Wow! what an ambitious headline. But hear me out, if I am wrong feel free to blast me in a response.
The big blessing in this whole worldwide calamity is the time delay that this virus took to reach our shores. Because of this we have had the novel opportunity to learn from the mistakes and successes of countries before us. Sure, Mr. coronavirus seems invulnerable with limited test kits available and no cure. Treatment to mitigate its effects such as hospital beds and ventilators are woefully short on our beloved island, and no-one could have foreseen this event. So not finger-pointing here, authorities are doing the best they can.
But what if I told you the key to defeating the virus has been literally under our noses the whole time, and with a unified effort we could take out its most dangerous weapon, its stealth attack. You should also know that this defence been successfully implemented in places such as the Czech Republic and Asia and is insanely cheap to implement. Just wear a mask when in public. If everyone does this in conjunction with the social distancing already being adopted, the virus will be effectively contained.
The word went out initially that wearing masks was not necessary, but I think this was largely due to the fear of a run on masks, if everybody went out and bought one, there would be none left for the medical personnel who desperately needed them, But if people make their own, this problem does not occur.
Why the masks are effective is because it protects the contaminated from spreading the disease, rather than the more obvious perception of you wearing it to protect yourself. Since we do not know exactly who is infected as apparently healthy individuals are prime culprits, a blanket measure ensuring that all persons in public be made to wear masks, ensures everyone’s safety, as all droplets, the main means through which the virus spreads, will be caught in people’s masks and not the atmosphere or even on the streets.
Personally I had initially dismissed this idea until someone shared a WhatsApp video to me, so I would like to give credit to this young lady from the Czech Republic who provided it. But I had to adjust my thinking from an individual point of view to a more community-based perspective. I only hope I have done justice to her suggestion.
Again, Government should mandate that anyone in public be required to wear a mask, in particular persons crossing the border. Mandatory wearing of masks might even encourage people to stay home as many won’t want to wear them for long and will be itching to get back home.
One of the best pieces of advice to date is to act as if you have the disease. Rather than reacting to the disease we should be proactive. Maybe groups like the Lions, etc., should be allowed to roam the streets armed with hand-out masks, or we could even make them cheaply available at the groceries, you can even make one out of an old tee shirt or a paper towel, instructions available on YouTube.
Another blessing that we have is that we are a small country and should be agile enough to respond quickly to a common-sense measure. Let's not waste the precious few advantages we have. Come on, Sxm government, evaluate this suggestion and if it makes sense, implement right away.
In the coming months we will be faced with a lot of agonising and expensive decisions, some moral and some social. But we could seriously mitigate this disaster if we act in unison now. People, stay home, but if you must go out, wear a mask.
The solution has been under our noses all the while. We just have to put it on “over our noses”.
M. Vieira
