“We’ll never return to pre-pandemic world; some will always wear masks”: Polish health minister

In an interview with TVN, health minister Adam Niedzielski also predicted that the current third wave of the virus will peak this weekend; expressed hope that enough people would be vaccinated for Poland to have “population immunity by the summer”; and admitted that tougher restrictions are now difficult due to “a lack of social discipline”.

“A state of epidemic to the end of our days”

“We will never go back to the pre-pandemic world,” said Niedzielski. “Some of us will always use masks and keep our distance for fear of infection…Today’s generation of 40- and 50-year-olds will live in a state of epidemic threat to the end of their days.”

He warned that the world will have to remain wary of further variants of coronavirus developing as well as of new pandemics. “There will be more biological threats…[and] they will become ever more dangerous…It’s time to get used to the idea that this is not the last pandemic of our lives,” said the minister.

The health minister’s pessimistic outlook was, however, contradicted soon after by Jarosław Kaczyński, chairman of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and Poland’s most powerful politician.

“I strongly believe that the optimists among doctors are right, and that in a few months we will be past the pandemic,” Kaczyński told Gazeta Polska in quotes published today.

Poland has recently reached its highest ever level of infections, as well as of people hospitalised with COVID-19 and of patients requiring ventilators. Niedzielski, however, who was speaking before the weekend, noted that there were signs of a “slowdown in the upward trend” and that “infections should peak around Easter”.

“A lack of social discipline”

The health minister admitted, though, that he was worried about the Easter weekend, when Poles would “visit families, people they haven’t seen for a long time”. Asked why, in that case, the government did not introduce restrictions on movement, Niedzielski said that he was “not sure it would work”.

“Unfortunately it is getting ever harder to convince” the public to observe restrictions, he admitted. “We are aware that people are frustrated and that there are other costs as well – not only economic, but above all mental health.”

“We cannot be naive,” he continued. “We could introduce hundreds of restrictions, but it’s about compliance with them…We cannot disregard the environment in which we are operating. Our restrictions are contested by certain groups. Unfortunately, they do not land on a disciplined society.”

“When we said ‘stay at home’ a year ago, we saw from [mobile] phone operators that people stayed at home,” the minister noted. “Unfortunately, it is different today…Things that worked a year ago are not working so effectively today due to a lack of social discipline.”

“Communication errors”

The authorities in Poland have had increasing difficulties in enforcing coronavirus restrictions. Some have blamed the government itself for this, after it introduced restrictions on a questionable legal basis and ministers were occasionally caught not complying with them.

A series of court rulings have declared certain restrictions to be unlawful, encouraging some businesses and individuals to ignore them. Earlier this year, sanitary authorities confirmed that coronavirus rules were violated at a mass in honour of Kaczyński’s late mother, at which the PiS chairman spoke without a mask.

Asked who was at fault for the current situation, Niedzielski said “it’s not a question of blame”. However, in his Easter message this weekend, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki admitted that he had made mistakes.

“The epidemic has often turned out to be more complicated than I hoped,” said Morawiecki, who then recalled the moment last summer when he declared that Poles “do not need to be afraid” of the virus anymore. In fact, after a major autumn wave, Poland went on to have the EU’s highest excess death rate in 2020.

“I cannot turn back time, but I would today speak about certain issues differently,” continued the prime minister. “That is why I now want to apologise to you for these moments, in the hope that this gesture of reconciliation will accompany us in the difficult weeks to come.”

In his interview with TVN, Niedzielski was asked about a more recent hiccup in Poland’s coronavirus response. This week, many people aged over 40 discovered that – overnight and with no previous announcement – they had become eligible for coronavirus vaccines and were offered appointments.

However, a few hours later registration was temporarily suspended due to an error in the system. Some appointments were cancelled and rearranged for a later date. The prime minister’s chief of staff, Michał Dwoczyk, who is overseeing Poland’s vaccine rollout, apologised for the confusion.

Press rumours suggested that the decision to widen access to vaccines had been made by Dworczyk without consulting – or even informing – the health ministry. Speaking to TVN, Niedzielski confirmed that he had been unaware of and was “surprised” by the change. “A communication error occurred,” he said.

“Population immunity before the summer holidays”

The health minister, however, expressed optimism about Poland’s vaccine rollout. The government recently announced that it was accelerating its jab timetable, as larger quantities of the vaccine start arriving this month.

“Given that we will be speeding up vaccinations, I really think that we should have some kind of population immunity before the summer holidays,” Niedzielski told TVN. He noted that, in Israel, there was a “noticeable drop” in infections after 26% of the population had been vaccinated.

As of this morning, Poland has administered almost 6.6 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, with over two million people having received their second jab. Poland’s vaccination rate – of around 17.5 doses per 100 people – is similar to the average across the European Union.

Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)