"The Girl at the Disinfection Table: A lesson in Apathy"

"The Girl at the Disinfection Table: A lesson in Apathy"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

 It was another night , another duty following routine at the entrance on the company where all employees would go to the Disinfection area and then proceed to the front desk to sign their health declarations or scan their QR codes to be allowed to enter the company premises.

On this night I was minding my own business spraying alcohol at my laptop bag and kit bag. In front of my a girl took the alcohol bottle at the adjoining table , sprayed her hands but forgot to disinfect  her backpack and the pouch bag at her side. She would have gotten inside the building if I did not call out to her to disinfect her things.

Our county currently is undergoing the longest lock down of these Pandemic days , we have 4000 positive cases per day and our statisticians are telling us that we might have 11,000 cases per day at the end of March. And this scene that unfolded before me is just a slice of how people despite the constant reminders still do not know how to keep minimum health standards. This is a country where local mayors are asking the police to help enforce these things in public.

When ordering food in the cafeteria you would suddenly find yourself shoulder to shoulder with a person who still thinks Social Distancing is something other people should do. And the reason they do this is so they can point and order food. Sigh

When you walk down the street you still see people not wearing masks properly. Their noses showing or their masks to the sides. Face shields are worn on their foreheads which negates their purpose. They should start calling them forehead shields. That is all they cover for some people anyway.

People point to the fact that we are opening the economy and that there are lesser restrictions now as the reason for the sudden spike but I at least can see for myself that the real reason for this are people who merely comply but not really understand why they need to do certain things as part of a social contract.

I saw it in this girl who despite seeing what needs to be done foregoes it and would probably get surprised that she got Covid19 down the line.