Fear in the time of Covid-19

Govt is responsible to fight the misperception that the virus is not something to be concerned about if you are young

Apathy is a deadly vice when dealing with pandemics. Even more so when you are given a rather generous three-month headstart to get on top of things. If you still aren’t ready for what’s coming after that you have no one to blame but yourself.

We should get that out of the way before our government starts pointing fingers elsewhere to explain its glacial response to Covid-19.

Now of course the United States and Europe had the same amount of time to prepare as Pakistan did and they didn’t fare any better by this metric. But they at least had the excuse, even if misguided, that they were far away from the epicentre of the outbreak. Wuhan was in a land far away from them, and like SARS in 2002, they would avoid the eye of the storm even though a sense of security rooted in distance is laughable in the 21^st century.

Western hubris thought that pandemics didn’t happen there anymore. Covid-19 humbled that view.

Pakistan on the other hand did not even have a misguided excuse for its slow response. It chose to ignore the threat despite having all factors in front of it that spelled ‘disaster’ in big red letters. It shares a border with both China and Iran but was slow to impose travel restrictions. It has seen its healthcare system buckle under the pressure of an epidemic in the past known as dengue fever. It houses a large population in which many people lack access to basic sanitation. It even saw countries with far greater resources struggle to control the virus. Despite all this, Pakistan’s approach to Covid-19 was similar to its approach to the smog crisis: ignore it long enough and it will eventually go away.

That isn’t how a disease works. It doesn’t shuffle away to its lair to sulk if you don’t give it enough attention.

We appear to be giving Covid-19 some attention now. Taking small steps while still rubbing our eyes in disbelief.

The good news is that it is not too late to get a handle on things.

First, the government and the people of Pakistan must come to terms with the truth. The virus is not some minor inconvenience, but a potentially fatal disease. According to The New York Times, if current trends continue, and aggressive preventive measures are not taken, then approximately one million people could die in the US alone from the virus. Intervening immediately and taking steps to combat the virus will reduce the deaths to 475,000.

Every day counts in this fight.

It is the responsibility of the government to fight the misperception that the virus is not something to be concerned about if you are young and healthy. This is a reckless take on a serious issue. Yes, if you are young and healthy the chances of a fatality from the virus are low, but the chances of infecting other people are high. This means infecting the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The belief that we all have when we are young of our own invincibility can be fatal to others in this case. Everyone, young and old, must practise social distancing. The less interactions there are between people, the less exchange of the virus there is.

Second, in times of crisis the PTI and the opposition must work together. Those who bicker now will be remembered later for being complicit in allowing the spread of the virus. No one should want that on their conscience. We have good examples of countries that have contained the virus that we can take inspiration from. One that I have seen first-hand is Singapore.

In January, Singapore had the most cases of the virus outside of China owing to travel for the Lunar New Year. However, unlike our experience with an epidemic, Singapore had learned the lessons from SARS in 2002-03. It took immediate steps. Testing kits were made available at all points of entry into the country. Those who tested positive for the virus were isolated from the rest of the community, with university hostels being repurposed to serve as quarantine zones. Medical officials exhaustively asked positive cases about their recent interactions and used Singapore’s extensive CCTV network to fill in the gaps. Through this method of ‘contact tracing’ the government was able to quarantine potential carriers of the virus for the duration of the incubation period (two weeks). Singapore also imposed travel restrictions on China early and significantly reduced the arrival of new cases. Finally, it compensated individuals who had to stay at home for lost work.

Throughout all of this, one of the most important things the Singapore government did was to control the spread of panic and misinformation. One of the ways it did so was by regularly communicating with its people. One method involved a WhatsApp notification system that anyone could opt in to receive information on the virus and the steps being taken by the government. These methods eventually resulted in stopping people from hoarding face masks or hand sanitizer.

Here there is an important lesson for any government. The people in Singapore listened to the government because the government has built a relationship of trust with them. Compare this with what is happening in the US where a complete lack of trust in Donald Trump and his government has caused polarised reactions. People are either panicking and emptying grocery stores, or, thinking the virus is a joke blown out of proportion by the media.

Finally, and this is something that should have been fixed by countless governments in the past, it is time to give healthcare the importance it deserves.

It is guaranteed that those who will suffer the most in Pakistan will be the poor: daily labourers who cannot afford the luxury of working from home; those who cannot afford healthcare; and those who have been long neglected by the government and therefore lack basic sanitation facilities. This won’t be a mild virus for them; it shouldn’t be for us either.

In times like these, if the government doesn’t act now, the virus will overwhelm its healthcare system. If that happens it will face situations in which people with severe cases will need to be on ventilators for three to six weeks. Pakistan will not be able to cope with that. At that point, we will enter some twisted utilitarian nightmare where the government will have to choose who is worth saving and who is not.

Let’s not get there.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2020.

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