Just think about it: “Treat Infected People As If You Were Infected”

I believe you will understand its message².

If this movement/campaign had been used in the HIV pandemic, I believe it would have saved a lot of lives.

Why don’t we launch the same campaign³ to help people with ‘H’ now?

(In Vietnam, we call HIV patients “bệnh nhân/người có ‘H’” {patients/people with ‘H’}, not {patients/people with HIV/Sida} to reduce HIV Prejudice/Stigma and make them feel better.)

Unfortunately, in the first place Governments and people just did the opposite.

{China orders Wuhan to round up all suspected coronavirus patients and put them in quarantine camps as Beijing warns officials who run away from the 'war' will be 'nailed to the pillar of historical shame'}⁴, Dailymail.co.uk reported.

They are isolating suspected people and treat them like criminals.

What’s wrong with this?

Many people (including medical staff and Governments) out there may say: “Without doing that, they (suspected or infected persons) will infect people around them!”

My answer is:

If you want to isolate or put someone in quarantine, FIRST, you have to show your (deep) empathy and explain that isolation or quarantine is good for them and others.

And You cannot show your deep empathy if you don’t solve inhuman Discrimination (especially discrimination against infected people) in the first place!

Your deep empathy is NOT just your words.

 After doing that, normally, there’ll be two situations happening:

· Situation 1: They will feel secure and cooperate with you. This is the best result.

· Situation 2: they will refuse and try to escape from isolation. Continue to ask them for reasons why they refuse. If their reasons are wrong and inhumane (and because you showed your empathy and told them a reason in a humane way), you have the rights to isolate or put them in quarantine to protect themselves and others.

Maybe (in Situation 2) people refuse isolation or quarantine because they are afraid of being infected when living in that environment, for example.

By asking them and treating them like humans who need help (instead of criminals), you can luckily find out special reasons which can help medicine and medical scientists, as well as governments, deal with the pandemic in a better way.

For example, when they refuse to be put in quarantine, they may give a reason: they are scared of being infected when living with many suspected or infected people around them.

· At this time, you have the opportunity to explain to them that: thanks to quarantine, they have the best conditions to be detected and cured soon if they are really infected (which they don’t really know).

· By asking them reasons, Medicine and Governments will take proper actions.

If you (especially medical and government organizations) have a careful strategy, you will make campaigns that show people what and how isolation and quarantine are; how they and their family will be supported when they are isolated or put in quarantine. The purpose is to make people feel safe, protected and cooperate with you.

In this plague, many people in the world when hearing “isolation” and “quarantine” will think of “medical prisons”. And due to fake news everywhere, they feel scared of those ‘jails’

In a global epidemic or pandemic, you have to realize the dangerous effects of Discrimination (especially Discrimination between Infected People and Uninfected Ones) and focus on solving them in the first place.

Then show your empathy and give people humane reasons in order for them to cooperate with your decisions or even your arrest orders.

People have not realized that crucial rule although they experienced it through many deadly pandemics like HIV/AIDS.

Without doing that in the first place, people will try to flee or escape from quarantine or isolation and the consequence is: they will spread coronavirus or HIV or any viruses widely and easily!

The world now is showing Situation 2 and proving my words true. We have indeed seen many people in the world who wanted to flee quarantine.

What To Do In Reducing Coronavirus Transmissions Now?

These are some main steps: