LETTER | Of Covid-19 and ethics

LETTER | It is heart-breaking to see stories as told by the grieving family members of those who lost their lives to Covid-19. Each day the virus seems to be closer and getting to us, as I’m sure we have all started hearing stories from those very close to us, be it our relatives or friends. Previously, it was always numbers on the news, now it’s literally at our doorstep.

On social media, there are many videos and photos of patients at the quarantine centre lying on the floor while medical personnel performed CPR on them. While this itself is already unethical and disrespectful to the patients, what’s worse is that a lot of these postings come with captions along the lines of “Stay at home if you don’t want to be next” or “Still going out and having fun?”. 

I believe in most cases, the uploader has no ill-intention, but do they think that the captions suggest that the patients lying on the floor contracted the virus because they were stubborn and did not want to stay at home?

The irony is that many of those netizens cum keyboard warriors don’t observe standard operating procedures set by the government. Further, we must understand that not everyone is privileged to be able to stay at home and still have food on the table. 

A lot of those people who are out there are not out by choice, but rather, they could be frontliners, essential workers, and people who need to work so they have food to eat and their children don’t have to starve.

To fight the virus, each and every one of us must play our part. We must not only shout support for the frontliners, but we have to remember that the patients are suffering too. 

We are all victims of the virus. We must be understanding and empathetic towards Covid-19 patients. If we can’t offer them emotional and moral support, the least we can do is not condemn them. 

They sure do not consent to be made an example in a badly worded caption with no context and be judged by that, in the name of educating people about the danger of the virus. Choice of words is very important, as the wrong choice could hurt a lot of people, not just the patients but the family as well.

To you, it may be all about the clicks and “likes” and whatnot. To them, it’s about the physical suffering from the virus, and the unnecessary emotional burden from your words.

To the keyboard warriors who act like saints, if you have nothing better to say, it won’t hurt you if you don’t say anything, I promise.

To those who are still spreading fake news like it’s all a game, it's a tough road ahead.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.