ASKING THE UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS

Sir,

According to the Holy Bible, fear and worry will not add a day to your life. It has since become a scientific fact that emotions like fear and anxiety are detrimental to one’s health. Simply put, fear actually lowers your immunity against diseases like the much dreaded COVID-19 virus. Ever since the outbreak of the virus, we have been constantly bombarded with fear-inducing reports through the media about how the virus has been wreaking havoc all around the globe. To make matters worse, the fear that people have been subjected to, has been further compounded by rising uncertainty about the future, especially due to lockdowns, which have caused millions of job losses all around the world.

Assistance

In some countries, particularly low income countries where governments are unable to provide financial assistance for those who lost their jobs, people have even taken to the streets to protest against lockdowns, arguing that they would rather face the relatively low risk of dying from the virus than to simply sit at home and watch their families die of starvation. While lockdowns may provide some relief to overwhelmed healthcare facilities, which are struggling under the strain of having to deal with a huge influx of infected people, no one can dispute the fact that they have also had a devastating impact on economies – even in the most advanced countries – as we have witnessed a record number of company closures and resultant unemployment wherever lockdowns have been imposed, and many people are now of the view that these lockdowns are beginning to give rise to yet another pandemic – that of depression and also suicide.

Question

One, therefore, has to question whether it is worth risking the lives of the over 95 per cent of people who do eventually recover from the effects of the virus, to protect the lives of the less than three per cent who will probably succumb to it? It is now obvious that lockdowns may offer temporary relief to overcrowded healthcare facilities, but they cannot continue indefinitely. People eventually have to leave the safety of their cocoons to get out and do their shopping or attend to other issues. Of course, the WHO also recommended the mandatory use of face masks as a measure to minimise the risk of becoming infected or infecting others while in public places, but are all face masks effective in preventing transmissions?
According to some medical experts, only certain masks, such as the N95 masks, actually provide protection against airborne virus droplets, so how is it that the WHO neglected to inform the public about that?

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