COMMENT | I have had cabin fever from the very first day when the movement control order (MCO) began on March 18. The night before it was to take effect, my wife and I drove to Bangsar and had dollops of rice with fried squid and mutton varuval (spicy, dry-fried) on banana leaves because we didn’t know when we would be able to go out and eat again.

True enough, we wouldn’t get the chance to eat at a restaurant for the next two months. Although we did order for delivery many times, it just isn’t the same. Eating out is an experience. You hear the noise. You see people around you. You interact with the establishment. You pick food that is right in front of you. You get fresh air. You are just out.

So when the conditional MCO was declared and restaurants started opening up for dine-in customers, my wife took the opportunity to ditch the kids and go out for food. We have been out several times now and for the most parts, we have noticed the establishments and the people we meet do practice proper social distancing.

My wife and I are quite vigilant. We’ve got three kids at home. So we carry around our individual bottles of sanitiser and bring along face masks. But we don’t want to be too paranoid because that will just ruin our lives. There will always be diseases out there. This year alone, dengue has claimed 81 lives in Malaysia. That isn’t far off from the 116 Covid-19 deaths.

But sometimes, it can be difficult to fight other people’s paranoia. For example, my...