US scholar praises Malaysia's Covid-19 response, says US should emulate

CORONAVIRUS | A US associate professor, who was in Malaysia during the movement control order, has praised the country's response against the spread of Covid-19.

Jason Hassenstab, an associate professor of neurology and psychological and brain sciences at Washington University, Missouri, added that the US could emulate measures in other countries including Malaysia.

"Some stark contrasts I noticed between Malaysia and the US. In Malaysia, we went to four cities including Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabulu, Lahad Datu, and Sandakan.

"I don't consider Malaysia to be a first world country and given the levels of poverty we saw, I think that’s right.

"However, Malaysia's Covid-19 enforcement was evident everywhere, even in the remote rainforest where we were staying.

"Mobile carriers send a message about social distancing every day. The carrier ID at the top of my phone that normally says Sprint said 'Stay Home' instead," he remarked in a series of Twitter posts.

Hassenstab, who had to grapple with travel delays as a result of the partial lockdown, described his trip to Malaysia as "incredible but poorly timed".

Describing the scenes at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, he noted that security guards were seen to be enforcing social distancing.

"Information banners with written and visual guidance were everywhere printed by their ministry of health.

"The seats in the airport were taped off so that there was an empty seat between each open one.

"All airport employees were wearing masks, hand sanitiser was at virtually every counter, cash register, and at stations posted everywhere.

"Their government has a totally consistent message - stay home, keep your distance, clean your hands. And the entire country is doing it," he said.

In contrast, at Atlanta airport in the US, Hassenstab said only around five percent of customs and border control personnel had masks and gloves.

"No hand sanitiser other than some bathrooms. Shops and stores were open, business as usual. People were jamming together, no distance enforcement.

"People were staring at us and shaking their heads because we wore masks. And before you tell me that masks aren't that effective, we were doing it to protect others in case we were infectious and to prevent us from touching our faces too often," he said.

Hassenstab added that his family and he had flown via Tokyo and a passenger three seats away was having high fever, vomiting and experiencing body aches.

"The paramedics came with the Centre for Disease Control personnel at the gate and attended to her. But the rest of the passengers went through customs like nothing had happened.

"Margaret and my boys and I were fever screened because we reported coming from Malaysia and Singapore, but that was it," he said.

Hassenstabl said he knew five people who had come down with Covid-19, and the matter was not a joke.

"People are and will die on a massive scale unless extreme measures are taken. It is the best argument for a strong public health system and for a strong federal response.

"We need a clear and consistent message to truly #flattenthecurve, and it speaks volumes about our leadership that we need to model our nationwide response after other countries like Malaysia," he said.

Malaysia went into partial lockdown on March 18. The move is intended to last until March 31 but could be extended.

While Malaysia has arrested an exponential growth in the number of cases during the partial lockdown, they are still increasing by more than 100 daily.

As of noon yesterday, Malaysia recorded 1,306 cases with 10 deaths.

To date, the US has recorded 32,057 cases with 400 deaths and is now the world's third in terms of the number of cases, behind China and Italy.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker. 

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