Covid-19 and strongly-held beliefs

It is unbelievable to think that our whole world has been transformed in a matter of a few weeks. As Covid-19 quite literally spreads at an exponential rate, governments around the world have been taken by surprise and are still struggling to keep up. This exponential rate of growth not only requires governments to respond quickly but also requires all of us to change the way we live, even if these changes conflict with our personal beliefs and preferences.

Change can be especially hard when it clashes with strongly-held beliefs about the way we see the world. This tension between beliefs and the new restrictions that are being imposed worldwide has manifested itself in different ways around the world. One way in which it has manifested itself in Pakistan is via the resistance against the ban on Friday prayers. When given the option between the religious duty to perform congregational prayers and not risking the lives of their fellow citizens, some Pakistanis have opted for the former.

In these situations, it is often tempting to aggressively call out people who have opted not to abandon congregational prayers as socially irresponsible. There is no doubt that anyone who is not practising social distancing these days is being socially irresponsible. But the larger question that all of us need to think about is whether such calling out is likely to change the behaviour of these individuals. Instead of ensuring more compliance with the social distancing measures, aggressively confronting each other out will only polarise our society further. In these dark times when we need solidarity more than ever before, a strategy that relies on belligerently telling people that they are wrong and irresponsible will not achieve anything other than drive our communities apart. Compliance with social distancing measures will largely be based on how we come together as a nation and respond to this common challenge. There is no way for the government to completely enforce social distancing just like there is no way for the police to stop every crime in the country. Our sense of responsibility to our fellow citizens is the only thing that can help us.

This is where public information campaigns can be crucial. With so much misinformation floating around about Covid-19, it is hard not to imagine people struggling to understand the true risks of the virus. We should all remember that it is not just the government that has a responsibility to verify facts and we must also take on the onus of correcting our family members and friends. Putting the sole responsibility of handling this challenge on the government will be a recipe for disaster.

All of us have a responsibility in these dark times. We need to not only make sure that we take the social distancing measures seriously, but also actively convince people around us to follow suit. A few days ago, my father narrated a story where his colleague was seriously offended when my father refused to shake hands with him. Had my father angrily called him irresponsible for not following social distancing measures, I doubt his colleague would have been able to understand the reasoning behind it. Instead, my father went on the explain the importance of these measures and how it helps reduce the risk to people around him.

We need to take the same approach with our family members and friends. It is only with patience and facts that we will be able to convince people around us to change their behaviour.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2020.

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