3/19/20
Ukraine is slowly shutting down. Bars and restaurants, usually full of life, are almost empty or completely closed, because of a recent ban imposed by the country's government to close everything except pharmacies, banks, and supermarkets. "I do support what the government is doing, but I worry about the economy. We would like to have a better understanding of why these things are happening. I had to close my small business because of the threat of the virus." said Sergei Gikaviy, 36, from Kyiv. Ukraine has, like other countries, seen some panic buying in the supermarkets where people hunt for food and toilet paper, but it has only been sporadic, and most supermarkets still have plenty of supplies. The Ukrainian government has been telling people to stay inside and is considering imposing a state of emergency. But it has not done so at this point. Instead, the government has closed metros, trains and restricted the number of bus passengers. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the nation on Monday, saying that the government "will act in a tough, urgent, perhaps unpopular manner" to protect its citizens. However, some say it is too much. "The quarantine is very popular among some people, but some people don't want limits on their ordinary lives," says Aleksey Jakubin, associate professor at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, "They are worried about the economy. Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and this quarantine and potential emergency law, will have a huge influence on their daily life." He explains that Ukrainians have a limited public safety net compared to Western Europe, and Ukrainians' perception of the seriousness of the coronavirus is primarily determined by how much money they have. "We have a divide between classes. The people with not so much money are the majority, and the economy is much more important for them than quarantine," Jakubin says, "We also have people who want the government to do more, but they are a minority. We, therefore, see a lot of opposition to the government's steps to close the metros in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro – it will be hard for people to get around."
Ukraine closed air travel Tuesday morning, and many Ukrainians have flocked back to their homeland last minute from overseas. In 2009, Ukraine experienced some of the worsts outbreaks of swine flu in Europe, where almost two million Ukrainians fell ill, and around 500 people lost their lives. People responded with panic back then, Jakubin explains, but it is different from coronavirus so far, and it has something to do with the lower amount of reported cases. Sergii Mirnyi is a former liquidator who cleaned up after the Chernobyl disaster and was the platoon commander of Chornobyl radiation reconnaissance. He sees many similarities between the 1986 Chernobyl accident and coronavirus in the way people react to the threat, he explains. "Coronavirus is also danger that we cannot see," says Mirnyi, who has since has worked on expanding the understanding of Chernobyl as both owner of a tourist company and as a researcher. "The virus is, of course, different from the issue of radiation, but there are similarities when it comes to people's social and psychological reactions. Both are not easy to see and understand for people," he says. "There are many rumors about coronavirus. The same thing happened with Chernobyl," he says, "People only took Chernobyl seriously when they could see its effects. While Chernobyl was a much bigger catastrophe, the two things are similar, because we cannot see the enemy. If - God forbid - dozens of deaths will come to Ukraine from corona, people will start to take it very seriously."
