Thread by @simecek

1/8 When situation is too sad, the only way out is to make fun of it. Czechia is #1 in COVID‑19 cases / 1M pop and #4 in deaths / 1M pop (if you exclude countries <1M).
worldometers.info/coronavirus/co…

And our government in response… got TikTok (man in the middle is our Health Minister)

2/8 How could that happened to a country that had been praised for its #mask4all campaign (by @jeremyphoward...) and its prime minister with his MAGA-like cap felt so confident that he even came with a hashtag #bestincovid?

@jeremyphoward 3/8 Did we adopt some Sweden-on-steroids, no regulations strategy?

Gov was late to respond in Sep and Xmas. But in general, we had so many rules, even politicians accidentally breaking them (MP Marian Jurecka having a beer outside when is was already forbidden, taking selfie)

@jeremyphoward 4/8 When Health Minister and other officials got fine dinners despite the fact all restaurants are supposed to be closed, it is hard to ask people to obey the rules.

Czechia and UK stats might be similar bur responses of our PMs are very different.

@jeremyphoward 5/8 Head of health stats, Dušek, refused to share COVID data and provided just summaries, not only to public but to other researchers.

"You can call me an idiot" he said, also (in late Aug) "The situation is good." And because only his people had full data it was hard to object.

6/8 The coordinator for vaccination resigned this week. He was forbidden to speak to press. Most people never heard his name and didn't know he was doing this as a part-time job.

At the same time,15 experts had been asked whether death counts are not overestimated (they are not)

7/8 Do you want to visit this country of miracles? Well, starting this midnight you cannot. It was announced just 5 hours in advance... on Twitter.

8/8 Appendix: try to be nice to the others, wear the damn mask, support journalists (@enkocz), investigators (@hlidacstatu) and look... it is snowing outside!