Coronavirus: Don't be the weakest link, resist the temptation to go out

Dubai - If you rush off for a pack of cigarettes, meet a friend in a supermarket, take a drive to get some air, you are the weakest link and you are placing your neighbours in danger.

While the world has been yelling itself hoarse about the need to distance oneself and stay home, there are those of us who think we are above the law. That we march to our own drumbeat and we know better than anyone else what is good for us. There is this video going around of a wealthy Indian woman obnoxiously demanding that her housemaid be let in to the colony to clean and sweep. "I don't do menial jobs, open the gate," she can be heard saying. She should be arrested.

But before we indict her let's look at ourselves. Just because you live in the same building with 200 other families is no call to have a 'small' party because you are getting bored. You are jeopardising your children, the elderly, everyone in the house. You are then the weakest link.

If you rush off for a pack of cigarettes, meet a friend in a supermarket, take a drive to get some air, you are the weakest link and you are placing your neighbours in danger. This is not the time to 'catch up' with the neighbours. Nor is it an occasion to get a game of cards with just one couple or begin to create raucous applause with pots and pans by getting together downstairs. Downstairs is not a meeting place.

You run out of favourite foods, live without them. Not a call to go to the supermarket.

Yes, of course, it is boring to be locked up. But that does not give you the right to risk your life and put pressure on the medical edifice and all those committed to keeping things running. When you walk your dog, go for your walk, need that jog, let the kids run on the pavement or the parking lot, you are not only neutralising the huge effort being made to flatten the Covid 19 curve, you are the weakest link. And why on earth would you let your children run around in a public area. It needs one person with exposure to shake you into reality.

There is nothing smart or clever about popping in to a friend's place or beating the nightly lockdown because you are lonely. Better lonely than wheezing for life.

You do not have to go cycling. Nor sneak in a few friends because it is your birthday. Celebrate it with solitude so you can be sure you have another one.

Don't be the weakest link.