Health Protocol is Not A Trend

Posted by Salma Fauzia W on April 20, 2021 in Speech,

 Hello everyone. Good morning still on the other day of Covid-19 pandemic.

It's 2021 already, but Covid-19 pandemic is still happening.

It's been more than a year since this fork-handed virus came to Indonesia for the first time. Many kinds of trend have also been happening from dalgona coffee, korean garlic bread, TikTok dances, to the houseplanting and gardening. Have you ever tried all of them? Well, it’s not a must but actually it’s fun though. Haha.. Well, seriously I mean we have to adapt and survive through this pandemic and we have many options to do. Most of us also get used to the new habits that we do almost every single day like staying at home if we don't have any urge to go out, having online meeting, online class, online competition like what we’re doing right now, until the most important habit for everyone all over the world must adhere to, yes, health protocol of Covid-19.

There are several types of Covid-19 health protocols, for example wearing mask, washing hands with soap, and doing physical distancing. Those three are basic. Most of us are used to hear those three reminders, but the data said, on 1^st-17^th of January this year, there were 434 people in Surakarta who violated health protocol. Even in Jakarta, on 11^th-22^th of January this year, 2000 people were caught due to violating health protocol.

It’s ironic, isn’t it?

There is  an African proverb "it takes the whole village to raise a child". It means that we need many people to encourage a child to have particular habit. If many people do the right behaviour, have the right habit, a child may follow them. If many people do the bad behaviour, have the bad habit, a child may follow them too. It got me thinking how relevant it is to the violation of health protocol problem. Let me give an example. If there is an adult going out to public place without wearing mask properly like his/her nose and mouth don't cover properly, it doesnt seem like it’s big problem, but actually it may give bad impact. If a kid sees that inappropriate behaviour, that kid is going to think "ah that man looks okay, so it should be okay for me to do the same thing as him". If we allow that to happen, it's going to be a bad habit, a bad culture for the worst.

Corona virus still exists. It's getting even worse. Coronavirus mutations have infected people around the world. Last month, our minister of health reported two new cases of British variant or B117 which is more transmissible and deadlier type of corona virus. The other type, called N439K, has also made 48 cases in Indonesia. See? We live in environment togother with some worse versions of corona virus, how could many people still violate health protocol?

It may be Covid-19 vaccine has discovered. Well, we all know that vaccination has been started on the 13^th of January this year. Our president Joko Widodo was the first person who got vaccinated in Indonesia. Yes that's good news. But the whole citizen has not got vaccinated yet. Instead of being patient for a while, many people go out without wearing mask properly. This kind of problem needs a lot of cooperative people to reduce that problem.

The possibility to get infected with Covid-19 still exists. Getting vaccinated and implementing health protocol can’t assure everyone will 100% safe, but that's currently the best thing that we can do. Many public places have been opened, but the awareness of people following the health protocol properly still needs to be improved. And that's the perfect time for us youth to take our role.

Well, everyone has their own definition of youth. But if we refer to World Health Organization,  youth is everyone around 15-24 years old, then youth should understand what’s good and what’s bad, including the health protocol context. Information’s also provided in many ways. Google, Youtube, social medias are “tools” to get any information during this digital era. The important needs are curiosity and awareness. We as human beings do have heart, right? Yes, we do. Using heart should be enough to wake up humanity and awareness to protect ourselves and others from Covid-19.

Especially for the youth.

In my place, Sragen, there is a community called Lentera Sukowati. Their popular project was Sragen Sadar Corona. They started the community due to Covid-19 pandemic. Their activities are cool and great! They share free food supplies, masks, share knowledge, and encourage awareness of Covid-19 to people on the street. They also visit to some old people from home to home in Sragen. Their community is getting bigger, better, till their movement has been supporting by community institution and also local government.

I have also joined that such social project called Share From Home. I talked to random people on street, shared to them about Covid-19 issue, and gave food supplies and mask for people in need. It became so ironic if I found out people who worked offline on street everyday, but they didn’t wear any mask. It also ironic to see people who had no privilege to buy proper mask and healthy food.

So yeah, there are still many positive things that the youth could do to spread awareness of Covid-19. What Lentera Sukowati and I did could be some examples. But if you think you don't have that much time to start and join social project or social community, it's okay. I also don't always that much time due to college stuffs. But that should not stop our awareness. We still have ourselves and people around us.

Once we go out, wear mask properly till it covers both nose and mouth, wash hands with soap properly, avoid the crowd as good as we can. Start from ourselves, it's been good example for others. It's also much better to remind people on street or wherever public places to wear mask properly. It sounds simple action, but it's such a precious way to protect ourselves and many people from getting infected with Covid-19.

It's 2021 already, but Covid-19 pandemic is still happening.

Health protocol and vaccine have been provided and even getting more advanced, but how about the people? As part of society, as part of human lives, youth are very clearly able to spread awareness of Covid-19 in many positive ways. So, for the sake of the younger generation, humanity, people around us, and also our own self, let's make Indonesia as a safe place to live.

It’s 2021 already, so let this be the year that we can live more peacefully even though we are still scared of something, scared of Covid-19. Let this be the year while implementing health protocol properly is not only a trend that we can choose to like it or not, it’s not only a habit that we can choose to do it or not, but it’s a must. Everyone can get infected with corona virus. So, following health protocol is a must for everyone.

Thank you.