Be vigilant, united and follow best practices to keep Covid-19 away.
With the coronavirus pandemic now evident in nearly all countries of the world, the Solomon Islands remains free from the killer disease and one must credit the strong and effective measures imposed by the Solomon Islands government and the best practices being followed by the citizens, including school closures, night curfews, careful hand-washing, stay at home measures and social distancing, although such a practice has been uncommon to the people until now.
Vigilance is the key word right now and strict adherence to the rules and requirements laid out by the government as particularly specified in the recent Declaration of Public Emergency must be complied with by everyone, including obeying the night curfew restrictions.
While the outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic is still impossible to predict today, we must remain strong together in the faith and conviction that it will end. We know from pandemics in history that Covid-19 is unlikely to last. There are scientist working in practically every country to find a workable vaccine and I feel confident that one or more vaccines will come into use.
To reinforce my conviction that the threat of Covid-19 will pass, I have lived through several during my lifetime today, including:
Asian Flu. 1956-1958
Hong Kong Flu 1968
The Aids/HIV Pandemic 2005 to 2012
If one wants to look back at other pandemics in history, there was the
Flu Pandemic in 1918 with 20 to 50 million deaths.
Cholera Pandemic in 1910 with 800,000 deaths, and
The Flu Pandemic in 1889 with I million deaths.
In the Solomon Islands at the present time communication is a crucial part of public health and it is important that information on the measures taken by the government in tackling the coronavirus threat should come from authorized and reliable sources via the government or through the Ministry of Health and Medical services,
Having said that, social media public health campaigns, if correctly guided, can go a long way towards reducing the amount of health misinformation that can circulates through social media sites.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
