MINSK, 4 October (BelTA) – Belarus has always treated the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, and the time proved that the initial course was right, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with CNN, BelTA has learned.
The head of state confirmed that there has always been and still is the global psychosis regarding the situation with the pandemic. “It is still happening in the world. We have dropped the ball on protecting people while seeking treatments and resolving other issues. Especially you over there, in the West, in America, in the United Kingdom. There has been no Belarusian variant, by the way, but there is a British variant stalking Europe to this day. You have basically created a new virus. So don't blame us,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
In his words, if we take the proportion, we will see that the number of deaths from COVID-19 in Belarus is much smaller than in certain western countries. “Thousands of people die in the United States. Hundreds die every day in the UK, and you say we don't use the right treatment? You failed to treat people in the West,” he stressed.
“You don't like our Belarusian way of treating people. But it is based on our realities and our abilities, and our way turned out to be correct. We never locked down. Why aren't you locking down now [when the COVID-19 morbidity is still high]? So you confirm that our method is correct,” the Belarusian leader said.
In an interview Aleksandr Lukashenko said that in Belarus we use vaccines from many countries, we have developed our own. Medications and PPE have been provided for all. “Is that not a serious attitude? But you want to say that this Belarusian ‘dictator' is a madman. He doesn't offer treatment to people. But I am more involved in this than all of you Western leaders taken together,” the head of state said.
The president remarked that he had already had the disease, he knows what it is like, can make certain conclusions and give advice to people.
The head of state also explained his previous advice to take 100 grams of vodka and go to the sauna to reduce the probability of catching the disease. “That was a joke, but you grabbed on to that and said that Lukashenko wanted to treat people with vodka and sauna. That was a joke. We use the unified treatment protocols of the World Health Organization. It is the same protocol in America, the UK, Russia and here, and we use it in treatment, but we are more successful because you have ruined your healthcare, and we have been building ours constantly,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“So don't you go accusing me. This is all fake news - everything that you have just said is fake, fake, fake news you have got from the internet, and a channel like CNN should be ashamed to be doing that,” the president stressed.
“I have never given reckless advice to anybody, but you in the UK sometimes were so crazy you did not know what to do. We saw it, I saw it, because I was deeply involved in this. I cannot be reckless in my advice because I had this illness myself. But you have decided that we took the wrong path. This is your view. I have a different view. And it is confirmed by concrete facts. And there is no getting away from it,” the Belarusian leader concluded.
