KUCHING: Trust deficit in science has been the cause of why Covid-19 is hard to contain, said Sarawak epidemiologist Professor Datuk Dr Andrew Kiyu Dawie Usop.
“There is a high proportion of people who do not believe in science.
“Everyone now is well-informed about Covid-19 but yet it is still hard to contain,” he said in a Health Talk Series programme entitled ‘Covid-19: Facts vs Myths’ streamed live over Universiti Malaysia Sarawak official Facebook.
Dr Andrew Kiyu highlighted the spread of the fake news on the pandemic was problematic.
“It has overwhelmed the system, resulting in too many issues that have to be dealt with, over a very short period of time,” he added.
Another panelist in the programme, Unimas’ deputy vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Mohd Fadzil Abdul Rahman also agreed that the spread of fake news had made the virus hard to contain.
“First, I would like to pose a question, are we managing human or are we managing the Covid-19 virus now?
“In this situation, we are actually managing human. If we are able to manage human – to abide by the law and practise social distancing, the chain of the virus will automatically break by itself.
“But if people does not take this issue seriously, the virus will stay with us,” he warned.
The viral news in social media, he pointed out, had intensified the challenge in curbing the transmission of the Covid-19.
“Now, our main goal is to break the chain and the only way is to follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) and guidelines,” he said.
Sharing his experience as Unimas Covid19 Committee chairman, he said the challenge was to deal with speculations on the ground
“When the news of our first positive case involving our foreign staff who had died because of Covid-19, was circulated in social media, the situation on the ground became chaotic.
“From the surface, it looked like calm but actually people were overwhelmed.
“At that time the commotion was too big and I was told a staff went hysterical, fearing what would happen because the person had close contact with that staff,” he shared.
Stressing that there was a need to raise awareness among the public on the science of Covid-19, Mohd Fadzil also emphasised the implementation of Covid-19 communication initiative must be carried out intensively and effectively.
“Managing a campus on Covid-19 related issue is never easy. We have about 14,000 students and 2,000 staff.
“So in my capacity as the chairman to manage Covid19 issues, I have to ensure that this 16,000 Unimas citizen are safe. We need to make sure that the campus is free from Covid-19.
