Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, a professor of medicine at Universiti Malaya, told FMT trust would be crucial in a crisis and in ensuring the effectiveness of public health policies.
Quoting Dr Julia Marcus, a public health expert in the US, she said: “Trust is the currency of public health.”
Adeeba said the success of various authorities in managing the pandemic depended on how effective they were at building and maintaining bonds of trust with the public.
She noted that the topmost item in the US strategy against the pandemic was to restore trust with its citizens, with expanding the vaccination programme coming in second.
She also noted that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had said trust would lead to greater compliance and that it was crucial for a government’s ability to secure citizen support.
“And if you look back to the early days of our own pandemic response, there was huge public trust in the health ministry and the government. People largely complied,” she said.
“But lately, a combination of pandemic fatigue, confusing SOPs (standard operating procedures) and mixed messages, as well as an erosion of public trust have resulted in the risk of having the public becoming less compliant despite the hefty fines.”
Adeeba was commenting on the recent flak health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah received over the perceived special treatment a deputy minister had received upon returning to Malaysia.
Pilot S Mani Vannan of Singapore Airlines recently accused Noor Hisham of applying double standards for allowing deputy federal territories minister Edmund Santhara to undergo home quarantine. Mani Vannan was denied permission to quarantine himself at home so he could take care of his cancer-stricken mother.
The health ministry has since explained that Santhara was allowed home quarantine because he had returned from a low-risk country and had a home suitable for quarantine.
Adeeba, however, said laws and policies “have to be applied equally” regardless of the people involved.
Azrul Khalib, chief executive officer of the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy, said SOPs were meant to protect everyone and must apply to all “regardless of social status and rank”.
The practice of double standards reduces the security and safety of not just the people in question, but also the safety of the surrounding community, he said.
But Azrul said he did not believe it was the director-general’s job to reprimand every VIP for he had better things to do and there was already enough on his plate.
He said the SOP enforcers should be the ones responsible for ensuring equal application of the law and the prime minister should send out a clear message on this.
“The VIPs themselves should be ashamed. Expecting the people to adhere to a set of standards that you don’t subscribe to, while you are part of the system that enforces it, is classist as well as hypocritical.”
Azrul said that it would be a sad state of affairs if Noor Hisham was expected to behave like a headmaster with a cane to keep people in line.
“Like all headmasters, he will be ignored by those misbehaving anyway.”
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