A research study carried out between March and June by Makerere University research experts shows, the level of fear of the Coronavirus disease has severely gone down in many communities in Uganda from 80 percent to as low as 20 percent.
The experts assert that the Ugandans’ drop in fear has steered complacency which is currently evident in these communities. And due to the drop in fear, hundreds of people have abandoned wearing masks, washing hands and gathering in big crowds.
Dr Paul Nyende, a psychiatrist at Makerere University asserts that naturally, human beings protect themselves from something they fear, but apparently Ugandans are not scared because they haven’t seen any serious effect of the Coronavirus which is why, they are not ‘shaken’ by the pandemic.
“People are often scared of being burnt by fire. This is why we say people use kitchen mittens or clothes to carry saucepans off fire. They are scared of being burnt and protect themselves. In this case people are not wearing masks or avoiding crowds because they are not scared of the effect of the pandemic since no fatalities have happened in the country, to date,” he said.
However, Dr. Joseph Matovu, a specialist in human behavior attributes the cause of the ‘relaxation’ to high rate of recoveries, no deaths recorded as yet and mistrust of the government.
As Uganda is being lauded by the International Communities for the way it has contained the Virus and prevented any deaths, scientists insist that Ugandans are not scared because according to them, the disease ‘does not kill’
