Pandemic Defense ‘a Trial Run’ for Biological War, Roshal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 3 – Leonid Roshal, head of the Russian National Medical Chamber, says that efforts to counter the coronavirus pandemic are “a trial run” for what the country would need to do in the event of a biological war (forbes-ru.turbopages.org/s/forbes.ru/biznes/406015-eto-repeticiya-biologicheskoy-voyny-vrach-leonid-roshal-ob-urokah-i-posledstviyah).

            Some politicians, like United Russia Duma deputy Gennady Onishchenko go even further and say that they see “elements of hybrid war” in the current pandemic, words that have the effect of transforming for Russian officials a medical situation into one about national security (https://regnum.ru/news/3026961.html).

            If the Kremlin agrees, that would help to explain why some say it is managing reports about the number of cases and deaths. Demographer Aleksey Raksha certainly believes that is the case. He says that regions are told the upper limits of both that they can report to the public (youtube.com/watch?v=6M7cLOYX_FE).

            Accurate or not, today’s official figures suggested that there were 5394 new cases of infection, bringing that total to 856,264, and 79 new deaths, raising that toll to 14,207 for Russia as a whole (t.me/COVID2019_official/1186). Officials also said that the coefficient of spread of the coronavirus has now dropped below 1.0 (regnum.ru/news/3026802.html).

            And the Public Opinion Foundation reported that 47 percent of Russians have not turned to any medical facility for assistance during the pandemic but that 88 percent of those who feared they had been infected by the coronavirus had done so (regnum.ru/news/3027014.html).

            Not surprisingly, Russian media have continued to focus on the question of a vaccine. One expert said that Russia had achieved success first because of “the unique scientific school of immunology” it inherited from the Soviet Union (regnum.ru/news/3027254.html) and dismissed Western criticism of the Russian effort as “dishonest” (regnum.ru/news/3027261.html).

            The defense ministry said that all Russian test subjects had achieved immunity from the virus after being vaccinated (regnum.ru/news/3027089.html), and other officials said mass vaccinations would begin in October (regnum.ru/news/3027264.html) and that Russia would be producing 10 million vials a month by the end of the year (regnum.ru/news/3027233.html).

            And Denis Manturov, industrial trade minister, announced that the country has just set a record for the production of artificial ventilators used to treat those infected with the coronavirus (regnum.ru/news/3026608.html).

            Beyond the ring road, the pandemic continues with some areas spiking and others improving and with officials opening and re-closing facilities in response (regnum.ru/news/society/3021975.html).  Many long-planned events have been cancelled (regnum.ru/news/3026895.html), and officials are scrambling to deal with the challenge of opening schools (https://regnum.ru/news/3026911.html), given Moscow’s plan to open most schools (kavpolit.com/articles/rosobrnadzor_v_rossii_net_planov_po_perehodu_na_di-38693/).

            Economic news continued to be dire. A third of Russians say they expect their incomes to fall over the course of the rest of this year (sobkorr.org/news/5F280283AB6BA.html), but in Moscow’s malls, people are going shopping more often, almost to pre-pandemic levels (regnum.ru/news/3027327.html).

            Domestic air travel continued to be depressed, especially in the Russian Far East where airplanes are the only way to get around (regnum.ru/news/3026870.html and regnum.ru/news/3026367.html). And airline groups have called for an extension of government subisidies to the carriers (regnum.ru/news/3026917.html).

            Small businesses continue to be hard hit, and various political figures, including United Russia deputies, are calling for more aid to keep them afloat until economic activity picks up  (regnum.ru/news/3026932.html and regnum.ru/news/3027126.html).

            Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related news from Russia today,

·         The first monument honoring medical workers during the pandemic has been erected in front of the Moscow State Medical University (regnum.ru/news/3027130.html).

·         Discussions are intensifying as to whether celebrations of major holidays are producing spikes in coronavirus infections (regnum.ru/news/society/3027211.html).

·         And Moscow police are now fining users of the city’s metro 5,000 rubles (75 US dollars) if they aren’t wearing masks (tass.ru/moskva/9112543).