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By Abdellatif Sharaa
wonder why there are people who are hard to convince that certain matters will affect them as they do to others despite repeated warnings and appeals, and sometimes they comply when it's too late. I remember when the seatbelt issue emerged, many traffic departments around the world advised motorists to use it, but few complied. When authorities found that compliance was at a minimum, they introduced laws and decisions to force people to use seatbelts.
Now we see that this has become normal and natural for many, though there are still those who do not wear it for one reason or another. Now, as COVID-19 came around and became an epidemic and later a pandemic, people were asked to follow certain procedures to protect themselves from being infected. But many people were reluctant to listen - some were even in a state of denial that it will not be me, I will not get it, I have immunity, I am healthy, it only affects the elderly, etc.
Again, the authorities had to step in and introduce certain measures to try to control the spread of the disease as compliance was not at the required level. So decisions were made to penalize those who did not comply, and this led to imposing a full curfew for more than a month to make sure people were not mixing together or being in close contact.
It is obvious that countries cannot stay in a state of lockdown for long, and that the domestic economy must be reactivated. So a gradual return to normalcy began - shops opened up and malls are starting to come back to life, again with certain health rules to be followed such as keeping a two-meter distance between one person and another, wearing a facemask in a closed environment, wearing gloves, no dine-in at eateries, only a certain number of individuals can be in a certain area or store, etc.
We must remember that the virus will always remain and will never go away. At this stage it is still dangerous and it will take longer than usual for us to become immune to it, as the case was with its predecessors SARS and MERS and others, as they all belong to the crown family. But there will be a day down the line when we will start talking about COVID-19 in the past tense. But until then, let us stay smart my brothers and sisters and consolidate our efforts to fight this virus.
God bless you all!
Final word: If we could look into each other's hearts and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance and care. - Marvin J Ashton
