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Czechs are already falling into despair and depression because of the situation, and antidepressant manufacturers are profiting the most.
And there are already patients — supermarket cashiers who, as a result of festering sores in their masks, have purulent inflammations on their faces.
Why does he think the Finance Minister is full of chutzpah? Why will, according to him, the government’s measures have immeasurable impact on all of us in every area of life?
Depression is increasing
Even doctors do not agree on how to deal with the situation. Many people are helpless because of it. Do we expect this to show up in the nation’s health as an increase in the number of patients with depression?
“This is already happening. Patients with anxiety and depression are increasing. But what can medicine offer people who have lost their jobs, who are desperate, indebted, without prospects? Is a psychotherapist’s comfort that they will manage, telling them not to take it so hard? That will be of no use to them. Psychotherapy is also not very common in our healthcare system; quality therapy is mostly for direct payment. An unemployed person cannot afford that. The main beneficiaries will be pharmaceutical companies. Above all, anxiolytics and antidepressants will sell extremely well. They won’t solve the problem, but they will allow the patient not to suffer so much. Then there’s another problem.”
Skin problems from masks
What kind?
“Today I had a young man with depression and a suppurative skin inflammation in my office. And it exactly copied the protective mask. The patient is a cashier in a supermarket. Stressed, he coughs and sniffs into the mask all day, he must not take it off, he has no time to change it. Under the mask he developed a small fester, a breeding ground for fungi and bacteria. How is he supposed to heal when he has to go to work and cannot do so without the mask? Asthmatics, allergy sufferers or people with bronchitis suffer similarly. In a sick society healthy people cannot live. Here powerful medicine is powerless.”
It is probably no longer possible to avoid emerging from the situation with a ruined economy. Was it worth it?
“It wasn’t worth it, but it happened. Minister Schillerová blurted out that the economy will return to pre-coronavirus levels in eight years. How can she say something like that? Businesses and borders are still closed, people sit at home, children do not go to school. With each day we sink deeper. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, does the minister know what will be in eight years? In Yiddish it’s called chutzpah. It’s a mixture of callousness, outrageousness, impudence and cynicism.”
The impact of the crisis on our lives What will the impact be?
“Experienced doctors agree that the damage caused by ill-considered repression will have, and already has, a devastating impact on the health of citizens, social care, business, and the economy.”
