Keep virus guard up, and don’t expect govt help

Why are department stores allowed to stay open, but schools and universities aren’t? Why are the authorities very strict about spas, gyms and restaurants when public buses and mass-transit trains are running packed with passengers at times, with no possibility of physical distancing?

This is not to say that the government should close down everything, or vice versa. This is more of an attempt to understand the government’s strategy in coping with Covid-19 and its rationale in keeping businesses and other places closed, or open.

If the reason is that any indoor, air-con space must be shuttered to prevent the disease from spreading, then why are malls open?

Is it because they have more space than spas? But if so, then why can’t universities do so as they should have the capacity to arrange for proper distancing as well?

It’s difficult to see what criteria the government or local authorities used to back their decisions.

The government and Covid-19 authorities often repeat the mantra that each and every one of us must cooperate and follow the instructions if we are to curb the disease.

Most people have no problems complying. What choice do we have? Nobody wants to contract the disease anyway. The problem is more about whether the government is doing the right thing and whether the responses it has come up with are coherent and effective.

More importantly, the public must know whose interests the government is acting on? Big business? Small-scale entrepreneurs? The public at large?

Which groups deserve to be protected and which must be made to sacrifice? Why?

At least, the public should be given the lowdown on what principles the government is using as it goes about “protecting” us.

Otherwise, the responses would seem random and biased. They could be subject to criticism that they were mandated to please a certain group of people at the price of others.

People who are made to sacrifice their interest for the greater good deserve a clear and hopefully reasonable explanation of why things must be done this way.

If they have to bear the brunt of the virus response, at least they should know their losses are for the sake of the majority, not some untouchable mafia, underground businesses or powerful conglomerates.

Judging from its recent updates, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration seems to have concluded that it does not expect the number of new cases to fall to zero.

CCSA spokesman Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin indicated that a more balanced approach has been put into place.

Business activities must be allowed to continue while authorities try to contain fatalities and keep new cases at a level that the the health system can handle, he said.

Eventually, Covid-19 could become like other communicable diseases — seasonal flu or tuberculosis — which can’t be eradicated but may be controlled to a certain extent, according to the spokesman.

If this is the case, and if the government has adopted a localised lockdown and a widespread contact tracing approach like China, why hasn’t it started to ease the curbs and allow businesses to resume with vigilance?

To keep a balanced approach at the policy level but maintain a strict clampdown at the operational one makes the responses appear inconsistent. This could lead to public scepticism, even unwillingness to comply.

“Never let your guard down,” the authorities keep reciting as they announce the number of new cases each day.

Most of us are doing our best. We realise that we are very much on our own as there has been no tangible help from the government except some cash handouts.

Has anyone been alerted when they come close to a virus hotspot? What is the use of studying the timeline of confirmed cases when some visits were allegedly withheld to protect certain businesses?

The public were told to download the trackand-trace applications Thai Chana then Mor Chana. But both platforms seem designed to help the authorities only, taking information from us without giving anything back.

Worse, independent developers of the Mor Chana app have announced that they are withdrawing from the platform as the government will take it over.

The conflict has raised fears over whether the app’s integrity will be compromised and if the government will guard people’s privacy as it seems keen to make the app mandatory.

As the virus has spread to more than 60 provinces, there will be no safe place eventually. In the circumstances, the best strategy for the public would be to assume the worst and protect ourselves as best as possible.

There is little that the government will do for us, so it seems.