The WHO, ‘Civil Society' And The Parameters Of Sanity

The National Centre on COVID-19 has been in the frontline, taking decisions on behalf of the country

- Malinda Seneviratne

This government is crazy. Not just this government, but all governments are crazy. All government's past and present, as well as those yet to be formed, are insane. Alright. Strong words. Frequently used words. Here’s the question: are the finger-pointers sane?

Harsha Wickramasinghe, engineer and a perceptive if infrequent commentator on things related to policy and politics, at least in social media, had an interesting take. Here’s the translation: According to some on Facebook the country should have been shut down the moment the first person infected with Corvid-19 was found. Are face masks necessary or not? Is it wise to lift curfew off and on? We’ve seen a lot of debates such as these, but we must keep in mind that this is the very first time that all of us are facing a pandemic.

It is also a first-time experience for doctors when it comes to responding and treating the disease. Many errors and highly successful treatments are invariably tied to these very experiences. For example, the World Health Organisation (WHO) first declared that the virus cannot be transmitted through air. However, with more knowledge/experience they quickly corrected themselves.

We must understand that the avenue of successfully responding to the pandemic is neither a straight line nor an expressway. Other countries have shown us that it is an arduous road with deadly twists and turns. As the public, the way we can ensure that the journey is undertaken with care is to support the driver who uses brakes and steering wheel in accordance with the nature of the road and not by complaining that the signal was wrong, that brakes were applied without warning, etc.’