Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1276949
3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 AUGUST 2020 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications COVID impact THERE are three strategies that could be considered in addressing the man- agement of COVID-19. Containment, suppression, or elimination, that is ridding the country of COVID-19 as we were a few weeks ago. Elimination means no COVID-19 before we see the fall, and then winter means lockdown. Brave decisions are needed now be- fore COVID-19 gets away on us and places an unbearable strain on hospital beds. A healthy workforce is critical, as are planned hospital overflow levels, country levels of PPE, extensive testing and fast-test results, compliance inspec- tions and contract-tracers. As a caring community we need to come together to eliminate this virus. Our government needs to show lead- ership and compassion to eliminate it and our business people need to come together and show understanding and tolerance. Just what is happening in Australia's two biggest states: Victoria and New South Wales. They are in major trou- ble, with a second wave of COVID-19 infecting 6,400 and 84 new deaths, all starting from two individuals who broke quarantine rules. Even if it's just 68,000 tourists this summer, it might as well be 680,000 because the impact will devas- tate Malta. I have lived and worked with massive loss of life and major destruction of property in towns and cities far bigger than Malta. I fear for my family and my wellbeing and that of the Maltese peo- ple. For the very first time I cannot be part of the solution. It hurts! So I must trust others. We cannot afford to be negligent on health. Neil Elliott St Paul's Bay In defence of prison director MALTATODAY'S recent carrying of a pointless tirade by Andrew Azzopardi on reported issues at Corradino Civil Prisons is a classic example of gutter journalism. For the record, I am an ex-colleague of Lt.Col. Dalli, so that interest is duly declared, up front. Prof. Azzopardi, like any other rea- sonable citizen, has every right to ques- tion issues from a social perspective, as he deems fit and appropriate, under the obligation of professional and ethical responsibility. This is true and correct for any institution, not just the CCF. In- deed, academics such as he actually do our country a disservice when remain- ing passive on matters of social import. What I do question, personally, is Az- zopardi's method and motives. Ranting on social media, by engaging directly in a populist narrative delivered by means of a personal attack as the preferred vec- tor, is nothing short of disgraceful. Any credible academic would professionally and ethically refrain from engaging in the cheap and shoddy manner selected by Azzopardi. For any academic to want to influence the social debate, that is actually the very first caveat they would self-impose in attempting to construct a credible argument. Facebook is no place for an academic's verbal diarrhoea, as much as large swathes of the general public are inclined to wallow in the mire of such cheap stench. The selected method, therefore, is completely wrong and has gone a very long way to invalidating any argument Azzopardi may have hoped to explore. As for motive, Azzopardi's rant is as self-evidently laden with personalised attack against the Prisons Director as it is with the former's need to attract attention to a personal agenda. It is not for me to delve into either matter here; frankly neither of the two issues is of my concern. Azzopardi's axes are for him to grind as much as his aspirations for him to strive towards. Neither of the two should be exploiting public currency. What is of concern to me is that a leading academic entrusted with the Deanship of our Faculty of Wellbeing should act in an irascible, ill-mannered, unprofessional manner, exploiting pub- lic opinion in a manipulative manner in the process. That, for me, is unaccept- able as I am convinced it is for thou- sands of reasonable-minded citizens who prefer to read and listen to rea- soned arguments as opposed to pomp- ous, personalised outpourings of rage. John Schembri Naxxar