Editorial

Myanmar’s Covid catastrophe requires an unprecedented international response

Today, many in Myanmar can’t breathe. Over recent days, the country has rapidly descended into the most severe public health crisis we have never seen. While no reliable figures are available, Covid has reached every corner of the country and cases are exploding, devastating families and communities. 

Dysfunctional hospitals are struggling with a critical shortage of oxygen supplies and a desperate lack of intensive care capacity while just a small percentage of the population has been vaccinated against the virus. 

Hundreds of thousands, meanwhile, have been displaced by military attacks in recent months, placing them at even greater risk of catching the virus and making it all the more difficult to access adequate healthcare when they do.  

There is no doubt that the impact of the pandemic in Myanmar has been made exponentially worse by the military’s February 1 coup, which remains incomplete. The junta has failed to take full control of the state and lacks the legitimacy and power required for an effective response to a health crisis of this scale. 

The National Unity Government, forced to operate underground, has the moral authority to respond to the pandemic and the respect of healthcare workers who have refused to serve the junta, but it lacks the funding and access to infrastructure needed to curb the latest outbreak.

Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) are playing a crucial role in addressing Covid in territory where they have control, although in Shan State, conflict between EAOs is putting the health of affected communities at risk. 

Myanmar urgently needs international support to address the unfolding tragedy. Basic medical supplies, vaccines, personal protective equipment and human resources are all vital. 

Right now, the humanitarian response from foreign governments, UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) is completely inadequate. Just as they failed to wield their power effectively against a criminal junta, they are once again failing Myanmar as it is ravaged by the pandemic. 

The new crisis raises an uncomfortable question for all those who wish to see a swift end to the military’s rule. A key pillar of the anti-coup movement is a “no participation, no recognition” approach to the junta. This has helped to starve it of the legitimacy it craves and prevent it from effectively governing; it is one of the main reasons Min Aung Hlaing’s coup is incomplete.  

And yet it seems unavoidable that to tackle the explosive spread of Covid, the junta must be involved in the response along with all other actors, since by virtue of brute force, it continues to try and cling to control of much of what remains of the country’s healthcare infrastructure. 

There is no easy answer to this conundrum, but what is certain is that any engagement with the junta must be done with extreme caution and scepticism. It is the generals, after all, who precipitated the current Covid disaster with their illegal power grab and their subsequent efforts to crush dissent, particularly from striking health workers. 

And it is the junta that is still killing people by continuing to detain medical workers, by intimidating medical professionals, by blocking community and civil society Covid initiatives, by restricting private hospital hires and by choking Covid patients to death through oxygen restrictions. These acts are criminal and must stop now. 

The junta must unconditionally release detained health workers and end the intimation of medical staff in the Civil Disobedience Movement. And it must end restrictions that prevent private hospitals from hiring staff from the Civil Disobedience Movement. International actors like the World Health Organisation and donor governments have a key role to play pushing the junta to agree on these points. 

The international community and donors must urgently do more to provide Covid aid and be flexible and creative in how support is distributed, with a strong emphasis on guaranteeing that it is not misappropriated by a junta desperately seeking new revenue amid efforts to choke off its sources of funding. 

Aid must be increased to EAOs via cross-border routes, including vaccines that start with frontline health workers from ethnic health organisations. These organisations are best placed to provide the necessary care and response in ethnic areas, as they have been working in these places for decades. 

Aid must also be provided to civil society groups, who are on the frontline providing health and welfare support to communities across Myanmar, including via informal avenues.  

The international community and donors will need to work with UN agencies and INGOs in Myanmar to provide aid to all public, private and community-based hospitals, clinics, laboratories and public health initiatives. 

This should be carefully monitored to ensure it reaches the people and that the junta does not hinder community, civil society and private initiatives.

Myanmar Now supports sanctions against the junta in a way that is targeted. Sanctions should not impact humanitarian aid or in any way lessen the monumental response that is needed immediately to address the Covid emergency. 

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