Every country is the world is struggling to cope with the new reality of the COVID-19 world. All have their own model on how to deal with the pandemic, the economic repercussions and the human cost. Time will tell which were the most successful and which got it wrong.

What many do have in common however, is a call for common sacrifice, burden-sharing and a cohesive national policy. There are exceptions, the US comes to mind, where different states are doing their own thing and the president is at very public odds with the governors of those states suffering the most from COVID-19.

Being a small country, you would have thought Malta would have had the luxury of one policy, one philosophy and one direction.

Instead, we see the total opposite.

On one hand we have the Superintendent of Public Health asking every one to stay inside and avoid as much social contact as possible.

We have a department of health preparing hundreds of beds for anticipated victims of the virus, that preparation being based on scientific models of how they anticipate the virus will spread.

We have thousands of healthcare workers and other public servants putting their health and lives at risk to treat those infected both now and in the future.

We have those same workers denying themselves not only the luxury of a social life, but the necessity of the company of their own families and loved ones at a time of great psychological stress in order not to risk contaminating them.

On the other hand, we have a prime minister stating that things are going well, when the epidemiological model of nearly every single country that is now suffering from a major national outbreak shows that in our case it is way too early to state or believe that.

Being a small country, you would have thought Malta would have had the luxury of one policy, one philosophy and one direction

We have that same prime minister encouraging people to go outside and exercise when nearly all his peers in Europe are doing the opposite. Not because it is bad to do so, but because it is recognised that people are human and will not practise proper social distancing once let out of their homes.

This is not in theory; we have all seen what has happened on a nice sunny weekend or public holiday.

Finally, the cherry on the cake, we now know the government will sanction the opening of the spring hunting season, pandering to a lobby that is neither useful to society in general nor conducive to fighting the virus.

A decision that goes against the prime minister’s own advice as it will deny access for the rest of us to what’s left of our countryside for half of every day.

It also means that if the prime minister intends to police the hunters, he will be removing 40 policemen from an already depleted force who would be more useful enforcing current government directives regarding social distancing.

The prime minister’s words and the government’s actions are sending all the wrong signals. They are not asking for self-sacrifice and for all of us to work towards a common goal for the common good.

They are basically telling the less-disciplined sectors of our society that if you shout loud enough, wield enough political clout, twist enough politician’s arms, what is right goes out of the window and what is politically expedient rules instead.

None of us can look into a crystal ball and know exactly where we will be in a month’s time, but if we will be in a bad place we can look at several decisions delayed or not taken, not because they were not necessary, but because they were hard and unpopular as part of the root cause. Decisions such as not closing the airport two weeks earlier than we did when it was obvious that we were going to import infected cases from our neighbours. Decisions such as illogically and irresponsibly not shutting down the spring hunting season.

We are all going to pull the same rope and come out of this faster, less damaged and more united, or we are going to let this situation drag on with enormous consequences to our long-term economy and social cohesion. Pulling in every direction will get us nowhere. A true leader gives direction, not muddles it.

Time our prime minister stepped up to the plate.

Anthony Buttigieg, Doctor of medicine