Even worse, 2 out of every 3 Indonesian men smoke. Now, with the infection, the number of smokers actually increased. It’s true that Covid-19 attacks the respiratory channels. But oddly enough, more people started to smoke instead of quitting, with the mistaken idea that it will help clear the virus. Clearly they don’t know about health, and just hasten their own death by destroying their own respiratory systems because of their fear of getting the disease!
Other than increasing eating and smoking levels, fear of Covid-19 impels increased consumption of both legal and illegal drugs. This is clearly a cause of concern, because such drugs are “last resort” measure that you should only take when it’s urgent. Again, the use of drugs has increased manifold times within the past two years. Ironically, that’s when the quality of people’s health deteriorates. “Everyone is so busy not with getting healthy, but with getting ‘negative’. It’s true that an important health indicator nowadays is being Covid-19 negative, but people act as if being ‘negative’ is the end all and be all of being healthy,” Ade Rai said. “I find it painful that people are so busy running away from getting infected, they sacrifice their health in other, worse ways. They want to win the war by losing the battle – that’s ridiculous. They only care that they don’t get Covid-19 positive, but end up suffering from cancer, type-2 diabetes, heart disease. That’s the problem with Indonesians today.”
In order to face our upcoming health issues, campaigns about maintaining health protocols as external protective measures are sufficient. We need to balance these with the equally important campaign of maintaining internal protection. “We are so busy focusing on ‘keamanan’ (safety), but we entirely forget about ‘keimanan’ (faith) and ‘keimunan’ immunity. By focusing on our faith and immunity, our safety can be automatically secured,” Ade Rai said.
Campaigning for a healthy lifestyle – one where a person is active, minds what they eat, and cares about hygiene and the environment – is more crucial nowadays. “The human body is complex and sophisticated. If we make fear and anxiety our guidelines in daily life, we will tumble into an even worse hell. There are so many health problems abound through the ages – in fact, 95% of all deaths involving sickness come from non-infectious diseases. But the global health policy set by the world’s governments focuses on battling a disease that is only 5% fatal. And even if you catch it, your chance to get cured is higher than 95%,” he went on.