Leading paediatrician: COVID over-optimism created false sense of security

Leading paediatrician Simon Attard Montalto denounced Malta’s strategy in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in a strongly worded editorial for the Malta Medical Journal that said Malta had managed then ‘unmanaged’ the pandemic.

Despite the expected and “probably inevitable” second wave of COVID-19, Attard Montalto said that this had been aggravated by the government’s over-eager wind-down, and “over-optimistic soundbites ensuring a false sense of security” and “downright irresponsible actions allowing and even encouraging ‘uncontrolled’ mass events.”

Attard Montalto’s leader makes no reference to any politician, although it was Prime Minister Robert Abela who first played down the chances of a second wave.

The bitter lesson? Countries led “by self-acclaimed ‘champions’ who belittled the pandemic and adopted a ‘gung-ho’ attitude, promptly condemned their countries to the worst statistics on the entire planet”.

Attard Montalto praised Malta’s approach during the first months of the pandemic, noting that it was hailed as the ‘best model’ in pandemic management, “with a strict policy of track-trace-and-isolate cases”.

He said this was only made possible thanks to the support given to the health authorities which “efficiently and effectively mobilised front-liners including the police, and a frightened but compliant population”. This formula worked, “bringing the local pandemic under tight control within a two-month period”.

But he squarely blamed mass gatherings for ensuring that the virus was once again released into the general population after being practically eliminated after the first wave. “Unquestionably, it has been mass gatherings ranging from family parties to day-long events that have ensured that the virus has been released into the general population.”

This has ensured the R factor remains steadily above 1 with the second wave now considerably greater “both in absolute numbers and duration than the first”.

Fears of a second tsunami after the opening the national airport did not materialise, since this was and remains “reasonably well controlled”. Similarly, although the influx of COVID 19-positive migrants has increased absolute case numbers, “this has had no impact on the subsequent dispersal of the virus as all these individuals have been corralled immediately on arrival”.

But as a result of mass gatherings and a false sense of security, “Malta has plummeted towards the bottom of Europe’s pandemic activity status, and is on most countries ‘with caution’ list for travel purposes”.

Of greater concern for Attard Montalto is the little evidence of Malta’s COVID-19 situation easing, the spread of the virus inside care homes, and a steady escalation in COVID-related deaths.

Attard Montalto said only stringent measures “backed up with an effective and safe vaccine” could bring the situation under control, and that a ‘gentle’ approach of allowing for natural herd immunity showed such countries fared worse with COVID-19 mortality. “Politicians are simply not trained to manage a pandemic and should (humbly) seek and take the advice of those who are.”