This must feel quaint to some people, but us malaysians are absolutely shocked and incensed that today marked the highest number of cases yet.
The breakdown of cases shows it's still at tolerable levels of community transmission for the population at-large but holy shit we wouldn't even be in this situation of an unnecessary second (well, third, if we actually count migrants as people 🙊🙉🙈) wave if our politicians didn't literally had to be the most stereotypical of dumb fuck villains this side of a pirated (sorry, inspired) side of the american flag (if you've ever wondered, yes).
[Tangent: there's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, our national anthem is already a cover of a pop song of its time. In a different era I would've started Mondays in school with the refrain of, oh bangsaku ini, Malaysia, sudah kami jadi, merdeka**, to the beat of Britney's Toxic or something]
[**Not actually the national anthem]
The level of hubris is truly international, the kind of which tories aspire to, but only us republicans have achieved and apparently we perfected.
So undoubtedly we're all on high alert, and disgusted that we even need to be at high alert, and even more disgusted as the hours go by and it's just evident that this govt will need to be dragged kicking and screaming (perhaps literally) on spending a single more red cent to save our lives than the absolute bare minimum. There's some gossip that this is in part due to the fragility of the ruling coalition (it may interest you to know we're so well-mannered as a society we invented permanent governing coalitions and crying to the king rather than actually utilising the parliament as the august legislative body that it is), but whatever the reason may be, as a humble lowly nobody all I need for clarity is knowing any policy action that requires additional commitment is off the table.
What's left then? Well, now we're one of the unfortunate societies who must learn to overvalue individual actions over collective ones since almost all of the cabinet is now under quarantine, for abiding the SOP that they had changed in order for them to not technically break the SOP that would've kept people safe. does that track? Do you follow?
We're now in the territory of personal morals over social values, charity over welfare (I'd share the hashtags but what if the PM steals them again ☠️), self-care over collective bargaining.
Which means what will commence next is ppl policing each other using bad heuristics because that's what you get next in a crisis with no systemic support and outdated advice. A lot of reminders now to follow the SOP but the SOP itself needs updating and that's path-dependent on WHO actually managing to break its internal political deadlock.
The issue, as I'm beginning to understand, is we're grappling with going against decades (barely over a century) of germ theory which itself struggled for acceptance against the far older, and far more established culturally, miasma theory. The flaw of miasma theory is its inability to prove in its framework why air can get bad, something germ theory has with great persuasiveness and evidence. The flaw with germ theory as practiced is in its needed defense of how sepsis can occur, many medical practitioners developed a reflexive attitude against any habit that has the flavour of 'well, the air be bad sometimes', which is in now ingrained in medical training.
One consequence of this is the attitude that airborne transmission fears are misplaced and overblown, since just because you can smell a rotted cadaver doesn't mean you get their cancer - as such only a couple of highly infectious diseases are even acknowledged to be airborne transmitted because no other explanation fits (eg chickenpox, measles). In germ theory, if it can be infected, then it can be disinfected. Well, except the air but only because the effort you might need. Hence the fanatical devotion to surface disinfection. Bleach wipes for everyone!
Miasma theory was born in pre-atomic times and while in the end we know now it was addressing symptoms rather than the cause, for airborne diseases of the not especially infectious sort like the ones from the coronavirus family, nothing beats miasma theory habits in trying to still have a society that is functioning with any chance to beat the disease to manageable levels. (If it's more infectious, well, you can refer to the panic-inducing movie starring Marion Cotillard, Contagion, for likely scenarios.)
And we still have those habits. Like I said, the cultural attitude towards 'bad air' is centuries-old. If not, I still wouldn't be here wasting money monthly buying essential oils. (What do they do? Tell me truly. The supposed pathways are nonsense and the volumes used are pointless to fatal. I say this btw as I burn citronella oil in the day to ward off insects). We instinctively want to air out a room and throw the windows open. It's just that now we also know to wash our hands and evaluate the air filter’s micron size.
So, there's a little bit of active discussion if we should bring back the MCO, and you know what, I'll just use the bulk of my fb post
On a more technical note, with what we know now of the virus and this disease, I also don't believe we should resume MCO. I'm not even appealing to sympathy for the economic condition of those who will not be able to afford it because you will see, the actions we have to take I'm listing below will impact livelihoods of many sectors.
That said, we had six months for the govt to develop, pilot, and refine the protocols for remote work for the civil service but we're now run by a govt made up of ppl who never were worth much in their group assignments.
Reason why we don't need MCO
This disease's measure of dispersion and the characteristics of aerosolized particles which is the main culprit in this primarily airborne disease indicate focus must be on reducing risk in badly ventilated areas. Outdoors is the least risky environment. In fact for physical and mental health, the habit of being more outdoors should be encouraged.
Observations
Things we've been doing that's prolly of minimal value:
Physical distancing (aerosols are too light to disperse this way. Droplets do lose trajectory at 6ft.)
Regular surface disinfection in non-high risk (eg hospitals) areas
Limitation of no. of ppl if not accompanied by allowed behaviours
Things we should do now:
Improve ventilation and air flow (windows open; upgrade filters)
Put on masks INSIDE buildings not outside
Number of ppl is secondary to the type of expected activity. Anything that involves heavy exhalation + breathing is an auto demerit
Action for Civilians
Revert to haze season habits but for indoors. Due to aerosolized transmission, a well-fitted cloth mask with n95 and equiv filter is prolly better than a surgical mask.
That's it.
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citations of note:
1. aerosol transmission being key;
2. measure of dispersion being key in this disease;
What you're suggesting here is basically what's happening in Serbia now. Might be my government is lying but masks only for the indors made miracles against the pandemics.