Fighting Covid-19 with common sense
NO stone is left unturned or expenses spared in Malaysia’s all-out battle against the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought the entire world down to its knees.
But in the various measures implemented and more coming out as the authorities running the battle are cracking their heads on what to do next, one glaring factor is missing or hardly taken into account – common sense.
While other measures are prohibitively costly and already costing amounts unprecedented in the nation’s history, including the RM500 billion committed so far in aid packages to cushion the impact on the pandemic on people’s livelihoods, common sense is always available for free.
The endless blanket lockdown in its various stages since last year are a classic example.
No one argues about the need for lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus and save lives but they should not be imposed without regard to saving livelihoods.
At least on paper or in the media, the learned men and women making up the national team tasked with containing the pandemic have often spoken of the need to strike a balance between preserving lives and livelihoods. But is it really happening on the ground?
All indications point to the reality that the answer to this question is a big no.
This is where the issue of common sense comes into play.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia reported that since the indiscriminate lockdowns began last year, more than 100,000 companies have ceased operations and another 50,000 more are expected to fold up before the end of this year if the status quo prevails.
Just with the very conservative estimate of each company employing 10 workers each, this already means at least one million people thrown out of jobs and another half a million more to follow suit.
What is most alarming is that even the plea and warning coming from Entrepreneur and Ccoperatives Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has not changed this mindset or obsession for a blanket lockdown so far.
He said a survey conducted by the ministry revealed that an estimated 580,000 businesses, half of which are in the SME category that accounts for 40% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), are at risk of failing if they are not allowed open up their operations just because of the lockdowns by October this year,
Just assuming that each worker has an average of two dependents, the livelihoods of 14 million or almost half of Malaysia’s population will turn upside down.
Why is this situation allowed to reach such dire consequences in the first place?
One obvious reason is that there are widespread fears, especially among medical experts in the national team fighting the pandemic over the so-called “factory cluster” as indicated by Selangor – the nation’s Industrial hub – continuously posting the highest number of infections.
But if this so, then why is there a low priority accorded to vaccinating workers in the various industries and factories who are running our economy and livelihoods compared with vaccinating categories of people who are economically unproductive and leading sedentary lifestyles? This is what I mean by common sense.
Had common sense been applied, all workers in whatever industries who are keeping the nation’s economy alive, including palm oil plantation workers and those at the essential vegetable farms, would have been vaccinated by now and businesses would not need to be shut down.
Actually, under the National Immunisation Programme, which determines the pace of the vaccine rollout, industry workers only come under Phase 4 of the programme despite their critical importance to the economy and of course, the job market.
It is also more of a myth than anything else that factory workers are the main source of infection.
This is backed up by a statement by International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali that about 10% of the infections in Selangor was traced to factory workers.
What Azmin can do with utmost urgency now is to use whatever political clout he can muster to get a much faster vaccine rollout for all industry workers.
This can done even without the use of the MySejahtera registration but via mobile units giving the workers the jabs at their own workplaces.
Even with the prolonged shutdown of industries, particularly those classified
“Had common sense been applied, all workers in whatever industries who are keeping the nation’s economy alive would have been vaccinated by now and businesses would not need to be shut down.
as “non-essential”, the spikes in infections in Selangor are still the highest.
Even the classification of industries being ordered to close because they are deemed as “non-essential” by mostly civil servants at the various ministries is also done without common sense.
There is no such thing as nonessential industries. The fact that they exist at all means that they are essential.
Again, if we apply common sense, there’s nothing peculiar about Selangor’s high Covid tally as the state’s population is the nation’s highest, too.
The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said the manufacturing industry should not be blamed for the increase in Covid-19 infections as only 6% of the total number of cases can be attributed to factories.
The rationale for ensuring that industry workers are vaccinated, not only on the first dose but both doses, is that the lives that are saved could also be lost in greater numbers if livelihoods are “killed off” by ordering industries to close for fear of infections.
Let’s not lose sleep over which sectors are “champions” in the race to keep the sexy statistics down or the blame game when they shoot up, but one thing is indeed critical – we just cannot adopt a business as usual approach of having a blanket lockdown.
Go for a more focused or targeted lockdown or restrategise. New strategies are needed and are overdue.
And most importantly, all hands must be on deck to speed up the vaccination. Once again, I want to invoke common sense here.
All this while, people are vaccinated at the various centres only from 8am to 5pm.
Why not speed up the process by having a round-the-clock vaccination?
And as for vaccine supplies, we have to cast our net much wider to secure and procure vaccines instead of confining to the ones that we are limited to so far.
There’s no need to be choosy on vaccine brands or preferences. As long as they are approved by the World Health Organisation, let’s get them.
To ensure the target of herd immunity is achieved, the vaccination teams must reach out to the people without waiting for them to flock to the designated sites only.
Like what is done in many countries that have flattened the curve on the pandemic, Malaysia and Malaysians have to learn to live with the deadly virus but certainly, never let our guard down by complying strictly with the standard operating procedures.
Moving forward, nothing should stand in the way of the speed of vaccination and in keeping the economy intact.
And in enforcing the relevant laws and policies, common sense must prevail all the time.