Editorial: Messages

Ta Nea’s editorials have often stressed of late the dangers that will emerge if citizens do not rise to the occasion and exhibit a sense of personal responsibility in dealing with COVID-19.

We have underlined that no health system can deal with a prospective pandemic if the citizenry does not abide by the recommendations of experts, and that a lack of discipline can prove criminal.

The newspaper’s persistent emphasis on this issue has been vindicated by recent events.

After the “resistance” of revelers who defied a ban on carnivals, certain citizens who refused to limit their movements became the new victims of a lack of personal discipline.

They disregarded the public interest which in such cases is identical with public health and reminded us that society can be endangered by the stance and behaviour of just a few irresponsible citizens.

These are people who although they hear and see the nightmarish situation in neighbouring Italy choose to act as if the danger does not affect them at all.

We cannot afford to have more people doing just as they please and that means that the state must use all the legal means in its arsenal to make it perfectly clear that such behaviour will not be tolerated.

Tolerance in the face of such phenomena would give the impression that the state cannot check behaviours that endanger the whole of society.
Such a stance would send the wrong message at a time when the message must be accurate and absolutely clear.