MINSK, 19 February (BelTA) – When commenting on the situation with the COVID-19 coronavirus, even officials make contradictory, overly emotional statements, said Anton Dudarenok, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISI), PhD in Historical Sciences.
In terms of WHO's six-phase scale of pandemic alert, the situation with the coronavirus is phase four. “We are not observing the trends towards phase five, when the epidemic comparable to the one in China will appear in another state,” the expert said. “China has been responding adequately taking measures to limit the spread of the virus. It is now a public health emergency. But there is no global epidemic,” he added. At the same time, the WHO expert at the Davos forum voiced a frightening figure - in the worst case scenario, two-thirds of the world's population can become infected with the coronavirus. “This contradiction shows that now there are a lot of emotions, personal factor in the statements, including those made by officials,” Anton Dudarenok said. He recalled that in late January and early February they predicted that the total number of cases would be 250,000. In fact, there are over 74,000 now.
According to the analyst, in the age of post-truth politics news can influence many processes in economy and society. “We need to verify the information, assess the seriousness of the moment, understand when political statements and decisions are made under the influence of emotions, and do not give in to panic,” the expert said.
He emphasized China's maximum informational openness in the fight against the coronavirus. It is possible that this might be the reason for the increased interest to the topic in the world media. In the future the absence of information vacuum will play a positive role in addressing the situation, the analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISI) said.
“Coronavirus: Economy of Fear” was a regular meeting of the Expert Community project hosted by BelTA on 19 February. Anton Dudarenok attended the meeting among other experts. The experts discussed economic, political and geopolitical consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak.
