Following a visit to Beirut, the Director-General of the World Health Organization and the Regional Director of its Eastern Mediterranean office lamented the fact that 40% of doctors in Lebanon and 30% of registered nurses have emigrated from the country in the span of a few weeks.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Ahmed Al-Mandhari pointed to the responsibility of a foreign state in this “brain drain”, and made a commitment to help Lebanon overcome this additional crisis as much as they can.

Hospitals are closing down one after another due to the lack of power, the shortage of medicines and now the lack of staff.

The French Embassy has appealed to Lebanese caregivers, enticing them with a fast-track procedure to enter and be able to work in France. The aim of President Emmanuel Macron is to urgently replace the French caregivers whom he has banned from working because they refuse to take a Covid-19 vaccine.

Last year, France applauded caregivers, calling them “frontline fighters” in the “war on Covid-19”. Today, they are being discarded them without any qualms.

Caregivers who left Lebanon during the Civil War in the 1980s have never returned. The country therefore no longer has a health system and will not have one for many years to come.