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2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 APRIL 2021 Let's not repeat last year's mistakes Editorial JUDGING by a recent media interview, Prime Min- ister Robert Abela appears to have learnt a few les- sons from his past mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis. "This will not be an aggressive opening but a cau- tious one," he said, in reference to government's lat- est plans to ease existing restrictions. "But I am pos- itive because the decisions being taken are based on what science is telling us." Unlike the situation in June 2020 – when govern- ment rushed to re-open tourism before the onset of the summer season, against all expert advice – what we are promised today is a "cautious relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, starting with a staggered re- opening of schools from next Monday [tomorrow]." Other activities – including hospital visits – will also resume this week. Some, such as Church ser- vices, are to resume by 18 April: all with mitigation protocols in place. Non-essential shops and services will have to wait until 26 April, while no date has yet been set for the reopening of bars and restaurants. Perhaps the most significant announcement, how- ever, was that the target-date for a re-opening to large-scale tourism – set for June 1 – is itself de- pendent on our ability to contain the pandemic un- til then. Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said that these, and other decisions will depend on "the positivity rate, the seven-day moving average of new infections, and hospitalisations." As such, it is a far cry for the mad scramble to re-open, as quickly and fully as possible, that we witnessed last year. All this indicates just how important it is for gov- ernments to allow their decisions to be ruled by sci- ence, rather than expedience. It also attests to the sheer success of the most recent restrictive meas- ures: introduced last March, when Malta experi- enced its most dramatic infection surges since the crisis began. Once government finally conceded that health ex- perts (who had been advocating for a partial lock- down since Christmas) had been right all along, the number of new cases per day plummeted rapidly: from a once daily-high of 300 and over, to just un- der 50. There were, however, other instances where the government clearly failed to heed expert scientific advice. One of the more damning recent revelations was that the COVID-19 team's calls in May 2020, to postpone travel reopening until September 2020, were apparently not taken on board. Undoubtedly, this led to the careless tourism strategy of summer 2020: which almost immediate- ly led to restrictions being once again imposed in September. In that May 2020 plan, the Superintendence had also warned that Malta's public health systems would be "too slow" to manage a resurgence of COVID-19 from an easing of physical distancing measures. It said it would need "resilient monitor- ing tools" and technology for a "certain level of dig- ital surveillance of cases and their contact" in order to obtain rapid alerts on any re-escalating progres- sion of COVID-19. Indeed, the Superintendence even used the word "months" to denote the length of the transition plan from mid-May onwards. In practice, however, the transition took place in a matter of hours… and matters were not helped by the Prime Minister's cavalier attitude towards the concerns of the gen- eral public, either. Apart from the effect of all this on the second wave itself, Abela's past mistakes may also have dented his government's reputation as a 'capable pair of hands'. The wave of record-breaking COVID cases last March was so serious, that it left the general public doubting whether Labour administration was even listening to its medical experts at all; or, conversely, if Malta's health czar was able to withstand pressure from the political class, to mandate the necessary restrictions to keep COVID cases down. Much therefore now hinges on the government's ability to avoid repeating those past mistakes: for as Malta inevitably enters election mode, Abela's po- litical fortunes may well end up depending entirely on the success – or otherwise – of the decisions he takes today. And today, more than ever, the lesson is clear: until the vaccination programme is well underway, caution must be advised against any unnecessary social interaction that could lead to a rise in COVID cases. It must be made clear, that any (or all) of the relaxed restrictions may be re-imposed, in the event of an umpteenth surge. And above all, the public must be reassured that this time round, the government's decisions really are "based on what science is telling us." Anything less would almost certainly be a repeat of last year's fiasco; and the public may be less forgiving a second time. 10 April 2011 Children should be used in anti-divorce campaign – Fr Joe Borg MEDIA studies lecturer Fr Joe Borg wants to use children from broken families as a weapon for the anti-divorce lobby. And the chief execu- tive of the Public Broadcasting Services has ad- mitted to being a 'gun for hire' for the divorce referendum campaign, although he has so far rendered his services to the 'no' campaign only. These are some of the revelations from email conversations that strongly hint at the links between the 'no' campaign, the Church and the Nationalist Party in the campaign against the introduction of divorce for the 28 May referen- dum. In the emails seen by MaltaToday, Fr Joe Borg – a media guru to the Church but also an adviser to government – communicates with stock exchange chairman Arthur Galea Salo- mone and the no campaign's chairman Andre Camilleri. Fr Borg is suggesting that parish chaplains forward them a list of separated couples and children from broken marriages to speak "intel- ligently" against a law on divorce. But Borg claims he is not referring to minors. In comments to MaltaToday, Borg said it's im- portant to give a voice to those "more vulner- able" to know what they think of the proposed divorce legislation. "This is why I advised the participation of separated couples as well as their sons and daughters… I wrote they should be able to talk intelligently against divorce legislation, thus the word 'tfal' is used in the same way I use it when I say that 'my brother and I, although of a cer- tain age, are children of our parents." "I could not have been referring to minors as they cannot be reasonable expected to intel- ligently discuss the proposed legislation. I do believe, however, that we have to find a way of listening to children (even minors) as they are innocent victims." Borg told MaltaToday that even Labour MP Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca quoted studies that find children of divorce "at far greater risk for a host of ills than their peers from intact families." A lecturer on media ethics, Borg makes his suggestion to Galea Salomone, in an email dis- cussing the stock exchange chairman's forth- coming meeting with parish priests. ... Quote of the Week "With all due respect, I feel that the decision whether and when to publish a report should be my responsibility and not that of the committee." Srandards Commissioner George Hyzler in a letter to Speaker of the House, Anglu Farrugia MaltaToday 10 years ago