Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
چوروناۏيروس: امبيل لڠكه برجاڬ، تتاڤي تق ڤرلو ڤنيق
The ratio of confirmed Covid-19 cases to the population in any given Malaysian state, even at its all time peak, is far too low to warrant any form of national lockdown or out-and-out panic.
However, a partial lockdown to prevent inter-state travel to and fro states with recorded cases could contain the spread of novel Coronavirus infections caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 strain, though I personally do to think such a measure is necessary.
In any event, there is no proof worldwide that the strain is airborne, though a recent study conducted by that the strain could survive in the air for several hours in fine particles known as aerosols.
But the research is preliminary and has yet to be peer-reviewed.
As a scientist myself, I assure you that such a finding is not conclusive as it would take many other researchers to conduct replicate studies subject to the same sources of variability to confirm results.
Then, you would need other scientists to conduct a different set of experiments with slightly altered variables to discover other possible explanations to a given phenomenon that may have been discovered by previous researchers.
In short, a globally accepted scientific conclusion, while essentially a consensus by manner of convention, is one derived from findings that are both reproducible and cover as many variables as possible.
This may take months, possibly even years to accomplish. If anything, the findings by the team that studied the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 strain constitute theories at best, as is the case with several other findings thus far.
Now, I’m not saying we do not need precautions. I’m simply saying we should not panic or be paranoid about the whole affair.
For the record, COVID-19 is not the name of the Coronavirus that’s causing the global pendemic but a term coined for the respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 strain.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced that there are 190 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, bringing the tally to 428 in Malaysia.
The MoH revealed that most of the new cases are related to the cluster involving the tabligh assembly at the Sri Petaling mosque.
It is estimated that there were more than 15,000 participants at the tabligh assembly between the 27thof Feb and the 1stof March, which probably explains why Selangor has the highest number of recorded cases to date.
