The main opposition parties in Poland are claiming Poland received faulty masks from China for millions of euros, that Poland has “invisible” ventilators, and that Polish Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski is “abandoning ship” just as infections rise.
These all are the main accusations thrown at Szumowski who resigned on Tuesday, who is the same minister the opposition was demanding resign just in June.
So, how much truth is there to the accusations?
If we assume that the minister of health is responsible for every single infection case in Poland, then we should congratulate him, just as we did at the start of the pandemic. Compared to the rest of the world and Europe, Poland squares up pretty well.
It is true that we worry about another wave of Covid-19 during the fall, as the minister himself warned. And the current curve of infections is worrying as well, along with the return of restrictions in some municipalities and professions.
Today, however, we know much more than we did in March. We do not need to fret that the state will be unable to handle the pandemic. We do not fear that hospitals will run out of beds. The millions which the ministry spent on equipment, of which there were shortages everywhere in the world in March, did not go into Szumowski’s pockets.
Yes, a mistake was made, but we must consider the rush in which all the governments in the world had to act back then.
Minister Szumowski is the same man who was congratulated by both the left and the right for remaining calm and making the right decisions during the most dangerous moment of the crisis. It was thanks to his quick decision-making that doctors still do not need to decide who must be taken off a ventilator and whose life should be spared.
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