PM Yulia Tymoshenko: I understood how, for many years, the country has been ripped off, how those miserly pennies have been taken away from the budget — one that’s barely making both ends meet for the healthcare system — and how, at egregiously overblown prices, medical equipment and medications have been procured.
At a children’s hospital in Yevpatoria, he traded a cardiac monitor for a thank-you painting of a local landscape.
Presidential candidate Yanukovych: What do you call this device? Hospital personnel: Cardiac tomograph. Yanukovych: Cardiac...? Personnel: Monitor! Yanukovych: Cardiac monitor. Do you need a cardiac monitor? Personnel: Of course! Badly! Hahaha! Personnel: Here you go, so you can look at it periodically and recall being in a good workplace, where good people live, in a good city.
I love that Sainsbury’s: Where good food costs less plastic bag!
How about this one: Yanukovych’s: Where his life tastes good and your life costs less?
Tymoshenko has a roadshow of her own, but she can't get her numbers straight.
PM Tymoshenko, Vinnytsya, Nov. 10: Yesterday, when we looked at the data for every oblast, we saw that in Ukraine, on the whole, we have at least a fourfold drop in illness incidence compared to the peak dates of November 2-4.
Tymoshenko, Kyiv, Nov. 11: From November 8 to November 10, we see the figures rise...uh...almost threefold...well, more than two-and-a-half fold. This suggests that the epidemic today is not relaxing its grip.
The only way for the epidemic to relax its grip is for you guys to embrace our healthcare.
Yanukovych brings 30,000 flu masks to Vinnytsya, with a promise of supplying the entire Ukraine with 20,000,000 more. (From Donbas? Wrong. From China!)
For him, touching base with swing voters in central and western Ukraine means greater chances of winning.
Tymoshenko brings equipment to a Lviv hospital.For her, losing western Ukraine means losing.
Kid [obviously recalling a nightmare]: ...a dog will come to me! PM Tymoshenko: Really?
That’s right! Our healthcare is a nightmare.
Meanwhile, people are peddling handmade flu masks on the streets of Kyiv.
Some even recall the unfortunate words Tymoshenko spoke during her October 24 rally.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko: And I know that when every one of you goes home, you will carry a piece of this good, wonderful infection of fighting for freedom to every village, town and city. Can you do that?
So far, we’ve had more freedom of infection than infection of freedom.
As of Friday afternoon local time November 6, we have seven confirmed H1N1 cases in Kyiv, including one fatality. Six infected people are fighting for their lives, including a 2-month-old baby and a 23-year-old pregnant woman.
She says we have no swine flu epidemic but enough material to produce 95 million masks in 10 days.
In the meantime, she readily accepts international aid and says the first H1N1 (or “California flu,” as she brands it) fatality has been confirmed in Kyiv.
Tymoshenko walks around and calls it California flu. (Read: Not Originated Here — Not My Fault.)
Ukraine entered the epidemic without appropriate test labs and thus had to send all its tests to the UK.
And by the way, now that the death toll has reached 71, our Sanitary Doctor General says there’s no swine flu epidemic in Ukraine — just the regular flu.
Meanwhile, people are dying because the hospitals don't have enough oxygenators. But who cares about oxygenators now that we have Tymoshenko's Louis Vuitton dresses, Yanukovych python leather shoes, not to mention their oligarchs’ cars, villas and jets.
Enjoy this you-are-not-alone-I'm-here-with-you-I’m-not-fully-responsible address.
PM Yulia Tymoshenko [1:49-2:30]: And therefore far from all acute respiratory diseases are the California flu. For example, out of 178,000 people who have gone down with the flu in our country since the beginning of the year, only 14 as of this moment are recognized as ill with the California flu. The third thing you need to know is that, according to World Health Organization statistics, only about a percent — one percent of California flu cases have lethal consequences. And that's only in cases when people sought medical help after a considerable delay.
What a relief! Too bad at least 328 Ukrainians who have died so far will never be comforted.
Now think about her terminology. She doesn’t say swine flu. She doesn’t say H1N1. She says California flu! Is that official WHO terminology?
On the one hand, she says she takes full responsibility. On the other hand, she says quite the opposite. She dilutes responsibility, something she’s done before.
Because the economic crisis originated outside Ukraine, it either didn’t exist or — once it hit Ukraine hard — was not her fault. Likewise, because the swine flu originated outside Ukraine, her crisis management faults are not her faults.
Forget about all the early warnings, memos, stats, acute medical supply shortages, drugstore stockouts, crazy prices, antique hospital equipment, lack of test labs, etc. She’s doing her best! Period.
At least 61 people are in critical condition. H1N1 has been officially confirmed in seven cases. Schools and kindergartens in nine oblasts have been closed: Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Khmelnytsk and Vinnytsya.
“Ukraine has entered a flu epidemic, of the so-called California (swine) type. As of October 29, we have 951 people hospitalized. Unfortunately, we have to note 30 fatalities,” Minister of Healthсare Vasyl Knyazevych said at a briefing Friday.
More recent reports bring the death toll to 37.
UPDATES Tymoshenko, Yanukovych and Yushchenko have canceled their campaign rallies. Interoblast movement will be restricted. Mobile military hospitals are on standby.
This Channel 1+1 report looks into an HMO in Irpin, Kyiv oblast, flooded with sick people who fear for their lives.
Every doctor gets 50 patients per day. The situation is deteriorating. An epidemic is going on but nobody will admit it officially.
The number of confirmed H1N1 cases has climbed to 11. According to online rumors, Kyiv disease control authorities will send helicopters spraying anti-H1N1 chemicals overnight.
As of Sunday morning local time, 48 people have died, 150,000 are suffering from respiratory diseases and 14 swine flu cases have been officially confirmed.
As of 13:01 local time, 53 people have died, 184,919 are suffering from respiratory diseases, including 82,691 children. Some 7,383 people have been hospitalized, of whom 123 are in ICU.
As of 5:00 pm local time November 1, 60 people have died and 191,431 are suffering from respiratory diseases.
As of Monday afternoon local time, 67 people have died. All deaths are alike, with 22 confirmed H1N1 cases as testing and autopsies continue, Deputy Minister of Health Vasyl Lazorshynets said.
As of 5:00 pm local time November 2, 70 people have died.
As of Tuesday afternoon local time, 71 people have died and some 255,516 are suffering from respiratory diseases.Contrary to earlier statements, the government now says there's no swine flu epidemic in Ukraine but a seasonal flu epidemic only.
As of 1:00 pm Wednesday local time, the first H1N1 fatality in Kyiv has been officially confirmed.
As of Thursday afternoon local time, the official death toll has reached 92, including 6 children, 4 pregnant women and 4 doctors.
As of Friday afternoon local time November 6, we have seven confirmed H1N1 cases in Kyiv, including one fatality. Six infected people are fighting for their lives, including a 2-month-old baby and a 23-year-old pregnant woman.
As of November 6, 135 people have died.
As of November 8, 144 people have died.
As of November 9, 155 people have died and 65 swine flu cases have been officially confirmed. A total of 969,247 have become ill with respiratory diseases since the epidemic's outbreak.
As of November 10, 189 people have died. Some 1,122,188 are suffering from ARVI, of whom 57,286 have been hospitalized.
As of November 11, 213 people have died. Some 1,192,000 are suffering from ARVI, of whom 62,000 have been hospitalized and 350 are in ICU.
As of November 14, 282 people have died (17 died during the last 24 hrs). Some 73,373 have been hospitalized since the outbreak (3,682 during the last 24 hrs).
As of early November 16, 299 have died (17 during the last 24 hrs); 1,364,939 have fallen ill since the outbreak (17,401 during the last 24 hrs).
As of November 17, 328 people have died; 1,457,000 have fallen ill since the outbreak (56,000 during the last 24 hrs).
