Ukraine is on its way to becoming the next northern Italy or Spain unless people begin to take COVID-19 more seriously.
That’s not my opinion. That’s what Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said in an Oct. 8 video message calling on Ukrainians obey measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus: to wear masks, maintain social distance and wash their hands or use hand sanitizer.
Stepanov is right to sound the alarm. In just over a week, Ukraine went from recording around 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day to over 5,800. If the government doesn’t take urgent measures, the medical system will collapse and thousands of people will die.
But as anyone who watches Stepanov’s daily briefings knows, he has been sounding the alarm for months. No one is listening. Not the public and certainly not the country’s political leaders.
If Stepanov cares about saving lives more than saving his job, it’s time for him to do the right thing: He must resign.
By publicly resigning and stating that Ukraine’s leadership is prioritizing its popularity over public health, Stepanov will do more to protect Ukrainians from COVID-19 than anything he can accomplish in office.
If Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko, the country’s coronavirus czar, were also to resign and make a similar statement, it would be doubly forceful.
Stepanov likely knows that his battle against COVID-19 as a state official has failed. In his video message, he accused politicians of attempting to boost their ratings by politicizing the virus in the run-up to the Oct. 25 local elections.
“It would be better if you directed the enthusiasm with which you organize concerts with thousands of spectators toward informing people about safety measures and worrying about their health,” Stepanov said.
But the politicians won’t take his advice and the public won’t listen. There is virtually no enforcement of masks or social distancing. And as soon as local leaders put up even the slightest resistance to quarantine measures, the central government gives in. Everyone is more worried about politics than public health.
In his video, Stepanov said that a second lockdown would be a disaster for Ukraine’s weak economy. But with the way things are going, the country is either headed for a second lockdown or mass death. Either option would be a disaster for Ukraine.
More than 4,700 people have died of the coronavirus in Ukraine. And the Ukrainian government has blood on its hands for its weak response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stepanov must decide who he wants to be: the Zelensky administration’s pet doctor or a true warrior for the health of Ukrainians. Since he is unable to enforce any meaningful anti-coronavirus measures in office, the best thing he can do is to loudly exit and call out the government for its failure to protect the lives of its own citizens.
Some may argue that Stepanov’s exit could lead to a less competent official becoming health minister. But Ukraine doesn’t need a genius to run it’s coronavirus response – there are plenty of smart medical professionals who can advise on that. What it needs is political will.
The only way to create that will is to shake up the system and show that, on fighting COVID-19, the emperor has no clothes.
A dramatic exit – effectively a vote of no confidence in the government from its top health official – would do more to drive home the message that Ukrainians’ lives are in danger than any briefing Stepanov can give.
And while it might not help Stepanov’s career in the short term, I believe that many Ukrainians will later be extremely grateful for his personal sacrifice to save his fellow citizens.
If Stepanov is truly serious about winning the battle against COVID-19, there is only one thing to do: Resign and go out with a bang.
