Information is not knowledge

Everyday we are bombarded with information and fake news!

Believing in them or acting on it is bad.

Believing in misinformation and taking wrong actions are ‘laki’ worst. Many had misinterpreted information and are now struggling to handle this pandemic and paying a very high price for their mis-steps and late actions. Only a few were able to dissect relevant information early and took the right path to contain this invisible enemy with lesser disruption. 

A Perspective on Time

While we were enjoying life or struggling to make ends meet, time just passes us like a flash without warning. As the Chinese saying goes: 光阴似箭, time flies like an arrow, time waits for no man!  No doubt.  

As the world is currently being disrupted and put in pause-mode, time seems to be standing still or is moving at snail speed. This is a very strange phenomenon and experience as the earth is trying to reset itself simply activated by an invisible common enemy.

In the past, we had so many tasks to do but had so little time.

Now, we have so much time on hand but so little/nothing to do.

Sigh!

Nowhere to Run

After the Circuit-Breaker measures kicked in, all the park connectors, parks and footpaths are now full of runners everywhere. How to keep safe distancing? Whenever runners sneeze or cough, their droplets linger and float on the air for passing runners to  inhale them. Wearing a face mask to run is just as stupid as allowing outdoor exercising.  Damn! I have to stop running for the moment as the risk is high.

Three Biggest Mistakes Fighting SG COVID-19

Whether it’s called circuit-breaker measures or lockdown, the effect is almost the same. It is way too late as infections are already spreading rapidly and uncontrollable in our communities as many new cases are reported as unlinked. Implementing the latest measures now just shows one thing: past incremental measures are not working and non-effective. In times of crisis like this pandemic, why swift and drastic measures were not put in place early instead of reacting and waiting for advisories from WHO and the US Infectious and Disease experts. Big steps like closing schools, non-essential businesses, getting people to stay at home should have been taken early. This is big mistake no.1.

Big mistake no.2 is telling people not to wear face-mask if not unwell. Many experts have already raised the alert very early that asymptomatic people could still infect others. Why are we not listening to them? If these people had worn face masks, our story would have been different today. Workers who worn face masks to work were either mocked or reprimanded by their superiors. We are not doing what both Hong Kong and Taiwan are doing: telling their residents to stay at home and wear a face-mask when outdoor. Now after two months of anxiety, we have to U-turn and say “we don’t discourage people from wearing face-mask…”. What the heck! Just be honest. Tell people the truth if we did not have enough stockpile of face-mask to be distributed to the population. At least tell people early to stay at home or indoor if no face-mask. Giving out 4 surgical face-masks for every household isn’t make sense at all. The reusable mask given to each resident does not protect one from droplets or viruses. As the saying goes: when there is no fish, make do with prawns lah!

Not many could remember or are too young to recall the SARS epidemic in 2003. Former Health Minister LIM Hng Kiang was unable to handle the crisis. Soon, Khaw Boon Wan was promoted to Health Minister to manage the epidemic. There was no multi-disciplinary ministerial task force set-up at that time. Although there were 33 deaths, the crisis was quite well managed and infection was contained within a short span of time. Now, Khaw has moved from National Development to Transport. Many would agree that he did a better job to turn around our public mrt system and resolve its frequent breakdowns and reliability issues. Fast forward to current pandemic crisis. While it’s understandable we want to test our new leaders’ capabilities and abilities to manage a crisis like this pandemic and to let them try out new ideas. Isn’t this too big a gamble and too high a risk to take? Not putting an “old hand’ in the task force to handle this crisis is big mistake no.3.

Now, we are struggling with rising infection cases everyday. Some said the third wave of infection is on its way. Many residents still do not stay at home and continue to wander around. Sigh!    

The Peak is Coming!

In the current difficult time of COVID-19 community spreading, many lives are being put on-hold. Things can never be the same again. Living costs keep rising with shortage of essential goods! Sigh.

Face-mask stock here is still zero and there is no way to buy them at reasonable prices. Life is getting very tough as many activities and routines are disrupted and most are stuck at home!  

I’m not anti-social but for now I avoid meeting old friends and stop making new ones!