Last year should have taught us why it is most important that children in this country should stay alive and healthy, while everything else is less important. We haven't learned our lesson. We can't even protect children from bullets, so how can we protect them from infection
According to the latest announcements from the Ministry of Education, the winter vacation for children in primary and secondary schools will not be extended. In Vojvodina, children start school today, in the rest of Serbia (without Kosovo) it is scheduled to last until January 19, and proposals for an extension appeared due to the large number of infections with the flu virus and the increased number of cases of whooping cough.
When it comes to whooping cough, we come to a serious problem. On the territory of Serbia, 7 confirmed cases of this disease were reported until January 1020, and this was confirmed to Radio Free Europe (RSE) at the Institute for Public Health "Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut".
Currently, epidemics of whooping cough have been reported in the territory of the City of Belgrade, as well as a family epidemic with two patients in Bor, in the east of Serbia. The largest number of pertussis cases in relation to the place of residence was reported from the territory of Južnobački District and the City of Belgrade, while the highest incidence rates were in the territory of Južnobački and Južnobanatski Districts, the Public Health Institute "Batut" told RFE/RL.
Anti-vaxxer business
The vaccine against whooping cough is mandatory and is given to babies from the age of two months. Now, if there are most children among the sick, and they received the vaccine at the age of two months, somehow the conclusion is imposed that - they did not receive it.
There is no exact data on the percentage of parents who use the legal option to postpone the mandatory vaccination of their children for all vaccines available to them. But there are social networks and forums, where it is more than obvious that there are parents who use "delay" because they have absolutely no intention of vaccinating their children at all. And then we had a smallpox epidemic in 2018, then it happened again in 2021, and in 2022 several dozen cases of tuberculosis broke out, and now we have whooping cough.
Ah yes, we also got Dr. Branimir Nestorović in the National Assembly and in the Parliament of the City of Belgrade. That Nestorovic, who has long been campaigning against the MMR vaccine, and during the new corona virus pandemic, he became a superstar among conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers (although, these are all the same people).
Now we also have the flu, because of which the winter vacation was already extended at the beginning of 2020, when we still thought that covid-19 might bypass us, like MERS bypassed us. And we have parents wondering if their children will start school in 4 or 14 days, who are trembling because they don't know if their vaccinated children have antibodies, and we have adults who have no idea if the vaccines they received are still effective against whooping cough.
The editors of "Vremena" were contacted by people asking how to check antibodies and, possibly, receive the vaccine, but they were looked at blankly in local health centers, because they did not have the information.
Burying your head in the sand
Well, let's go back to the holidays: yes, children don't like going to school and yes, children can get infected outside of school. But somehow these infectious diseases like to run wild just when children return to schools and kindergartens and when they are more often indoors, in larger groups. But the Ministry of Education, which knows all this very well, is silent and silent. Why? Now let's not talk about the technical government and the transition period between the two sets of parliament. And without that, the policy of every ministry here is that, when a problem occurs, they bury their heads in the sand and wait for the problem to disappear by itself or for the President of Serbia to tell them what they have decided.
We saw it last year with terrible examples. And that last year should have taught us why it is most important that the children in this country should stay alive and healthy, while everything else is less important. We have not learned that lesson. We can't even protect children from bullets, so how can we protect them from infection.
There is, literally, no difference between the one who claims it is day in the middle of the night, or the one who claims to be a giraffe, from the claims we read on billboards: that Vučić is working to unify Serbs and that Serbia is doing better and better day by day.
The pre-election arrests due to the alleged "overthrow of the state" testify to the regime's panic. The bad news for them is - they can't arrest the whole people who decided to defend themselves from progressive beatings and election theft
The ring that tightens around Ćaciland Student list is getting narrower. Because there are more and more spoiled people who see the false prophet for what he is: a street obscener who is fighting Serbia
The goal of the Novi Sad rally was clear: intimidation, demonstration of massiveness and dominance, as well as showing strong capacities for coercion and violence.
"People don't want freedom, and that seems to be for one reason only: if they wanted it, they would have it." This is what Etienne de la Boessy wrote 500 years ago. And the citizens of Serbia shook themselves and scheduled a meeting with freedom, ready to reject "voluntary slavery"
There is, literally, no difference between the one who claims it is day in the middle of the night, or the one who claims to be a giraffe, from the claims we read on billboards: that Vučić is working to unify Serbs and that Serbia is doing better and better day by day.
The pre-election arrests due to the alleged "overthrow of the state" testify to the regime's panic. The bad news for them is - they can't arrest the whole people who decided to defend themselves from progressive beatings and election theft
The ring that tightens around Ćaciland Student list is getting narrower. Because there are more and more spoiled people who see the false prophet for what he is: a street obscener who is fighting Serbia
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