By : Aditya Utama )*
Workers who will demonstrate on August 5, 2021 are strongly opposed by the community for fear of causing a Covid-19 cluster. Don’t let demonstrations increase new Covid cases and make many people suffer from contracting a dangerous virus. Demonstrators are at high risk, as are the people around them, so just cancel this activity.
KSPI has again caused a stir with the plan for a demonstration on August 5, 2021 and will be attended by tens of thousands of workers, and will be held in many cities/districts. This time they protested why many workers lost their rights during the corona virus and would raise the white flag as a form of surrender. They also demanded that President Jokowi pay more attention to the underprivileged people, especially the workers.
The public certainly strongly opposes this demonstration because it is still a pandemic. Moreover, that date is in the PPKM phase so there should be no activities that attract the masses. Let alone rallies, even just to leave the house should be canceled, for fear of being exposed to corona.
Epidemiologists always warn against crowding during a pandemic. Moreover, at this time the number of corona patients is still high. According to data from the COVID-19 task force, the number of COVID-19 patients is still around 30,000 people per day. So it is feared that if there is a crowd, there will be more corona patients.
Imagine if a demo participant becomes OTG then he will infect other protesters. They don’t know if they have corona and can spread this dangerous virus to their families at home. When there are small children, it will be more at risk, because they have not received the vaccine, and children are more vulnerable because it takes longer to recover. Would you sacrifice them just for the sake of emotion during the demo?
After all, what percentage of demo participants have been vaccinated? We don’t know who is healthy, who is OTG, and who has not been vaccinated. So if you are desperate to demonstrate then it is the same as preparing to get corona. The reason is because many will take off their masks because of the heat and cannot maintain a minimum distance of 1 meter, thus violating health protocols.
From the past several labor demonstrations, there have always been officers ready with medical equipment and rapid test kits. They run random tests on protesters and always result in the fact that many have tested positive for Covid. If there has been an incident like this, are you still desperate to demonstrate?
When you get corona, do workers still blame the government? Or even blame fate? In fact, this disease can be prevented by implementing the 10M health protocol, but instead they approach this virus and are arrogant, as if they will be immune. Even though there is a high potential for corona virus.
In addition, during the demonstration, of course, there were people who accidentally passed near the location. Imagine if someone accidentally came into contact with a protester, while the demonstrator turned out to be OTG. He also has the potential to get corona, because the delta variant can spread through the air.
How many more covid patients did the demo cluster produce? The spread of the virus will continue to occur like a vicious circle. It’s terrible because it can cause mass deaths. We certainly don’t want a tragedy like what happened in India, right? If this continues, the pandemic seems to be running without end.
Therefore, just cancel the planned demonstration of the workers, for fear of a new corona cluster. Don’t get emotional or provoked and then go for a demo, because you will have the potential to come into contact with a lot of OTG. Remember that you only have 1 life, don’t go to a demonstration and get sick because of it.
)* The author is a citizen living in Karawang