COMMENTARY, Jan 9 — Even as the daily reports of Covid-19 cases continue to skyrocket and concerns about a pending lockdown grow, there is one group of people who often ignore SOPs.
These are conveyors of news, the literal grapevine of Covid-19-related information. The media.
I am a member of this profession and have seen/experienced first-hand their behaviour.
In the early days of the pandemic, chairs at press conferences were arranged one to two metres apart to ensure physical distance was observed.
No crowding, no fist-bumps, no shaking hands, no tapping another person on their shoulder and face masks had to be worn by attendees at all times.
It is a very different scenario these days. The latest example was the press conference held recently at the Prasarana Malaysia Berhad office in Bangsar with its chairman Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman.
The room was crowded with non-existing physical distancing and several journalists and photographers had their masks down and were happily mingling.
Keep in mind that this press conference was held a few days after a press photographer at another event had tested positive for Covid-19.
It is still unclear where or how that photographer had contracted the virus.
What made the situation worse at this particular press conference was each time a reporter wanted to ask a question, he or she was told by the Prasarana chairman to remove their masks.
There were easily 50 to 60 people in that small room, with some not seated due to insufficient space.
So, should everyone have their masks on at all times? Yes!
The next horrifying encounter occurred when we were leaving the press conference.
Since it was on the 20th floor of the building, the elevator was the only way up and down.
It was a small one that could only fit four people, to allow for physical distancing. There were lines drawn to ensure people followed this simple standard operating procedure (SOP) put in place since the movement control order (MCO) was enforced last March.
A fifth person in the lift would mean breaching SOPs.
Again, I was shocked by how my fellow pressmen had total disregard for SOPs, and wanted to fill the elevator with more people.
I protested against the entry of the additional two reporters who wanted to enter and as I did that, I heard a voice from behind me saying “She’s the one who won’t let you in, not me.”
It was a photographer I knew and he blamed me for refusing to allow more people into the elevator.
He did it again a second time when the elevator stopped at another level and some other people wanted to come in.
This time he said, “Ask her, ask her. She is the one who won’t let people into the lift.”
I can’t help but wonder why that photographer made such remarks or why he couldn’t care less about SOPs, even after a fellow photographer had tested positive just a few days ago.
Maybe some of them had stayed home for too long, to the point where wearing a mask and observing physical distancing seems strange or unnecessary to them.
Similarly with press conference organisers because this would be the third press conference that I have attended where no physical distancing was observed in a small room: one with PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in a conference room at the PAS headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut and the other with Science, Technology and Innovations Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in the media room at Parliament.
At the PAS press conference, it was crowded with party members and even the party president’s seat was not arranged with adequate distance apart from the next person beside him.
The press conference at Parliament was similar. No physical distancing observed.
I know some will say “you haven’t seen worse” but why should we even be comparing to worse incidents of SOP non-compliance?
What have these people learned after one year of living with the coronavirus, especially with case numbers going up by five folds in recent months?
Globally, the economy is deteriorating badly, and Malaysia is not spared, not even the media fraternity where most of us suffered salary cuts.
The only way we can reduce the numbers is by complying with the SOPs, not just because the law requires it, but because we actually care about the people around us, our parents and our friends who may have weak immune systems.
As front-liners, we should be setting a good example and follow the rules put in place; otherwise we’re just hypocrites, telling the public how important SOPs are but we’re doing the opposite instead.
