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COVID AND THE NEED FOR DEMYTHIZATION

2025-12-12 10:12:00, Opinione Erion Dasho

Myth Two: QUARANTINE

Myth: Quarantine was "invented" to control humanity and was imposed across countries in a coordinated manner as part of a secret global plan.

Albanians forget easily. However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to forget the summer of 2020, when citizens were not allowed to go to the beach and were required to remain in quarantine conditions at the height of the heat.

Exaggeration?

Yes!

Useless?

Of course!

Quarantine is as old as the history of medicine itself. For many centuries, it has been used as the first protective measure when an infectious disease appeared. The term quarantine itself comes from the Italian, quaranta = forty, and refers to the time per day that a ship had to spend in isolation during a plague epidemic.

In this sense, imposing quarantine in the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic was the most reasonable measure. Faced with a new risk, it takes several weeks to understand the nature of the threat, to build a winning strategy and to reorganize the health system. I fully supported this phase of quarantine in March-April 2020, even publicly with media appearances.

Later, I was referred to as "misguided" and accused of being pro-quarantine.

Even today, I stand by the same opinion: "If a new virus emerges, I will still be in favor of a quarantine for a few weeks."

The problem with quarantine began when this justified measure turned into an instrument of force and, in Albania, its duration was exceeded beyond all proportionality.

Against a measured approach guided by medical expertise, Borat appeared with his well-known arrogance and became the threatening figure who was fanned out at night like a spoon to Albanians on every possible television.

Instead of using the quarantine time to take measures, to reorganize the healthcare system, to set up safety nets for the population, to reorient the economy, and many other necessary measures, it was used for propaganda and, on the other hand, for state crimes, such as the demolition of the National Theater.

-Where planning was lacking, there were pathetic moralizing, with Borat even presenting himself as the "strict father" of Albanians.

-Where health services needed to be organized, there were tanks and armored vehicles on the streets.

-Where doctors, epidemiologists, and public health specialists should have been speaking, there were police patrols chasing quarantine "violators" to imprison them.

Such exaggerations were not seen anywhere else in Europe. The closest comparisons are China and North Korea.

In the second half of 2020, there was an immediate turnaround. As popular discontent began to boil and the campaign for the 2021 elections approached, almost all measures were abandoned. We went from one extreme to the other. The sudden opening, without a clear transition strategy, had serious consequences. Albania ranked among the countries with the highest number of deaths per capita in the world.

-While Europe continued appropriate measures such as physical distancing, Borat's politicians held electoral meetings in closed halls.

-While wearing masks on public transport in Germany continued for several years, masks were forgotten in Albania.

-While Europe practiced self-testing and tests were either given for free or sold for 50 cents in supermarkets, in Albania a test was offered for 120 euros, enriching clinics and government-sponsored doctors.

So, at a time when Europe was practicing intelligent measures, Albania was oscillating between unjustified restrictions and dangerous openness.

In conclusion, I want to clarify that quarantine is a valuable tool and an effective public health measure, only when used judiciously and when it lasts as long as science requires.

The moment it becomes a political weapon, it loses its effectiveness and harms society. This is precisely what happened in Albania, China, and North Korea.

Meanwhile, Europe, the US, and other countries where science led the way took intelligent measures after the first months of the pandemic, which were complex, reasonable, and complementary.

Above all, it was the doctors and medical teams who communicated these measures to the citizens. For example, in Germany it was Prof. Lauterbach and the experts from the Robert Koch Institute who spoke, not Chancellor Merkel or other politicians.

Consequently, the public in these countries generally respected the measures, limiting the effect of the pandemic to the availability of vaccines.

The message: Albanians should not use the Borat box to label all the restrictions used during the pandemic as a conspiracy.

There is no parallel between the Boratan sloppiness and the intelligent, science-led measures that were implemented in the civilized world.

Coming soon, with other COVID myths./ CNA