YOURSAY | ‘It defies logic and science to give special treatment to ministers.’

'Might as well have no quarantine' - Expert cautions against Adham's proposal

JusticeNow: If Malaysia follows Health Minister Adham Baba’s instructions, the African and UK variants of Covid-19 will make a beeline to Malaysia sooner than later.

Being a doctor himself, it defies logic and science to give special treatment to ministers. It also defies logic for the prime minister to visit Indonesia at the peak of a pandemic unless it is for ulterior motives.

If the United Nations and most governments can conduct business and meetings online, why are we the exception? What is so special about Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s visit to Indonesia?

Manjit Bhatia: When the initial Covid-19 outbreak became a little better known, the science then said it would take 14 days before a person may be declared no longer infectious after they test negative.

But since then, with more knowledge of testing and transmission rates, the science said it would take about 10 days.

Which is in one sense scary and in another sense not so. In the not-so sense, the short time it takes to discover Covid-19 means the faster the medics can act on the patient. However, it is scary because the transmission rate is faster, so reaction time is shortened. Which means governments will need to pour more resources into healthcare.

And now with the new variants, therein lies a new challenge: will quarantine be three days, 14 days, or longer?

GoldenParrot4280: If I were in that situation, I would undergo a 10-day quarantine at home, perhaps even 14 days to be on the safe side. This is to keep my family, friends, colleagues, and the public at large safe.

Adham, I can't agree with your suggestion to extend this three-day quarantine to everyone - it feels like an attempt to get us to accept the three-day quarantine for ministers. I just can't.

Coward: In true Malaysia Boleh spirit, we are pioneering a new three-day quarantine process because we are smarter than the rest of the world and certainly more innovative.

That would have been fine if it were all thought through, with transparent and uniformly-enforced SOP (standard operating procedure). We need not have everyone agreeing the approach is good, but we do need the majority of experts to see the possibility of success and agree that the risk is worthwhile. We have none. Everyone is puzzled how the minister arrived at the three days figure.

Now the argument is that the quarantine was shortened for economic reason. If so, why haven't other countries adopted the same quarantine period?

I am afraid there are better measures, unpalatable to the minister, to improve the economic climate available. This include lifting the emergency declaration, restore the legitimately-elected government and dare I say it, put better people in ministerial post.

Our record of enforcing SOP is dismal, at least one minister that we know of can walk through barriers at the airport without being issued the quarantine paper; The general public perceive that exemptions to SOP rules are granted willy-nilly to ministers, leading to accusations of double standard.

Here you see how low my trust of the government is: I don't believe they are capable of taking steps to cover their double standard before they are caught in it.

OrangeRaven0849: I fully agree with infectious disease expert Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, but her advice will be ignored. Unless Parliament is functioning, you will find all sorts of mischief taking place.

Also, no one dares to open their mouth because the Emergency Ordinance is in force. It gives the ministers permission to act as if they are God.

Ranjit Singh Malhi: Adeeba, the “Iron Lady of UM”, thank you for being courageous in speaking out the truth. Our nation badly needs intellectuals like you to ensure good governance and continued progress. I salute you!

Iphonezours: Malaysia is not short of experts like Adeeba and others who know so well the risks of infectious diseases and when shortcuts are made, such as shortening the quarantine period without sound science and evidence, all in the name of the economy.

Unfortunately, Malaysia is also not short of incompetent people who mismanage this pandemic, which will cause misery to the people.

BrownKite6870: This is the same as our education examination standard.

When the majority of students cannot achieve a pass requirement, the solution is to lower the passing requirement to an even lower standard. Then we can boast about the improvement made.

Now, as the ministers have no ability to abide by the quarantine SOPs they themselves set in the first place, the answer is to lower the requirement for the duration of the quarantine.

Vijay47: Reading the many public pronouncements by Adham made from the time he was first set loose upon us, one wonders how he differs from the bamboo telescope-wielding Raja Bomoh.

At least that gentleman had no pretensions about himself. He was merely sharing with us methods of locating missing aircraft, a skill he acquired from the spiritual university he attended. What excuse or explanation does the minister have?

Obviously, the boys in the band must have realised, too late, that Muhyiddin’s foray into Indonesia and his return did not meet Covid-19 SOP requirements and some story, any story, had to be issued to the public.

Equally obvious, Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah must have refused point-blank to be the cat’s paw again to the goings-on of local politicians. Thus, Adham was forced to pick up the slack.

If a three-day quarantine was what the doctor ordered, a properly qualified doctor, why were similar liberties not extended to Foreign Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on his super-secret and extremely suspicious excursion to the UAE?

Is the virus more virulent in a sandy environment? Perhaps Muhyiddin and his entourage must be made of sterner stuff.

Then in a desperate effort to lend some egalitarian air to his quarantine approach, Adham has now generously promised to permit a similar reduced period to business travellers, the public, and to eternity and beyond.

The world must be stunned by this discovery that the virus responds to ministerial orders.

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