Lebanon surprised the world earlier this year when, despite being in the midst of a political and economic crisis, it seemed to have warded off the mayhem coronavirus was unleashing elsewhere. But since the explosion at Beirut’s port ripped through the city two months ago and plunged hundreds of thousands more people into extreme poverty, the virus has made a comeback. And this time around—with health care infrastructure already on the verge of being overwhelmed, and a broader political crisis that has doctors and nurses pondering whether to leave the country entirely—it will be much harder to control the contagion.
In February, days after the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in Lebanon, businesses proactively shut shops. When a lockdown was imposed mid-March, people seemed willing to obey the rules. A political uprising was underway but even protesters halted their demonstrations, realizing that if the virus spread they could not rely on a state they believed to be inefficient and corrupt. One of the problems that had ignited the protests in the first place was a clientelistic health care system in urgent need of reform. Self-discipline was seen as the only remedy.
