MAY 4 — Malaysia went into lock-down on March 18.

I would have thought that after some 50 days of being cooped up at home, everybody would be applauding the PM’s latest announcement of a conditional MCO, which would effectively open up most businesses and allow people to return to a semblance of a (somewhat) normal life.

Instead a whopping 420,000 folks have objected to it and indeed some states have decided to continue the lock down, till the original date of May 12, which is about 10 days away.

As I (sometimes) scroll through the online news comments section, it seems a vast majority seem to favour longer lock-down periods. All have one thing in common — it’s too soon, it’s necessary to have everyone stay at home for our own and everyone else’s safety. The mantra Stay Safe, Stay at Home is repeated through news, videos, songs, speeches by medical experts, government authorities and active keyboard warriors on all social media channels.

Many are calling for prudence and caution instead of flinging open the ‘flood-gates’ to a possible second outbreak.

I do not under-estimate the dangers of this plague that has (to date) exceeded the three million mark world-wide, with a death toll of over 228,000 in 210 countries. It’s a tragedy of epic proportion. That small thing called coronavirus doesn’t discriminate between sex, age, gender, race or nation. It seeks to steal health, kill life, and destroy people.

And yes, that’s scary. Because no one fancies losing all that ultimately is the most precious — health, life, people. It’s a human instinct to want to survive. So we go all out to preserve ourselves as much as we can, for as long as we can. We don’t mind giving up some freedom if that’s what it takes to halt the spread of this plague that has turned the world upside-down.

I am fine with all that, except for the uncertainty and the cost of all this well-intentioned effort to stay home to stay safe.

Yes, I know, lock-down works — look at China. So we just follow what works, right. Wrong. What many seem to be forgetting or ignoring is the fact that lock-downs will not make the virus disappear.

So it begs the question, how long should a lock-down last? As has already been repeatedly pointed out by medical experts, is impossible to expect zero cases, no matter how long we lock ourselves down.

In fact we have been told point-blank, be prepared to live with Covid-19 for the next couple of years at the very least, by which time (hopefully) science should come up with a vaccine.

It’s all well, good and so easy to scream stay home, when “home” is a nice spacious house with a hall, kitchen, 2/3/4/5 separate rooms with attached toilets. When the fridge is well-stocked with food, there’s money in the bank account and everyone has got their own iPhone, tablet, laptop, TV, all the modern gadgets that help us stay safe and comfortable.

Too bad for the undocumented migrants or refugees cramped twenty to a room, 100 lining up to use a common toilet outside the dorm.

So sad for those stuck in public flats with 4/5/9 children, where the husband has been laid off because his boss’ business has no business to run, and the wife can no longer sell her goreng pisang at the road-side.

Oh, of course, there’s government aid and NGOs helping out.

How long can US$1600 by staggered payment last for an average of four in a family?

What about families who live in villages so deep in the jungle that can only be accessed by boat or 4WD — how long are they expected to wait for help to arrive, and how long is help going to keep coming?

What’s more important — food on the table or hand-sanitizers and masks?

It seems to me the very premise of staying home is faulty if we simply equate it to staying safe forever.

I am all for taking personal responsibility to do all that is reasonably practical but one day, the MCO has to be lifted.

Then how are we going to be “safe”, unless everybody in the house intends to stay home and keep others out forever.

Or maybe someone can invent a “bubble-suit” to cover up our entire body when we go out, to avoid human contact altogether. Actually I really miss seeing smiles; nowadays almost every face is hidden behind a mask, which makes people look so grim.

The fact is there is absolutely no guarantee I or anyone else can be totally safe from Covid-19, whether it’s staying home, or religiously sanitising hands, putting on masks, social distancing or avoiding crowds.

All the SOPs are very good precautions and should be followed, but they can only reduce — not eradicate — risks of infection. None can guarantee safety in the sense that whoever sticks to it will never get infected.

Because let’s face the truth — man has not come up with anything that can take it out, yet. Incidentally a China study reported it has already mutated into 30 over strains.

Don’t even talk about asymptomatic and recurring cases, to which we have no answers as yet. That’s not intended to create more fear; it just complicates matters more.

Sometimes the worst fear is not the thing itself, but the fear of the thing. Human nature is always susceptible to all sorts of fears; whether it’s Covid-19, lightning, darkness, heights, cockroaches, creepy-crawlies, sickness, accidents, failures, pain, death.

The root of all fear is the loss of control over our lives. We don’t like having to admit this “thing”, whatever it is, will affect our lives adversely, whether it’s physically, emotionally or financially. So we instinctively kick into defence mode to try to reduce the risks of being hit, in this case we think another 10 days of extra lock down will (hopefully) clear more of that virus from our atmosphere, even if actually, no one can guarantee that, whether it’s 10 days or 100 or 1000 for that matter.

The fear level goes up or down, depending on the latest figures of new infections, and we forget everything else, including the fact that there are people who are going to die, not because of Covid-19, but because they have no money to buy food for even 1 basic meal a day. Spare a thought for all those “out there” who are not like “us”, before we are so quick and willing to be locked down.

So how safe is safe? If we ‘escape’ Covid-19 for now, are we safe from other plagues that may/will come upon the earth, from crises in our lives, from death itself?

Perhaps if we would believe that all life is ultimately in the hands of an all-powerful Creator who loves His creation and has our best interests in His heart, in spite of many things that we don’t understand or cannot control, then we can still be at peace, knowing that nothing, absolutely nothing, can cut short our time on earth, which is already pre-determined anyway.

I like how my Bible puts it, Perfect love casts out all fear.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/what-you-think/2020/05/04/how-safe-is-safe-christine-sk-lai/1862807