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TTB: “THE PANDEMIC CONTINUES WORLDWIDE”
The Turkish Medical Association issued serious warnings at its 73rd Grand Congress: “the government continues to hide the facts. Neither in the world nor in Turkey, the pandemic was controlled. All measures were abandoned despite the Delta variant. The government has turned its back on the reality of the epidemic, the workers, the poor, the health workers are paying the price.”
The 73rd Grand Congress of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) was held in the garden of the CernModern Art Gallery in Ankara. A press release was made at the Congress, which was attended by doctors from all over Turkey. TTB Central Council signed the statement of the president of the Council Prof. studied.
The statement, titled “The pandemic continues, the facts continue to be hidden,“ began with the emphasis that neither at the global level nor in our country, the pandemic is yet under control.
“We also know from the previous year that although the actual number of cases and deaths were not shared, the summer months declined, but simultaneously increased in different geographies,” he said.
A similar situation is observed in Turkey, recalled the statement, “The number of cases and deaths that have declined in metropolitan areas and in the West has increased in the East in a short time. However, the truth was hidden in the study of seroprevalence, which was not shared with the public, and the truth was darkened. The workers, the poor, refugees, the homeless, the othered, the fragile populations and the health workers paid the price of government policies that turned their backs on the reality of the ongoing epidemic,” the statement said.
In the statement of the Central Council of TTB, the following assessments were given in summary:
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AVOIDABLE DEATHS TURNED INTO SOCIAL CRIMEA
Due to social measures not taken, economic and social support not given, coronavirus continued to circulate. It continued to pay heavy prices from autumn 2020 to late January 2021. Avoidable deaths have evolved into social murder and social Crimea.
In terms of the epidemic, the epidemic approach, dedicated to the accumulation of capital, and the Scientific Council, which surrendered to it, were quite stingy in sharing the truth with society.
Information Power was under the control of a one-man regime; stored statistics were used in accordance with their economic and social goals. Despite this, even statistics shared with the public did not support the measures passed. Tragically, while the number of cases has increased, despite discussions of a variant known to be more contagious, a decision was made to “reopen” at the beginning of March, and it was said that the epidemic was being managed.
The cost of this has been heavy; even the deaths reported in official statistics have reached the highest level of the entire epidemic period. During this period, decentralized epidemic management could not be operated, and a single epidemic management, far from scientific, continued from the center to the entire country. The tradition of anti-democratic epidemic management, which contradicts even their own decisions, has been continued.
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DEMONSTRATION MEASURES
Again, their traditions were not broken: the proposals of professional organizations in health, trade unions, opposition parties, academics were not taken into account; ostensible measures lacking economic and social support had to be put into effect at the end of April; however, the wheels were not turned; the accumulation of capital continued without interruption.
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DESPITE THE DELTA VARIANT, ALL OF THE MEASURES WERE ABANDONED
In mid-May, without taking into account any scientific criteria, citing the number of cases and deaths that had entered a downward trend due to partial measures, the relaxation of measures aimed at reviving the economy was put into action. June May, June, June and early July, without any justification to the society in the circulars of the Ministry of Interior in a row of measures were loosened and eliminated. Although the spread of the Delta variant, which is known to be more contagious, has accelerated in the country, all of the measures have been abandoned without lessons from the mistake made in early March. At a time when social mobility was at its highest.
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THERE ARE PROVINCES THAT CAN’T EVEN REACH 6 PERCENT IN THE SECOND DOSE
Unfortunately, news about the recent increase in vaccination rates continues to mediate the deception of society. For community immunity, 70 percent of the population must be immunized with two doses of the vaccine. As a country, we are well behind this goal. The fact is, 18.5 percent of the population has been given two doses of the vaccine. There are provinces that do not even have access to 6 percent, with serious interregional disparities. Provinces with a working population, including Istanbul, are behind the Turkish average … it is clear that there is a long way to go.
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TTB IS AFTER THE TRUTH, IT WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE
Even with unreliable data, the price paid is quite large. We face an increasing number of preventable deaths with open-and-close policies that do not meet any scientific criteria.
Against all this, as health workers, we continue and will continue our tradition of sharing the facts and revealing the truth. As both TTB and medical chambers, we kept the community informed for each period; we made assessments and shared our suggestions. We’ve reminded the public of their responsibilities.
We have always expressed the necessity of economic and social support. We have made efforts to strengthen society’s self-defense in epidemic control. We continue to make similar efforts to combat the ongoing pandemic and critically important vaccine applications. We need to grow social solidarity before the epidemic turns to more social Murder/social Crimea.
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VACCINE CRITICAL TO CONTROLLING OUTBREAK
We know that the most critical social protection measure is vaccination, we do not forget. We will continue to say that the public must mobilize all its capabilities to ensure that equal and indiscriminate, everyone and quickly, effective and safe vaccination is carried out. We know that the vaccine is protective not only for ourselves, but also for our relatives; for all citizens in our settlements and working lives. The vaccine is used to treat LGBTI + people, refugees, the homeless, the unemployed, etc. we emphasize once again that it is very important for the different segments of society. We act with the awareness that the vaccine is critical not only for our country, but also for our close neighbors and the world. If not everyone is safe, none of us are. It is the responsibility of all of us to increase social solidarity, global solidarity for vaccination.
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LET’S STRENGTHEN VACCINE SOLIDARITY TOGETHER
Access to social protection measures for the removal of all obstacles to vaccine intellectual property rights such as patent rights, profit-oriented neo-liberal policies to bring down, and vaccine development and production activities of social ownership passing to the humanity of us all responsibility. Together with society we will succeed…
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THE PANDEMIC CONTINUES
* During this period, when the measures were completely removed, we are reminded once again: the pandemic continues.
* Society should not be deceived by those who try, perception managers.
* We remind the Ministry of health once again that it will not succeed without facing the reality; without acting together with health workers and organizations to control the epidemic.
* We know that it is important to continue to take measures, to put pressure on the implementation of social measures and to raise our voice on this issue.
* We will continue to say that economic and social support should be provided for the implementation of physical distance, ventilation and mask measures.
* We remind you that it is critical to implement effective ventilation inspections from the Association of Chambers of Turkish engineers and architects (TMMOB).
* Vaccination is social solidarity, we invite the entire society, the forces of Labor and democracy to take action so as not to leave even one person unvaccinated.
* Once the outbreak is controlled with minimal loss, we promise to accelerate our efforts to eliminate the conditions that laid the groundwork for the pandemic and the neo-liberal health reforms that made it difficult to control the epidemic.
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Turkey's world-renowned organ transplant specialist. Dr. Demirbaş has 104 international publications and 102 national publications.
Physician's Resume:
Born on August 7, 1963 in Çorum, Prof. Dr. Alper Demirbaş has been continuing his work as the President of MedicalPark Antalya Hospital Organ Transplantation Center since 2008.
Prof. who performed the first tissue incompatible kidney transplant in Turkey, the first blood type incompatible kidney transplant, the first kidney-pancreas transplant program and the first cadaveric donor and live donor liver transplant in Antalya. Dr. As of August 2016, Alper Demirbaş has performed 4900 kidney transplants, 500 liver transplants and 95 pancreas transplants.
In addition to being the chairman of 6 national congresses, he has also been an invited speaker at 12 international and 65 national scientific congresses. Dr. Alper Demirbaş was married and the father of 1 girl and 1 boy.
Awards:
Eczacibasi Medical Award of 2002, Akdeniz University Service Award of 2005, Izder Medical Man of the Year Award of 2006, BÖHAK Medical Man of the Year Award of 2007, Sabah Mediterranean Newspaper Scientist of the Year Award of 2007, ANTIKAD Scientist of the Year Award of 2009, Social Ethics Association Award of 2010, Işık University Medical Man of the Year Award of 2015, VTV Antalya's Brand Value Award of 2015.
Certificates:
Doctor of Medicine Degree Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Ankara, General Surgeon Ministry of Health Turkey EKFMG (0-477-343-8), University of Miami School of Medicine Member of Multiple Organ Transplant, ASTS Multiorgan Transplant Scholarship. Lecturer at Kyoto University. Lecturer at University of Essen, Research assistant at the University of Cambridge .
Professional Members:
American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Transplantation Society Nominated, Middle East and Southern Africa Council Transplantation Society 2007, International Liver Transplantation Association, Turkish Transplantation Association, Turkish Society of Surgery, Turkish Hepatobiliary Surgery Association.
Disclaimer:
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