Thread by @ChristinaPushaw

THREAD: The day I realized lockdowns aren’t about health was in May 2020. I lived in Tbilisi, Georgia. A friend in Azerbaijan called me, upset. Her relative had a neurodegenerative disease; the only medication that helped wasn’t available in Az, he usually got it in Geo. BUT…

Both countries had closed their borders, because COVID. So I had to find a commercial truck driver in Tbilisi authorized to go to Azerbaijan and pay him 3x the cost of the meds to smuggle them across the border, in case he had to pay a bribe. Lifesaving prescribed medications!

My friend and I could afford that. But most people in these countries cannot. What did they do when they couldn’t get medicine due to lockdowns and border closures? We will probably never know.

Other “COVID restrictions” in Georgia: The government, ruled informally by the one billionaire in the country, closed all outdoor farmers’ markets, forcing everyone to buy food at the more expensive indoor Carrefour supermarket. (Guess who owns Carrefour Georgia?)

The Tbilisi mayor spent millions of dollars to wash the city streets with sanitizer, in the wealthier areas of course. Guess who won COVID-related boondoggle contracts from City Hall? Members of his clan.

Both the mayor & informal ruler (2 most influential politicians in the country; not even close) have substantial investments in retail banking. “Due to COVID,” small currency exchanges were shut down, forcing everyone to go inside banks who set whatever forex rates they wanted.

The Georgian government bought out hotels to use them as forced quarantines for Georgian citizens returning from abroad. (Foreign businessmen didn’t have to quarantine). Guess who owned the hotels that got massive government quarantine contracts?

For a few weeks, the Georgian government banned everyone from driving, because COVID. Ironically, that was prob the only intervention that saved lives — from traffic accidents, not a respiratory virus.

unsurprisingly, if you had connections to the mayor, informal ruler, or pretty much anyone in government who could pull strings (or the national church) you could get a “special permit” to drive. My street in central Tbilisi became a racetrack for kids of politicians in G-wagons.

During the election, the ruling party had massive concerts to campaign— this was considered patriotic by state media. The opposition did the same thing, and the state media had a meltdown, calling them vectors of disease.

Georgia is one of the most religious countries in the world. For political reasons, the gov could never close churches (I see it as a good thing.) During the height of lockdown in April 2020, thousands of people crowded into Easter services & took communion from the same spoon.

A journalist asked the Minister of Health whether that would spread COVID. She replied: “Scientists haven’t done any studies that prove COVID can spread in church.” 🤔 (Interestingly, Georgia didn’t see the predicted spike after Easter, so who knows?)

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. One thing Americans will find notable is that schools in Georgia were among the first institutions to reopen. Even the Georgian government understood that kids weren’t learning at home and needed to be in school.

When the government allowed non-politicians to drive again, they imposed “scientific” restrictions like how many family members (who live together!) could sit in the same car. Front passenger seat had to be empty. Even if your spouse was driving, you had to sit in the back.

https://twitter.com/lashatatu/status/1403176008694501378

Tragically, and predictably, this was all for nothing. Georgia has one of the highest COVID prevalences in the world. By the way, as ridiculous as the government is, Georgia is a beautiful country with wonderful people. They deserved better.

PS: It’s easy to dismiss this with “Georgia isn’t a developed country, of course it’s corrupt” — think again. Because Georgia is a small country (~3.5M), we could all see clearly who the winners & losers of lockdown were. It’s the same in America. You just can’t see it as clearly

(A lot of these COVID boondoggles to enrich ruling party politicians & oligarchs were funded by regular Georgian people, with their taxes. But a lot was also funded by American taxpayers; Georgia is among the top recipients of US aid adjusted for population size.)

In parts of the mountainous regions of Georgia, Wifi doesn’t exist and cell phone reception is really poor. So, children were walking (sometimes miles) in frigid weather, in rain and snow, to find mobile service and call in to their Zoom school. 🥺

More about devastating humanitarian impact of border closures in Georgia. For context, keep in mind that the average income in Georgia is about $100 per month, almost nobody has savings, and “government pandemic assistance” is mostly bail-outs of fancy hotels owned by politicians