A complacent attitude could be our undoing

“There is no COVID-19 in St Vincent and the Grenadines because if that were so, hundreds of people would be dead. Look, not a soul got sick here!”

“Why wear a mask? The COVID-19 situation is totally under control and those masks are not just unnecessary, they could kill you!”

“Why are the police giving the van men a hard time? No coronavirus is spreading in St Vincent! When is the last time you heard about a new case?”

“No deaths, no critical cases, no infected health officials, praise God SVG!”

These are all actual statements made by Vincentians, either on the radio, on the streets or on social media in the last few days.

And while we are all indeed thankful that we have had no deaths or even serious cases and that there have been no new identified cases since May 3, the complacent attitude that so many Vincentians have been adopting is alarming.

Last weekend, at funerals, church services, supermarkets, places of recreation and entertainment, while some people were observed to be trying to implement the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, many more could not seem to care less.

Where is this attitude coming from?

If this approach is as a direct result of how well we have done thus far in relation to managing to contain COVID-19, why are we behaving in a manner to nullify all of that? The sad thing is that the careless attitude of a few endangers the health and welfare of all.

But this attitude among some of our people also speaks to either a clear misunderstanding or total ignorance of what has been learned so far about the novel coronavirus and how it is spread. This virus is one that should not be underestimated, and we should all do everything in our power to maintain the status quo, not throw away all our gains to date!

In all of this, we cannot over emphasize how important it is for our leaders to practice what they preach. They, in all their public appearances should model the behavior they wish the public to adopt. Some of our students are heading back to school next week and they and their parents have been presented with protocols, which they (the students) are required to follow.

How and why should we expect our children to adhere to these guidelines when all around them, the adults do not?

We must all do better! COVID-19 is still very much a part of our reality.

It is much better to err on the side of caution than to be sorry that we did not take this virus seriously.