More than 350 Serbian doctors signed an open letter to President Aleksandar Vucic demanding the dismissal of the pandemic Crisis Staff and warning that the country was in the midst of a public health disaster, while a member of the Staff later said they were not specialists in infectious diseases and that many wanted to withdraw signatures, N1 reported on Tuesday.
The doctors, members of the informal group named United Against COVID, also demanded a new Crisis Staff, an investigation into claims that data on the pandemic was being kept secret and an end to intimidation and politics which inflict damage on the dignity of health care workers.
Later on Tuesday, Darija Kisic Tepavcevic, a member of Serbia’s anti-epidemic Crisis Team, said that „everyone has right to own opinion,“ adding that „none of them specialises in epidemics or infectious diseases, or immunology.“
But she added that they were probably experts when signed the letter, saying that they mostly work in private practice.
Kisic – Tepavcevic said that there were 33,000 doctors in the country and that „a significant number of those who signed the letter called the Health Ministry to withdraw the consent saying they were not exactly aware what they were signing.“
Asked if she questioned their competency, she said she valued all of them, but reiterated they were not specialists in infectious diseases and that they did not offer any idea.
The letter says that the signatories feel that they have a moral and professional obligation to point out how serious the situation is. “Our humane and professional reaction to the reality that health care workers face daily has led to this initiative,” the letter sent to the country’s institutions, as well as the president, said.
The letter said that it was signed first by the doctors who launched the initiative and added that there is no formal organizer because the initiative “belongs to all of us”. It said that the initiative remains open to all doctors in Serbia in an effort to win back public trust.
“We the undersigned have decided to make a public statement because we see no other solution to the public health catastrophe in our country,” the letter said, adding that the lifting of counter-pandemic measures prior to the elections led to a loss of control over the pandemic situation which, it said, can’t be justified with any professional motives.
“The confusion over the number of people sick and dead was caused by discrepancies between statistics and expectations, daily experience and contradictory public statements which have all disrupted the health care system and broken the trust of the public and medical staff in the system,” the letter said.
