In the early days of Apollo missions to Moon, one small incident took out the lives of three promising astronauts. The number of those who tragically died may be comparatively small when compared to pandemic deaths, but in the light of that mistake being so small, the consequence was devastating. Many faulty wires have sparked fires and might have caused fires, but have provided enough time to save lives. But this spark in a command module which was enriched with oxygen and pressurized, the fire did not give even split-second time for those who got trapped to escape.
Why it is important to recognize that now?
I think it is worth for the current generation of people, who are against wearing a mask and God knows only why they are so occupied in resisting (and asserting their rights not to be dictated by what they can wear and cannot), to time travel with those who experienced the world in early or late 60s to learn from it if possible. I do not want to go back all the way to the days when pandemic was devastating killing millions. When we are here in an era where we can appreciate and save each life, the devastating consequences losing lives in millions simple because of not wearing a mask by a single person is akin to a small mistake continuing to have devastating consequences. Having knowledge of that and still embarking to do that is utterly deplorable. I found today that Ruby princess mistake was one such small mistake leading to a devastating consequence of engulfing Australia with the greatest number of COVID cases. It came out of one single source and from one small mistake.
Just to think of how we have arrived to where we are today, and, to be able to put things in perspective, we should admit that we have learnt lot of things and many times over along the way to realize that “smallest of mistakes can cause devastating consequences”. Putting that in the context of unknowns that could wipe out greater portion of humanity, the consequences are far reaching. Yet we fall to the trap that we are invincible.
Let me admit that there is a possibility that there will be herd immunity at some point in time. But the road towards that need not be tragic given the advances made in science, technology and medicine. What should prevail now is a sense of common sense to deal with daunting circumstances affecting many. As I had said in an earlier blog, no existing laws or regulations or policies can deal with the unknowns. However, collective common sense can.
Collective Common Sense
During the times of pandemic, I was able to witness how situations unfolded – for better or worse. Most vulnerable were always careful and were law abiding. Those who were not were those who had the power and means to deal with the consequences of penalties and other harsh measures quite comfortably. They may have the power to be arrogant enough to break the laws or stage protests to mock the law. When everyone has access to multiple channels of news, one powerful person or one hesitant statement can provide ammunition to such unhealthy circumstances to develop that could explode on our faces.
When the governing bodies from the lowest municipal level to the highest levels of state and the nation and the world are trying to get a control of this pandemic, it is necessary for all the citizens from all the countries to be considerate and be cooperative than to become compulsive reading conspiracy theories and careless to inflict unsurmountable obstacles along the way for the governance and the management of the pandemic. There is no such thing as bad governance or good governance when dealing with the unknowns of a pandemic. There is just only one governance that can be effective – the one where the citizens heed to the advice and exercise common sense. The advice of wearing a mask is important and essential in a crowded environment and an understanding of the reasoning behind it to cooperate. Even though not wearing a mask at less densely populated areas can be ignored, not wearing one in a crowded environment cannot be by any sense of collective common sense.
So carrying a mask must be mandatory and if someone is found walking around without one must be punished severely. When we think carrying a phone is important for us when we get out, during the pandemic times carrying a mask should become a must to get out.