As Egyptian authorities fight a coronavirus outbreak growing out of control, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and his security forces are stifling criticism of the handling of the health crisis by launching an outright attack on doctors and journalists. At least ten doctors and six journalists have been arrested since the virus first hit Egypt, according to rights groups. Other health workers say they have been warned by administrators to keep quiet or face punishment. One foreign correspondent has fled the country, fearing arrest, and another two have been summoned for reprimand over “professional violations.”
Seven years ago, el-Sissi led the military’s removal of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, after his brief rule sparked nationwide protests. In years since, el-Sissi has stamped out dissent, jailing Islamist political opponents, secular activists, journalists, even belly dancers. These attacks against truth and science are taking place even as coronavirus infections are threatening to overwhelm hospitals. The Egyptian Health Ministry had recorded 76,253 infections and 3,343 deaths, the highest death toll in the Arab world.
In the face of criticism, el-Sissi has said the virus’s trajectory was “reassuring” and described critics as “enemies of the state.”
In recent weeks, authorities have marshaled medical supplies to prepare for more patients. The military has set up field hospitals and isolation centers with 4,000 beds and delivered masks to citizens, free of charge, at metro stops, squares and other public places. The government has scaled up testing within all general hospitals and ordered private companies to churn out face masks and gear for front-line health workers. But health personnel are sounding alarm on social media. Doctors say shortages have forced them to purchase surgical masks with their meager salaries. Families plead for intensive care beds. Dentists and pharmacists complain of being forced to handle suspected virus patients with little training.
The pandemic has pushed the Egyptian Medical Syndicate (EMS), a non-political group of professionals, into a striking new role as the country’s sole advocate for doctors’ rights. Last month, the EMS released a letter to the public prosecutor demanding the release of five doctors detained for expressing their views about the government virus response. More EMS members have been arrested, said one board member, but families have kept quiet.
Doctors’ low morale sank further last week, following the arrest of board member and treasurer Mohamed el-Fawal, who demanded on social media that the prime minister apologize for comments that appeared to blame health workers for a spike in coronavirus deaths.
After the Prime MInister's comments, the union scheduled a press conference raise awareness about doctors’ sacrifices and discuss staff and supply shortages. But before anyone could speak out, security forces surrounded the EMS building and sent members home. A communications officer who promoted the event was detained and interrogated by security agents before being released.
In its latest statement, the syndicate said the accelerating detentions have caused “widespread anxiety” among health workers. Last week, Dr. Ahmed Safwat, an intensive care doctor and member of the EMS board, disappeared. A lawyer representing several detained doctors confirmed that he had been taken by state security and accused of terrorism activities. His last social media post criticized the prime minister, saying, “The government says that everything is fine and under control, but you enter hospitals and find the opposite.”
In another case, security agents burst into the home of Hany Bakr, an ophthalmologist north of Cairo, after he criticized the government for sending coronavirus aid to Italy and China while its own doctors were desperately short of protective equipment. He remains in detention on terrorism charges. In March, public prosecutors accused 26-year-old Alaa Shaaban Hamida of “joining a terrorist group” and “misusing social media” after she allowed a colleague to call the Health Ministry’s coronavirus hotline from her phone instead of first reporting the case to her managers. Three months pregnant, she remains in pretrial detention.
Doctors in three different provinces say their administrators have threatened to report them to the National Security Agency if they publicly complained about working conditions, walked off the job or called in sick. In one of several voice recordings obtained by The Associated Press, a government health official can be heard telling workers, “Even if a doctor is dying, he must keep working … or be subjected to the most severe punishment.” A hospital director in the same province describes those who fail to show up to work as “traitors,” adding, “this will be treated as a national security matter ... and you know how that goes in Egypt.”
A doctor in Cairo shared text messages from his manager, advising staff that their attendance sheets were being monitored by state security. He said two of his colleagues received a pay cut when administrators discovered their complaints on social media. In two other hospitals in the capital, workers retracted letters of collective resignation over working conditions for fear of reprisals.
The suppression of criticism in Egypt is hardly unusual, analysts say, but the government has become even more jittery as the pandemic tests its capabilities and slows the economy. Those who spread “false news” online about the coronavirus could face up to five years imprisonment and steep fines, Egypt’s top prosecutor warned earlier this year.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced concern in late March that 15 individuals had been arrested for broadcasting alleged false news about the pandemic. Four Egyptian journalists who reported on the outbreak remain in prison, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has labeled Egypt one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China.
Security forces have also taken aggressive action against foreign reporters. In March, Egypt expelled a reporter for The Guardian who cited a scientific report disputing the official virus count. Egypt’s state information body has summoned The Washington Post and New York Times correspondents over their critical coverage during the pandemic.
Despite growing human rights abuses, the international community counts on Egypt as a bulwark against regional instability, said a Middle East-focused rights advocate at the U.N., speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss policy matters. “There is no appetite,” the advocate said, “to address what is going on in Egypt, let alone sanction them in any way for what the government is doing to their own people.”
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