DO NOT PUSH, OBSERVE THE WORKAROUND

Dr. Atty. Sharon B. Millan, CPA

1/15/2021

Telling people what to do is obviously not working. We are now a year into this covid-19
pandemic, and yet I still encounter people disregarding safety measures and protocols. It is
as if the covid-19 virus is not real. I have had clients who would use their saliva to flip
documents right in front of me, no wonder courts and government offices which are still
using paper constantly close for disinfection. People out and about shopping, touching
everything they find interesting. I wonder if there is a way to change mall lighting to enable
us to see multiple handprints all over displayed goods and merchandise. Social
distantancing is hardly maintained in some establishments where people pay their bills and
have parties. People are not ensuring cleanliness and disinfection before and after they go
about their daily interactions with people and things because ‘health and safety’ is
everybody’s problem, and so, it is nobody’s problem.

How do we therefore align people’s daily needs and wants achieved through interactions
with health and safety protocols? People need to interact with other people and things to buy
food, necessities and more stuff, to get to work and earn a living and to be with family and
friends or just feel less lonely. People by now should have awareness of safety protocols
such as washing of hands for 20 seconds, spraying alcohol on hands and surfaces, not
going out if one is sick, buy only necessities and not loiter around enclosed establishments,
keep masks and face shields on at all times. The strict imposition or pushing of these
protocols to people’s lives is an obvious solution. This should solve the problem. Yet people
forget to keep safe.

Imposing these safety protocols is pushing solutions that disregards people’s needs, values,
culture and circumstances. Instead of imposing solutions and punishing safety protocol
breaches, maybe we should start observing. Observe how people have made workarounds
on the limits imposed by these safety protocols. People have been incessantly sharing
covid-19 prevention and cures, both honest and fake. Despite World Health Organization
and government warnings about being inconclusive and downright myths, people have
shared covid-19 prevention and patient care advice. Some of these are early morning sun
exposure, herbal steam (tu-ob), breathing exercises, vitamin C and zinc, turmeric, ginger,
garlic, virgin coconut oil, honey, and specific fruits and vegetables that boost the immune
system. Also, all sorts of copper masks and acrylic face shields are sold online.

This is an indication that there is that collective desire to fight this disease. What can be
derived from these behaviors is that people just need safety protocols and measures that are
simple, accessible and affordable. innovative solutions are plenty and all around us.
Limiting pandemic health and safety protocols and even cure to what is known only creates
scarcity. And with scarcity comes panic, inequality and corruption. There is no scarcity in
people’s imagination to adapt and workaround limitations set by this pandemic. There are
still a lot of safe and possible effective unknown unknowns that people can and are sharing.
We should start to intelligently listen, observe and document some of the stories of safety
and care that have helped people.

Collectively we can come up with simple, accessible and affordable safety practices,
products and services that meet and consider people’s needs, values, culture and
circumstances. Do not push, observe the workarounds.