by Henry Buzar March 17, 2021 As in any safety measure or standard to lessen the impact of accidents, those safety measures place on people ...
March 17, 2021
As in any safety measure or standard to lessen the impact of accidents, those safety measures place on people a false sense of security - a simple belief or feeling of being safe than it is.
A built-in defense mechanism in most cases works in us such as the fatalistic view that God will protect us through prayers, destiny plays a role in our life on earth that death will one day take us all, so let it be, if your time comes so be it, and other embraced utilitarian philosophies in life.
Let us take, for example, seat belts. The seat belt was the result of English Engineer George Cayley's invention which he used in his glider in 1881. Instead of tying oneself with ordinary rope, Cayley used a seat belt.
In the ’60s, the US came up with a first seat belt law while on Dec 16, 1991, the European Union imposed a compulsory use of safety belts in all car seats. This makes driving a lot safer, however, many studies pointed out that seat belts and helmets created a false sense of security on the users that they became careless when driving due to the protection these gears provide. Besides, the availability of cheaper helmets offers less protection compared with the expensive ones. Also, the false sense of safety brought about by helmets occurs in more bike-riders leading to drunk-driving, drug use, overspeeding, lane splitting, street racing, and aggressive behavior. Of course, it’s a lot safer to ride a two-wheel vehicle with a helmet.
Presently, a false sense of security is observed in the Philippines due to dwindling cases of the coronavirus such as the case of Quezon province. With the numbers of infections going down and the availability of vaccines for COVID-19, many countries around the world are opening up their economy by letting their guards down. But this is a false sense of security. In HK, for example, the upscale K11 Musea shopping center – which reopened last Saturday after closing late last month over a “super spreader” luster linked to a high-end restaurant – was at the center of a much wider outbreak involving a diner, jewelry shop, cookie store, cinema, and toilets. The infections dated as far back as Feb. 14, but the “patient zero” has not been found according to SCMP.
In Texas, Gov. Abbott lifted mask mandates and allows businesses to operate at 100% capacity to the consternation of health officials who warned that relaxing restrictions now could undermine the sacrifices of medical professionals, firefighters, police officers, and other health workers.
In the Philippines, as of Mar 10, DOH updates show an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in NCR, Central Visayas, and CALABARZON. The infection rises by more than 1,300 over the last three weeks on average each day.
On Feb. 17, the province of Quezon’s active cases went down to 212 while as of Mar 10, the figure further went down to 155. A very good number compared with the last half of 2020. Lucena, the capital city ranks 7th among Tayabas City (ranking 1st) and the rest of the municipalities.
My recent visit to the Lucena Public Market however exposes a nightmarish scene of a fully unprotected populace. Fish, vegetable, and meat vendors together with unguarded market buyers without masks - shouting here and there, haggling, and talking without protective gears as if there are no virus-variants that could one day flagged them down. Not only that but we ordinary citizens are on the lose just because the city has only 10 active COVID-19 cases and some health workers have been vaccinated.
We must not be like Brazilians where 2000 deaths recorded daily and a surge of various covid-19 variants were detected.
I believe we must double our efforts by once again observing minimum protocol standards of social distancing, wearing of face masks and face shields, and sanitary hygiene with the ever-present alcohol spray to keep the number low. Mayor Dondon is right to remind us of the sacrifices we made in Lucena just to lower the number of covid-19 infections that there is a need to closely monitor all types of transport facilities plying to and from the City.
"Doble ingat tayo," we must be on guard and not practice a "false sense of security" that one day we might end up blaming the government once again for their neglect instead of pointing our five wrinkled fingers toward us.
No comments