By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
To live or not to live with the COVID 19 pandemic is indeed the big big question for us in the coming days.
Our choices of response is brutally simple – yes or no.
What a frightful, horrible decision we have to make. If this was war then it matters very little if you are a participant or an innocent standby – we are all victims in one way or another.
Are we at war? If we are then is it truly time for us to stop hiding under the safety of the trenches and take off on full charge? Where to?
This is the ultimate question we have to find a worthy answer to otherwise the whole exercise is murderously folly.
What is it that awaits us at the end of our headlong charge, trying at best to dodge the villainous, invisible COVID virus, bulleting at us from all directions?
The burden of information is on NEOC members, predominantly the medical fraternity, and they should be given free reign to study and recommend freely.
No political influences please to tailor the findings and the facts to fit any hidden agendas or to win accolades.
These manipulative political moves have a way of leaking out to us the public and they never end well once exposed.
If it sounds condemning then so be it because we as a people are being asked to make personal sacrifices not just for us but also for our loved ones.
We can be vaccinated from head to toe but as we have learned from outside experience, it does not keep everyone safe from the deadly reaches of the virus.
If we open our travel borders and the virus escapes into the community, it is more than bad luck if it is you or a loved one that goes down.
We can accept down and up again but not down and out for good.
If our decision makers are intent to expose us the public fully to the COVID threat then it better be for a damn good reason.
Hard decisions have to be made of course. We can all understand that.
The pandemic run is showing no end in sight with the virus going through a series of mutations to frustrate health efforts to pin point any lasting health cures.
But we cannot continue to plod along hopeful the end is just around the corner for the virus.
What should we do? Basic commonsense nags at getting off the bum and do something instead of peeping from behind closed travel borders, wishing and willing the virus to go away and stay away.
By now we all know that our weakening economy is screaming for us to do something about our savings showing bare bottom.
Fiame and her Govt rambled on about free travel on their way to taking the leadership helm away from their predecessor.
Now they are finally making their move and are being smart about it. Call in NEOC and get them to show them the dos and don’ts and if anything goes wrong the blame or most of it is on them.
For Fiame and Co. this is their first true test to prove they are worthy enough to lead the country.
This is a do and be damned or don’t and be damned situation.
Her leadership in this particular issue is caught between a rock and a hard place and the attention will be on how they rise to the challenge.
There are many boxes the NEOC study will help tick off for Govt. and ease off the pressure on the final decision to take.
Do we have enough hospitals and other health facilities to meet the demand? What options are there to add more capacity to take up any overflow of COVID patients?
What provisions are there for support of our frontline workers when they are prevented from doing their rounds?
There are more. Much more.
At the end of the day for us the public the best that we can do for ourselves and loved ones without depending on anyone is to live healthy.
“Eat to live and not live to eat”!
The more you chew on that health adage the more likely it will sink in that the best protection we can hope for starts with making a personal commitment to stay healthy.
The health buck stops with us. Anyone who dares play politics with our health buck deserves the full brunt of our unhealthy wrath.
Lets all strive for a healthy, wrath free life.
Blast off an Amen to that!