Read on Twitter
"Why is Croatia doing so well in the fight against the Coronavirus" -- as I listen to an endless sound of ambulances from my apartment in Brooklyn, I am so incredibly thankful to the experts leading the fight agains the pandemic in my home country 
. https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/zasto-hrvatskoj-ide-tako-dobro-u-borbi-s-koronavirusom/2173029.aspx
. https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/zasto-hrvatskoj-ide-tako-dobro-u-borbi-s-koronavirusom/2173029.aspx
Croatia effectively flattened the curve and maintained linear growth pretty much since the start. We are currently at 19 deaths and 1343 confirmed cases (population 4 million). It's too early to relax, but our measures are working.
The epidemiologists cited in the article credit the long tradition of epidemiological practice dating back to 1893, and specifically the lasting work of Andrija Štampar, one of the founders of @WHO and social medicine pioneer who established our country's public health system
Štampar's life reads like a good novel. He started his career in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, publishing health pamphlets for the poor in rural Croatia. In the inter-war period, he worked for the Health Organization of the League of Nations, organization that would become the WHO
He also worked around the world during this period, including the advisory mission to China from 1933 to 1936 in response to contagious outbreaks caused by devastating floods in the early 1930s
At the start of WW2 he was imprisoned by the Croatian Nazi collaborators Ustaše and transferred to Austria where he was imprisoned until the end of the war. In 1946 WHO was founded and Štampar was elected as its first President of the Assembly.
Štampar dedicated his life to developing a system of socialized medicine that would provide health care to everyone. He understood, earlier than most, that the only way to have a healthy society is to establish systems that provide care to all, regardless of the ability to pay.
Štampar developed 10 Principles of Public Health and Social Medicine in 1926. The experts leading the fight against Coronavirus in Croatia cite them as the basis of their response. Number 6: No differences should be made between the economically strong and economically weak
It's interesting to compare them to @CDCgov's 10 Essential Public Health Services which do not mention cost or access to health care for those who can't pay for it at all
In a bizarre twist of fate, Croatia may have been saved because an incredibly incompetent health minister was replaced by an expert surgeon back in January, after the former found himself in the middle of a real estate corruption scandal https://balkaninsight.com/2020/01/28/croatian-health-minister-fired-over-real-estate-scandal/
While this leadership change was critical, it wouldnt have been enough without the strong public health foundation built by Dr. Štampar. It wouldn't have been possible to mobilize our country's response without an actual system that provides care for everyone regardless of income
As I was typing this thread, Bernie announced he is dropping out. I am heartbroken. But I will keep on fighting for #Medicare4All and for @NYHCampaign because people in the United States should have a right to health, just like Dr. Štampar said almost 100 years ago.
