a hospital after two hours, according to his lawyers.

The room where the trial takes place is guarded heavily, so apparently there were no security reasons triggering such a behaviour.

The defendants’ lawyers issued a press release, claiming that the courtroom turned into a battle ground. “Police special forces men with their face covered, were punching, kicking and swearing at the defendants,” they emphasise.

According to the lawyers team, the defendants were finally dragged to their cells, while they were sworn at and accepting extreme violence. Apart from the man transferred to the hospital, the glasses and one of the shoes of another defendant were left behind in the courtroom, while the interpreter of the trial was also beaten. 

When the court resumed, the lawyers claim it refused to express opinion on the matter and adjourned calling upon the defendants not wearing masks - which the lawyers say were torn during the attack.

The trial concerns eleven Turkish and Kurdish political refugees who have applied for asylum in Greece.

Greece is increasingly becoming a state where certain groups of people are dehumanised - first and foremost refugees. 

In relation to this conclusion and, it also worths citing the shocking testimony of a doctor on Lesvos as to the condition of people in Moria II camp, interviewed by journalist Franzisca Grillmeier, who posted it on Twitter on 6 July, clarifying that the doctor’s name/special profession for security reasons remain anonymous: 

“People are in a state of survival inside #Moria2,” says doctor* on Lesvos, “once they are actually arriving in a safe space, we see them collapse. This on-going humiliation in semi-closed, overheated, undignified living spaces with no escape is breaking people’s minds. Some might think, once with a positive asylum decision, camp residents just want to leave Moria2 to find a future, a better job or place, but the truth is, most just want to run away and leave this black hole behind. Run from the experience of being a refugee. We have to facilitate people to flourish. To use their potential. But instead we create prison-like structures, with no trees, no shade, no schools, no carpets or movie nights, nothing individual should remain, no traces should be left. The unspoken aim: Vanish. The EU policy is based on a punishing principle. The logic of a  wall, a drone, the fences, a  pushback, the whole surveillance body in itself is: if you come here, you did something wrong. You depend on our mercy. Coming back to the Control mechanisms: There are currently 3-4 checkpoints before arriving at camp entrance. You need an appointment or paper to state your reason to leave the camp. Or to reach the medical tent up front. Doctors have a strict medical protocol to follow. There has never been a bigger mental health crisis, as I can witness it now. People are shrinking. Their bodies. Their mind. Some stay paralyzed in tents. Especially the children, who cannot go to school or have a distraction from parents stress and emotions. I am not trying to dramatize things, when saying that I have seen patients who can be in a wheelchair from one week to the next, just because the trauma eventually shuts the body down. It cannot take it anymore. Here I see symptoms I have not seen in any other place.”