Quote:
Originally Posted by Badger52
Thanks for the input again Bac-si. Many of the photos I saw coming out of Singapore didn't feature the whole populace, en masse, wearing real sophisticated stuff but they were masked up. I cannot help believe that mitigated community spread and the numbers in Singapore seem to bear that out.
Possibly a "social impact" question but I wonder how much their culture plays into their cooperation in that matter, and how much the ego-driven rugged individualized nature of ours hinders it.
NB: I do NOT have a 1st Aid Merit badge from the BSA so h/t JJ.
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South East Asian populace are "used" to using masks. We get hammered here annually by the bush fires in Indonesia and the haze/smog gets blown in our direction and the air becomes toxic so masks on during that period. Its been a norm since 1997.
So, to use the mask during this pandemic is not an issue. People are masking up and some aren't as they don't feel ill or feel they are infected. I was not using a mask for 2.5 weeks as I was not ill BUT, decided to start using a mask because people were giving me the evil stare when I went into supermarkets or to buy take out food..and it just felt akward.
The social belief here is mask up...as it will potentially save lives and stay home if you don't need to be out.
Now, the situation in Malaysia varies drastically to what is going on in Singapore.
Malaysia has many borders/many points of entry into the country so they decided to lock down as they could not contain the spread and feared if they closed off all airports and flights, the economy would tank. It has tanked thanks to the lock down BUT some states banned china flights and entry of foreigners and chinese citizens two weeks ago and have largely contained the spread.
But, the lock down will wipe out a large number of smaller small-medium enterprises, restaurants and that is the big debate going on here now and what the governmenbt is going to do to help SME's.
The entire country is closed down except for medical, hospitals, pharmacy's, courier companies, the post office, limited banking options (major banks have closed smaller branch's and are keeping limited few open in towns/cities if they have multiple branchs there), schools/universities closed, exams postponed.
Malaysia has followed the Wuhan model for the lockdown BUT, has taken a slightly less draconian attitude towards implementing the lock down.
Singapore on the other hand has taken a different approach; they are allowing schools to remain open, malls to continue to operate, restaurants to operate and businesses to carry on as normal BUT are:
1-encouraging people to stay home if they don't need to go out
2-have only 3 major entry points into the country by road/air and 1-2 entry points by sea from Batam/Indonesia so they can do testing at the borders.
3-banned short term visits/transits into the country. Either you fly in and enter and get tested or you stay out
4-Self isolation for 14 days if you are flying in from overseas
5-Mask up and use sanitizers to clean hands
6-Great emphasis on educating the populace on the do's and don'ts as far as avoiding getting infected.