Epidemic

No don't worry about the title, there's no epidemic here in Indonesia nor my hometown. I just happened to remember something about it. Sometimes one of the things that irked me a lot is when people sneeze or cough without covering their mouth. And sadly a lot of people do that here. Although obviously they don't sneeze or cough right in front of you, they just don't cover their mouth. Also they would kindly face you away so that they will sneeze or cough away from you.

Well I was one of those people! Okay to be honest before I came to Singapore, I do these too. Especially at home. But well I was taught in primary school here that we should cover our mouth when we sneeze or cough, and I do that but only in public haha. Also in Indonesia we don't say "excuse me" like people do in Singapore. So I remember when I first came there, I got scolded by a friend for not saying excuse me after I sneezed. And from then onwards, I have a new habit.

I think most people here have this bad habit because well, old habits die hard. But for me, as someone who went through two epidemics in my life (SARS in 2003 and H1N1 Avian Flu in 2009), I really learned how to not screw things up haha. Also Biomed has taught me more ways we can die from.

People here haven't really went through such conditions before. So to them a sneeze or a cough is nothing. Perhaps if an epidemic occur (I really hope not), people will start thinking twice of their bad habit haha. I remember in 2003, during the SARS outbreak, things got so scary that I was avoiding human interaction. I remember the day school got called off, my housemates and I stayed at home. And my parents were so worried they asked us to come home. 

And oh gosh the journey home was so nerve wrecking because after all we were traveling in a plane for 1.5 hours. We had to go to the Airport, where so many people are gathering. My brother and sister went back to Singapore first cause if I'm not wrong JC reopened earlier. I went with my aunt and uncle. I remember I was covering my mouth and nose with a tissue in the plane haha. Everyone else around me were wearing masks, it was really tense, the whole feeling is different.

And then for the next one month we were all being monitored with daily temperature check ups, and so on. I was being specially monitored (had to report to my teacher every day to make sure I have no fever and so on). So yeah this experience taught me a huge lesson as I grow up. And I have to say the Singapore Government did a great job in handling the situation. It was well managed I guess.

So it became natural when the H1N1 Flu broke out in 2009. Same thing happened but I was in Sec 4 then. I was the class monitor so I had to make sure things were running. I remember having to disinfect my classmates' hands in the morning and after recess. And then disinfecting the tables once a week with bleach. Kelvin was infected with it and during the week where he was reported, we had to clean the table every day! Haha. And I had to monitor the 8 people who were sitting directly beside him.

After going through the 2003 SARS outbreak I was actually kinda "prepared" in 2009. It was also a frightening experience because I traveled to Sweden during that period! 11 hours up in the air from Bangkok etc. I was feeling quite terrified too but nope nothing happened haha. 

Okay this is just really a random thought. I hope we can all learn to take care of ourselves and others better, before things got worst. And I wish these two incidents won't repeat itself!