An RMIT expert in personal and organizational ethics says that while the reintroduction of Stage 3 lockdown in Melbourne was necessary it was also important that people better understood the necessity of the measures taken by the authorities.
Associate Professor Eva Tsahuridu who specialises in personal and organisational ethics and in the School of Accounting at RMIT University said peole had different perceptions of the current situation making it a complex one to navigate.
“Some people do not understand the gravity of the situation, some do not think it is important in their lives and feel they can ignore it, others think they are not affected by COVID-19 and some even think the virus is even real – there are multiple reasons and there is need for a multi-pronged approach,” said Dr Tsahuridu.
“Some people are not listening. Fines and a focus on compliance will help somewhat. But, to get us all to do the right thing to benefit others, we need to ‘see’ the people our actions endanger, or even ‘interact’ with them to hear their stories and suffering,” she said.
“Graphs, statistics and percentage figures may work well for epidemiologists, but unfortunately, they won’t do the job for many Victorians.”
Dr Tsahuridu said it was important to convince people of the consequences of contracting the COVID-19 virus both to themselves and to the broader community.
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“We do not appreciate the possible consequences when we place a distance between our actions and their effect on people. The number of people who suffer from COVID and die is low so many discount it as not immediate and close to their lives.
“Referring to people who have been infected with COVID-19 as ‘cases’ (active, in hospital, or in ICU) also does not help. A case does not make us think of a human being, a person with a face, a name and loved ones.
“We need to focus on people and tell their stories, we need to relate to other people rather to statistics and charts,” she said adding that people were prone not to believe facts that did not agree with their preconceptions. Complicating the issue was the “proliferation of falsehoods” about the pandemic that “have spread like fire”.
“The fact is 130,000 people have died from COVID-19. Some who have contracted the virus did not know they had it while others are still suffering from it months later.”
She said that current efforts by government were justified because it was the obligation of government to look after its citizens.“The response is against the virus,” she said.
“It is important for us to understand that our own behaviour affects ourselves and our neighbours and we need to get through this with as few deaths as possible.
She emphasized that it was important keep physical distance from each other in the weeks ahead – not social distance.
“We should still engage socially – have discussions, have virtual dinners and coffees. We should do what we can to help each and also to reach out to get that help through friends and organizations that are out there if we need it.”
She said that people should take the tests for COVID-19 should they show symptoms and that there were a range of approaches in helping people to understand the necessity of the tests.
“We can learn a lot from behavioural insights teams/nudge units on what and how to communicate to improve test take up,” she said and advised that this was a time to “listen to evidence and to the experts.”
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