My blog

We are dying a lot. We are one of the world leaders in the number of deaths and the world superpower in dying.

There are 91 countries in the world with a population of over 10 million. They are home to 7.5 billion people, or 96% of the Earth's population. Among these countries, we rank fifth in terms of the number of deaths! Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,582 deaths have been recorded per million inhabitants in Poland. In fourth place is Brazil with 2,893 deaths, in third Romania with 3,073 deaths, in second the Czech Republic with 3,377 deaths, and in first Peru with 6,065 deaths.

From the end of World War II, i.e. from 1945 to the mid-1970s, fewer than 300,000 people died in Poland each year. From the mid-1970s to 1990, the annual number of deaths increased systematically to 400,000, and for thirty years it remained in the range of 360,000 to 400,000. In 2017, 402,000 of us died, in 2018 – 411,000, in 2019 – 407,000. In 2020, the year in which the pandemic broke out, over 485,000 of us died, and in 2021 this number will significantly exceed 500,000 (GUS has not yet provided full data). In connection with the decreasing number of births in the last two years, according to GUS estimates, in 2021 the number of Poles decreased by 196,000 to 38.162 million, which is almost half a million less compared to 2012.

People are dying from COVID all over the world. But we have more people dying than other countries. There are three reasons for that.

The first reason is the health of Poles. We eat unhealthy food, too much meat, too few vegetables, drink too much alcohol, smoke too much, do too little exercise, are overweight. People with poorer health are less resistant and more susceptible to death from COVID. In the United States, where health is probably even worse than in Poland, 4% of the world's population lives, and the share of the total number of deaths related to COVID is as much as 16%, which means that the mortality rate there is four times higher than the global average. In Poland, this indicator is unfortunately similar. The population of our country constitutes 0.5% of the world's population, and the share of deaths is almost 2% - i.e. four times higher.

The second reason is the issue of healthcare organization. Our rulers failed to organize it properly. A third of the beds and a third of the doctors and nurses were taken from the non-COVID healthcare service, transferring these resources to saving COVID patients. The non-COVID service was not invested in and was not properly separated from the COVID healthcare service. As a result, there were no beds in hospitals for the treatment of diseases other than Covid, surgeries were canceled, and people limited their visits to the doctor also due to fear of infection. The result is that in the last two years, 200,000 more people have died than in the previous two years, half of whom were not infected with COVID at the time of death, i.e. they died of unattended cancer, overlooked diabetes, or unattended coronary artery disease.

And finally, the third reason. The most important one. We did not take the opportunity to protect ourselves from the deadly effects of infection. In short, we did not get vaccinated. We are at the bottom of Europe, today in 35th place in terms of the number of people fully vaccinated. The current result is 56%, and considering that most of the vaccinated people received their second dose in the first half of 2020, the actual level of vaccination is better reflected by the number of people vaccinated with the third dose - and this number does not exceed 20%.

It's not their fault that people don't get vaccinated. The average Joe does a lot of unwise things, most of them not because he's unwise, but because the country is run by unwise and irresponsible people.

Poles are not getting vaccinated because the government is not introducing mandatory vaccinations, or even restrictions for the unvaccinated. Poles are not getting vaccinated because the prime minister and president are irresponsible and say that Poles cannot be forced to do anything. Poles are not getting vaccinated because many anti-sanitary activists shout that forcing vaccinations restricts people's freedom. Poles are not getting vaccinated because a good friend of mine who is a lawyer calls out that pharmaceutical companies are making a fortune on our naivety. Poles are not getting vaccinated because highlanders are spreading the word that you can't inject yourself with anything. Poles are not getting vaccinated because the education superintendent in Małopolska claims that vaccinations are a scientific experiment, the consequences of which we don't know. Poles are not getting vaccinated because anti-vaxxers are spreading nonsense.

And it doesn't matter what their motivations are. Whether, like the rulers, they are afraid to give up power by annoying the unvaccinated. Or, like the president and prime minister, they are irresponsible, sucking up to the voters. Or, like the confederates, they want to cynically gain power and replace PiS on the right side of the political scene. Or, like my lawyer friend, they want to clumsily give the impression that they can expose the dark side of large corporations. Or, like the highlanders, they want to show the world their steadfastness and stubbornness. Or, like the Małopolska curator, they want to ingratiate themselves with their principal in a primitive way. Or, like the anti-vaxxers, they want to draw attention to themselves and confuse people.

Regardless of their motivation, they are the ones who bear the greatest responsibility for the fact that Poles do not get vaccinated and, consequently, contribute to these sad national statistics.

However, they can sleep soundly. They will not bear any responsibility for their actions. The penal code does not provide penalties for manipulation, talking nonsense, spreading nonsense, undermining the achievements of science and lack of common sense. The only thing they face is the closure of their Facebook account.