A Covid-19 advice

This message has been circulating around through Whatsapp lately and I've even been asked whether or not the writer is an Old Free. It was reportedly written by a Dr Yong Boon Hun, a Malaysian working in the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. However, I've received confirmation from an Old Free friend, Class of 1975, that the message is indeed real and Yong himself had posted it in their whatsapp chat group. So, yes, it is real. Yong was his classmate at Penang Free School. So here is his message.

Dear all, I wrote the message below to my extended family in Malaysia, and I am sharing my thoughts with you, my PFS family. Sorry if I sound a bit alarmist.

China is now past the peak and you see doctors going home from Wuhan, and in HK things are getting more relaxed but still on guard for a second wave from imported cases especially hundreds or thousands of returning students and HK people from China when allowed.

"Dear family, I have been reading about the COVID 19 situation in Asia, Australia and Europe. The most alarming is the sudden change in policy in the UK, based on epidemiology modeling. At least their PM listens and acts on advice of scientists. If reports are true, they are looking at very large numbers of people getting infected and are now going to lockdown.

"But for MALAYSIA, you are now going through what China and HK did in January and February. Based on what I see the government is doing, I do not think Malaysia will go through the pandemic like China and HK or Singapore. It will be more like Italy and UK.

"What I mean is after preparing with supplies, limit your social movements now. Don’t follow the crowd by not realizing the seriousness of the situation. Mingle only with people you know who have not followed crowds.

"If the government cannot take care of the people, you have to take care of yourselves. You have to change your mindset now. No more business as usual. Prepare for war (against the virus). Oil price and share markets are collapsing but that is not even the most important thing. The most important thing now is sit and DO NOTHING.

Prepare to spend most of your time at home or if outdoors then far from any crowds and don’t touch anything.

"In HK now , anyone coming back from any country has to self quarantine for two weeks. My colleague’s son who is a student in UK will have to stay by himself in a spare flat for two weeks. Food will be left at his door. In my hospital if anyone at home comes back from overseas then I am counted as a contact and I cannot go to work for two weeks. This is the extent of the serious measures that have to be adopted. If the Malaysian government does not adopt these measures or if the population does not want to follow, then you must adopt the strict measures yourself to keep from falling sick.

"You probably should not be eating out now if you can. And sanitize your hands after you touch anything outside. Do what may seem like a bit of overkill or being obsessive, but you should be adopting a more careful attitude now than the rest of the population, not following their standard.

"Malaysian public has no idea what they are about to face. If you read this you must prepare yourself.

"HK has 44 public hospitals and maybe 15 of them can take COVID patients. We have 7 million people and Malaysia has 4.5 times that. HK and China have been preparing for 17 years for another epidemic. HK’s budget for public healthcare was HKD 60 billion per year and another 30 billion was allocated this month to fight the virus. I don’t know the resources that the Malaysian government has allocated."