Again, a call for transparency

Assume that the UK variant is here already. These words I borrowed from Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert. Our own public health officials are still trying to determine if the UK variant of the coronavirus and other variants are already in circulation. But isn’t it safer, out of an abundance of caution, to assume that a more contagious variant may already be spreading within the community?

This is not meant to foment panic. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has already stated that, contrary to what you may see in the movies, people seldom panic or act irrationally during a crisis. Pandemic fatigue or COVID burnout may have even set in already. Or people may have become used to the pandemic and the threat it poses, thus the complacency.

The challenge, therefore, is how to reinvigorate the public to stay focused and committed to keeping everyone safe; to wear a mask, keep their distance, and wash their hands –simple solutions that work.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed five cross-cutting principles for reinvigorating public support for protective behaviors: transparency, fairness, consistency, coordination, and predictability. Of these five principles, transparency, particularly the lack of it, is for me the most important.

The mess that the whole world is in right now began with a lack of transparency and the authorities pussyfooting around the truth. An Associated Press investigative report points to the crucial six days in January 2020 when Chinese officials tried to suppress alarming information about the new coronavirus outbreak. The same report points to governments around the world having “dragged their feet for weeks and even months in addressing the virus.”

It all began with a lie, and had gotten worse with a false sense of security. “Only a small percentage of people die from COVID-19.” “We have more recoveries than dead.” These may be all true, but it misses the point of where these facts are leading us. Precisely, COVID-19’s danger is seen by experts less on the individual level but more on the population level.

If the virus that causes COVID-19 were as deadly as Ebola or the 2003 SARS, it would have knocked down its victim to bed early on, preventing him or her from becoming a walking spreader of the virus. But that is not the case with COVID-19. Most are asymptomatic cases who spread the virus unknowingly to so many people. With the infection growing exponentially and if left unchecked, even that small percentage of serious cases touted by those most vocal in downplaying the effects of the virus, is already enough to overwhelm the entire healthcare system.

Who is not tired of COVID-19? We all are. But we cannot move forward and bring back the health of our economy if we lack transparency and foster a false sense of security.

“Acknowledge the limits of science and government in terms of predicting the development of this pandemic and what restrictions will be necessary at any later stage, share uncertainty and take responsibility for the decisions that need to be made on uncertain grounds,” advises the WHO.

Some local leaders conveniently appeal to our sense of community. We should be united in this fight, one of them said, accusing his critics of ‘politicking’. Such calls for unity, however, ring hollow when most people have that nagging feeling that they are being lied to or, to put it mildly, that their public officials are withholding important information from them.