Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1281593
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 AUGUST 2020 NEWS LAURA CALLEJA MALTA'S second wave of COVID-19 cases was a back-handed slap to health- care workers and volunteers, says one dental surgery graduate, Thomas Grixti, who for the last five months has volun- teered at the Luqa swabbing centre. "All those who sacrificed their time, ef- forts and their health seem to be well-for- gotten through the constant disregard that our medical experts have been facing, despite their repeated warnings," Grixti said. Grixti began working at one of Malta's six swabbing centres back in March, after answering the call for volunteers, while preparing for his final examinations in June. For Grixti volunteering also meant leaving home and in a bid to safeguard his family's health, isolated himself from them – a move that also made it easier for him to study. "I felt a certain responsibility to contrib- ute to the workforce that was trying to control the spread of this virus. I realised that all in all, despite the fact that then I was still a university student, I was well- equipped… making the sacrifice and leav- ing home. Thankfully it had a positive im- pact on both fronts: my family is in good health, and I have successfully concluded my studies in dental surgery," he said. Overworked and underpaid Working at the swabbing centre has not only been mentally tiring but also phys- ically exhausting. "From a physical and emotional standpoint, swabbing itself has been challenging in and of itself. The skill required to perform nasopharyngeal swabs, in essence, is not rocket-science for healthcare professionals." Swabbing centres work on six or 12-hour shifts, adhering to stringent in- fection control protocols that have made the job that much more difficult. "In our line of work, one fundamental principle stands to assume all patients are infected individuals." Grixti recently found himself at the fore- front on the discussion over pay, when he took a stand in solidarity with several col- leagues over concerns of payment. "Sev- eral colleagues of mine have voiced their concern about their salary. I myself have been paid correctly since the start but only up until the July payroll. We were prom- ised that this issue will be resolved, yet we are still waiting for overdue payments to be effected. Frankly, my payment situa- tion is not as bad as my colleagues', some of whom are due four-figure amounts covering work done between April and July," he said. Despite not volunteering for the mon- ey, Grixti said he expected both parties to any signed contract to honour their agreement in due time. "My colleagues and I have done exactly that in a diligent manner. It is only fair that both parties pay their end of the bargain. While I have full faith that we will be given what is due to us, at the time of this interview, we are still waiting." Critical outlook But Grixti complained that the disregard from political leaders for the front-liners' effort on COVID-19 had crossed over to people in the community "Unfortunate- ly in this country, our political parties are generally regarded just like football clubs… this partisan mentality has per- vaded most areas of life." Grixti said the pandemic had shown him that the public had collectively blind- ed itself to objective scientific truths, and instead take their leaders' words as "god- sent", without considering the possibility that their behaviour could be contradic- tory, inaccurate or swayed by improperly measured predictors, or just downright wrong. "We have all heard the catch- phrases of 'winning the battle against COVID', 'go enjoy summer', or 'waves in the sea'… As sad as it all sounds, our lead- ers stopped leading by example." Likewise, Grixti pointed out that the op- position had fared no better with a "pro- foundly weak check on power." "The very nature of our current political framework has failed to protect the po- litical balance our country so desperately needs," Grixti said, adding that influence of lobbies such as the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) had not helped the situation when its president labelled concerns over health as "project fear". While conceding that Robert Abela faced a difficult position so early in his tenure, he credits its cooperation with the public health experts as having been crucial in an effective and well-calculated strategy. But the slippery slope that pres- aged the second wave is now what every- one is dealing with. "Anyone who is enti- tled to a democratic vote in this country has the responsibility to objectively iden- tify and analyse what went wrong from an unbiased perspective. Nonetheless, I am more than certain that if public health lobbyists were taken more seriously in decision-making, we would not be facing this exponential increase of positive cases in Malta," he said. Grixti said healthcare staff were genu- inely doing their best to protect the peo- ple most affected by COVID-19: those suffering from mental illnesses worsened by the pandemic, the elderly, chronically ill individuals and other vulnerable peo- ple in our society. "You are not forgot- ten… We sweat out the heat for you. We hold the front-line for you. We are here for you. Do not let the egocentric behav- iour of the inconsiderate masses misguide your view towards the importance of our work," he said. He also appealed to youths to give credit to their leaders but not fail question their judgment and actions. "Let us all empow- er each other to identify what can be im- proved upon, to analyse the viable meth- ods of such improvement and ultimately, to learn to call a spade, a spade, without any subjective or political bias." Front-liners' efforts appear to have been forgotten, swab volunteer says "You are not forgotten… We sweat out the heat for you. We hold the front- line for you. Do not let the egocentric behaviour of the inconsiderate masses misguide your view towards the importance of our work" Thomas Grixti: this newly-graduated dental surgeon has volunteered at swabbing centres since March The politics of swabbing In June, US President Donald Trump "sarcastically" claimed that a decrease in coronavirus testing would lower U.S. infec- tion rates. While Malta prime minister Robert Abela had often referred to the high rate of testing to ex- plain the spike in Malta, he has promised to continue investing and increase the tests "and not do as other countries have done where they have reduced the tests to keep the numbers low". But are countries which in- crease the number of tests detecting a higher number of infected people, liable to be ex- posed to travel bans from other countries? Luxembourg con- ducts an aggressive mass-test- ing programme which its gov- ernment says has led to the country being unfairly penal- ised by fellow EU member states. Luxembourg, which has a population of about 625,000 people, is at the top of the world swabbing rankings, ahead of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Malta and Denmark. But the success of the scheme has revealed an infection rate that has prompted several Euro- pean countries, including Ger- many and the UK, to place it on a travel blacklist. But the relationship between more testing and new cases isn't always straightforward. In Fin- land, health workers doubled the number of tests carried out in the space of a month, and found that positive cases ticked downward. Likewise in the U.K. and Portugal: these numbers suggest that in these countries the disease is under control and testing is simply confirming that this is the case. So while more tests are likely to detect more cases when the virus is still spread- ing in the commu- nity, as soon as the spread is con- trolled, swabs will detect less and less cases of i n f e c t i o n s as was the case in Malta last m o n t h when it was very close to being COV- ID-19 free.