In a trademark populist style that is now getting to be old news, Prime Minister Rama announced unexpectedly that he was taking the plane to the United States “to move all strings” and get “face to face” meetings with Covid-19 vaccine producers so that Albania can get its own supply.
The heavy hand of the pandemics is being felt every day in the lives of Albanian citizen, most of whom of course welcomed the recent news of the vaccine approval seeking a light at the end of the tunnel. However this sudden theatrical departure raises more questions and issues instead of providing solace.
First of all, there is a formal application procedure to go through in order to get the vaccines and nothing can shortcut it. Lobbying can have some effect but let’s not forget that all countries are making their attempts and Albania can boast neither a significant market size nor any other form of strategic comparative importance. That’s aid, Albanian authorities had declare before that Albania would be covered with a vaccine through the EU platforms and the COVAX alliance. It is unclear what kind of speeding or circumventing the Prime Minister hopes to achieve. Perhaps none.
While this Don Quixote-sque mission to the US is on the way, the crisis management system at home are failing like a house of cards. Hospitals are reported to be near full capacity and there have been many complaints that some patients are receiving treatment inside ambulance cars. A media investigation has revealed that even private hospitals, offering service in exchange for exorbitant prices are full and even have waiting lists.
Instant testing kits were unveiled this week as a major success however the first kit sets available are too few to make a real difference. Doctors continue to get sick and the state is responding with assistance for their treatment abroad only when put to shame by social media appeals and crowd funding initiatives.
For the rest of the population trying to cope with the difficulties, life is not getting any better.
Thousands of families with children at school and at the university are not being able to cope with the faulty platforms of online education. These platforms, praised with showers of propaganda as the ‘digital future’ are not programmed to resists to the increased traffic and often crash. In addition, they often don’t support mobile usage so you have to have a laptop/desktop which many teachers cannot afford. Schools don’t offer Internet connection to provide teachers with shared work space. The kaleidoscopic timetable of school turns for children has thrown in disarray parents work and commute schedules. All this can be improved if not fixed altogether with some coordinated institutional effort and a fair distribution of resources.
To make matters even worse, a young man was shot dead by the police in a case of deadly confusion after he was chased for breaking curfew hours and seemed to be putting up armed resistance. Sources now say that he was later found without a real weapon. The sometimes inconsistent rules placed by the public health authorities in addition to the pressure placed on law enforcement agencies is therefore not working.
Finally and full circle back to the vaccine, there is a dire need to establish the technical conditions for the proper storage of the vaccine once it arrives as well as all the efforts to train the staff and establish a proper dissemination and administration mechanism.
Therefore it is blatantly clear that the work to be done is at home, within Albania’s borders. There is so much to improve and fix here that the de of boarding a plane to become a savior is just a mix of ridicule, if not worse.
