Egypt .. sarcasm is thriving in the time of corona

As usual, they used to ridicule and make jokes even in the most difficult crises. The Egyptians faced the danger of the globally spreading Corona virus, with great irony, from the virus itself to the way the government deals, and through the customs and traditions of the Egyptian people when exposed to such risks.

Social media pioneers circulated many jokes and satirical images about the Corona virus, and activists launched several labels to comment on successive news, especially news of its spread in Egypt, criticizing what they described as government obfuscation.

Other tweeters considered that the widespread irony and skepticism in government and WHO data on the limited spread of the virus in Egypt is what prompted Gulf countries to classify Egypt as a hotspot, which led to a ban on entry to Egyptians there.

Today, the Egyptian Ministry of Health revealed the third case of infection in Egypt, and the first for an Egyptian citizen, knowing that it had announced two days ago to raise the state of maximum preparedness in health facilities and quarantine departments, and doubling the checks in air, land and sea ports, in a preventive measure against the emerging Corona virus (Covid- 19) After discovering the second case, which was like the first for a foreigner residing in Egypt.

The Egyptian authorities revealed that they suspected that 1443 people were infected with the Corona virus, but all the results were negative, except for a foreign person who was a carrier of the virus, and recovered later.

Minister of Health

Health Minister Hala Zayed was - and still is - the heroine of the Egyptian jokes regarding the Corona crisis, as the mockery started early when the minister went to the hospital for health isolation wearing the muzzle in a wrong way, and despite her confirmation that the matter was just an experiment, that did not intercede for her, and she was subjected to For a torrent of tweets and satirical cartoons.

The minister returned to face great irony after the escalation of talk about the spread of the virus in Egypt, where singers said that the minister may mourn her bad luck, which made her Minister of Health at the time of the spread of the virus, and issued news every day.

Tweetors also laughed at the Minister's dispatch to China, at the behavior of an official in no country, fearing the outbreak.

Blackout policy

But the mockery of the Egyptians turned into severe criticism and outrage over the government's policy of dealing with news of the spread of the virus, a policy described by Twitter users and political activists.

Irony, criticism and anger escalated daily, in conjunction with the announcement by several countries of discovering HIV cases coming from Egypt, which led everyone to ask: How does Egypt deny the spread of the virus and not discovering only two cases, while news comes daily about infected cases coming from Egypt?

Infrastructure

Other tweeters laughed at the government's assertion of its readiness to cope with the spread of the virus, noting the poor infrastructure in hospitals and schools, as well as crowded public transport, especially the subway.

The irony coup

On the other hand, Mogherdon said that the increased irony led to several countries' doubts about the spread of the virus in Egypt, which prompted countries such as Qatar and Kuwait to ban entry to Egypt.

Others have accused those who described them as conspirators of being behind the spread of these rumors, and some criticized ironically dealing with the threat, demanding that measures be taken to tackle the virus.

For his part, broadcaster Khaled Abu Bakr considered that this mockery threatens national security, calling on the Attorney General to put controls to address this phenomenon, while others called on the parliament to enact laws that penalize those who contribute to spreading rumors about the spread of the disease in Egypt.