A defining moment

As Omicron explodes, will this government prove it is better at protecting us than the last one?

implementing a smart and robust sliding scale of policies to bring Covid numbers down, and in general, doing the exact opposite of what was done (or rather not done) previously.

There are probably some key differences between the situation then and the situation now.

Right after Muhyiddin stepped down, the Covid numbers actually plummeted – probably not because of the change of government itself, but more likely because Malaysia’s robust vaccination programme at the time finally achieved some sort of tipping point which brought down the number and severity of cases substantially.

I suppose Muhyiddin might regret not holding on for just a bit longer, but so it goes.

This time, it seems unlikely we will see a similar turnaround at this level in the same way we did last time. If the experiences of other countries are anything to go by, we are only beginning our Omicron wave, and we can expect numbers to continue growing at breakneck speed.

While vaccination likely accounts for the 2021 relief turnaround, we might not see quite the same happening in 2022.

Vaccination (and the fact that Omicron seems to substantially milder than other strains) is definitely helping to keep the number of severe cases down, but we must also note that uptake of booster shots is well under the rates that we were hoping for.

Fellow columnist Dr Khor Swee Kheng recently wrote “If Delta is the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, then Omicron could be the “pandemic of the unboosted””.

Simply put, the sentiment towards vaccines in 2022 is not the same as it was in 2021.

Hopefully our Health Minister will not rest on his considerable laurels (in this matter at least), and avoid underestimating the current frustrations and loss of faith in many ordinary Malaysians concerning the efficacy of vaccines. New strategies will be needed.

Even more so in other parts of the world, citizens get extremely sensitive about policies and restrictions around movement and other day to day activities.

I can empathise and understand. After a few months of something resembling normalcy, surely we will get prickly and bristle about having this snatched away from us again.

In pursuing a measured approach, the government should think of our anti-covid measures as something of a sliding scale rather than an all or nothing situation.

It may not make sense to do a full on lockdown like our first MCO. Looking at the numbers however, it seems equally illogical not to implement any measures or make any changes at all.

The government should first look at gently reducing some key activities – primarily any that involve big groups of people in indoor, unventilated spaces.

Besides the obvious benefits of doing so, this will also clearly communicate that the situation has changed significantly, and that it makes no sense to be doing exactly the same things we were doing over the last few months when numbers were lower.

If the government makes no changes whatsoever, people may be tempted to think that they can just go on as before, because the situation is “not serious”.

The other major area in which the last government failed miserably concerned healthcare management.

It was bad enough that we were severely under-prepared for the manner in which our hospitals were overwhelmed; what made it so much more worse was the feudal mentality of covering up the truth, and harshly preventing frontliners and other civil servants from speaking up about the reality on the ground.

This lack of transparency further dulled our ability to react properly, and ultimately caused unnecessary loss of life. Let’s hope the current Health Minister takes a radically different approach from his predecessor in this regard.

Last Valentines Day, public health expert Dr Amar Singh tweeted a graph showing a very sudden spike in hospital admissions in Johor over the last month or so.

Even though a lower percentage of people with Omicron get admitted to the hospital, this is may be mathematically outweighed by the much higher number of people likely to get infected.

Dr Khor estimated that “the Omicron peak of daily cases appears to be approximately two to four times higher than the Delta peak” and notes that “a surge in cases may overwhelm our public hospitals just by sheer weight of numbers.”

There are many stories of people catching Covid from their workplace. The last government seemed to put the financial interests of big corporations above the interests of ordinary working Malaysians.

Hopefully this government will be more proactive in ensuring that all employees who can work from home are allowed to do so without prejudice. This policy can literally save lives.

In looking at “super spreader” events, there is no way we can avoid talking about the Johor elections.

With all that is already in motion, it’s probably hard for most to imagine any type of postponement.

That said, I still think it is our duty to call for one, as Dr Amar did in the aforementioned tweet.

Given the balance of probabilities and the lives at stake, surely there is nothing so urgent that cannot be handled by a caretaker state government until the general elections – essentially halving the risk to Johoreans (and the rest of us).

The Melaka and Sarawak state elections took place during a time when we were still feeling the benefits of recent vaccination, before the onslaught of Omicron. Dr Khor noted that the Johor elections will involve twice as many registered voters as Sarawak, and over four times as many as Melaka.

Having the Johor elections right as Omicron is absolutely exploding throughout the country will likely have an effect that is much more similar to the last Sabah state elections.

Whatever our political affiliations, we all want the government of the day to be successful in managing Covid.

The fatal error of the last government was to adopt a passive, ostrich-like strategy of ‘wait and see’ and feebly hoping that things would somehow miraculously get better on their own. They won’t.

This is a golden opportunity for the current government to demonstrate that they are not the same at all.

True leaders will always listen to the science, put human interests above financial ones, and be willing to make decisions some will find unpopular, to safeguard the health and safety of the majority.