Samir Nazareth

Opinion | From quarantine breakers to social distancing avoiders, ingenuity is turning out to be the weakest link in our coronavirus defence

Human ingenuity is prevailing, not just in helping people get used to difficult pandemic measures, but also in circumventing them. Apathy, dangerously, is also a form of adaptation, to prevent oneself from being overwhelmed in these extreme times

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Samir Nazareth

Published: 9:30am, 28 Mar 2020Updated: 9:43am, 28 Mar 2020

Darwin’s theory on natural selection is essentially about adaptation and humans have various forms of adaptability. Words like “ingenuity”, terms like “street smart”, and adages like “desperate times call for desperate measures” and “necessity is the mother of invention” describe this. “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is quintessentially an ode to adapting.

The new world the coronavirus has created is bringing to the fore this adaptability. Social media is flooded with clips of quarantined people finding ways to deal with forced isolation. There are also coronavirus songs and humour doing the rounds. Traditional media report these as exemplars of the human spirit prevailing over hardship.

But our ability to change with the times does not always have positive connotations. It can also endanger the individual and community.

There are reports of devious means employed to escape quarantine – tour guides suggesting their clients pop a few paracetamol pills to pass temperature checks at airports, others quietly missing from hospitals or ignoring orders to self-isolate. In India, celebrations of nationalism took precedence over the need for social distancing during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s janata (people’s) curfew on Sunday.

There is another side to this malleability – the thought processes of those who choose to attend functions after having just been to coronavirus-stricken places, and other people’s reaction to them.

In the latter, politeness and friendship can take precedence over safety. In the former, friendship and the assumption that one is healthy, having taken precautions, gives them the confidence to attend.