LCP Health Sector: Free COVID-19 tests in all hospitals, and food assistance to all citizens
Ever since its announcement in 1949, the world celebrates the 7th of April each year as the World Health Day. Significantly enough, the occasion this year comes amid a global pandemic named COVID-19 which caused a set of implications for the World’s populations since it forced them to live under strict self-regulatory measures. Despite heavy literature on the Coronavirus, but it is still unclear neither how the virus is combatted nor prevented from the very beginning. Moreover, researchers are still uncertain about the time the Virus takes to be completely removed from the body in spite of mobilizing enormous resources around the globe, specifically health and medical resources.
Remarkably, the outbreak of this virus raised numerous questions on the readiness of the world’s countries to face this pandemic. Even the richest countries that have industrial and medical capacities are not able to put an end to it. As a result, more citizens will be forced to enter into the poverty and unemployment zones and thus hardening their livelihood practices. While the health care systems of the capitalist countries failed to address the needs of their population, it was noticeable that socialist countries or those that still have the legacy of socialism in them, were able to face the pandemic in a relatively more effective way than the capitalists’ countries. The reason underlying this fact is the countries whose political system is based on socialism doctrines prioritize human needs, values, and welfare while capitalistic states cherish profits and gains over anything else. This pandemic caused us to seriously think about the world’s resources and how is it used and managed. Ironically, people residing in countries that have valuable and rich resources are the ones who are more suffering nowadays, and therefore making these countries helpless without the assistance provided by other countries.
Talking about Lebanon, the country’s political elites treated the outbreak of COVID-19 through a rationale based on favoritism and sectarianism- a logic that is similar to how the ruling elite addressed other issues. Despite the importance of citizens keeping themselves in their homes and limiting their daily mobility, but the country’s political factions did not work on improving their livelihood during quarantine days. In this regard, the health sector of LCP calls on the state to provide free-of-charge tests to detect Coronavirus, adequate spaces for health care treatment, and food assistance vouchers. Finally, these measures should be done in collaboration with civil society organizations especially those who have both credibility and experience. The Health Sector of LCP takes the opportunity of the World Health Day, to call the state authorities to revisit all health-related policies and measures in the World and in Lebanon. Moreover, we call all concerned parties to mobilize all resources that the medical care personnel might need in order to address this pandemic. What is specifically important nowadays is providing overdue payments for all health-related professionals at a time when Lebanon faces a severe socio-economic crisis.
Lebanese Communist Party - Health Sector
April 7, 2020
