During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of news circulating about any medicines that are claimed to be effective in curing COVID-19. This has an impact on the tendency of people to do ‘panic buying’ or buy medicines that should require a referral letter from a doctor without considering the risks and how expensive the medicines are. In fact, the healing factor is not only about medicines and vitamins.

If hoaxes can weaken the body’s immunity, then the support of the closest people and positive content can be supporters in the COVID-19 healing process.

This was experienced by Arief Rahman Susila and his wife who had tested positive for COVID-19 on June 1, 2021.

“At first I felt I was exposed to the COVID-19 virus on July 1, 2021, because on June 28 my father died in Magelang so I had to go to Magelang to take care of all funeral matters and others,” said Arief.

“My father died in the hospital, so I was most likely exposed when I was in the hospital because all around my father were COVID-19 patients,” he added.

Finally, Arief decided to do a PCR test and the results were positive for COVID-19. When he heard the news, he admitted that he felt psychologically drop and after looking for information, Arief found that he had the potential to infect others. Therefore he decided to separate himself from his wife and daughter and asked them to do a PCR test as well.

“With my condition being dropped, I looked for news and it turned out that with a CT score of 24 it was still very contagious. So what I did was I separated myself, didn’t sleep with my wife and my daughter as a preventive measure,” said Arief.

“That afternoon I told my wife that I was positive for Covid and asked my wife and children to do a PCR test. It turned out that my wife was positive for Covid too, but thank God my daughter was tested negative,” he added.

Arief and his wife explained to Naura, their 7-year-old daughter, that they were positive for COVID-19 and offered to leave it with a family who lived close to his house. But beyond expectations, Naura answered that she did not want to be entrusted and wanted to stay at home to encourage her parents to get well soon.

“We (Arief and his wife) have told the child that this is a COVID-19 pandemic, so when he finds out that my wife and I are positive for COVID-19, she understands. Then I offered to leave it with nini or sister… near the house,” said Arief.

“Her answer was beyond my expectations. She said, ‘No. I don’t want to be entrusted. Naura wants to stay at home, wants to encourage mom and dad to get well soon.’ Well, it was his words that made me both surprised and amazed. Finally, I started to think that if my daughter is just excited and optimistic, then I should not feel down,” he added.

Arief admitted that it was his daughter’s answer that amazed him and thought that he should not be discouraged because his daughter was optimistic so that his parents could recover. This finally became a suggestion in Arief’s mind that he and his wife would be able to recover and all he had to do was try.

According to Arief, it would be much better to encourage people who are struggling against COVID-19, especially at the beginning, rather than asking about the chronology and how the person feels. And as a person who has been exposed to COVID-19, it is better to be bolder in rejecting and staying away from negative content.

Stay calm and be careful in choosing and forwarding news and circulating content because there are only two possible impacts, which are decreasing or increasing immunity, both for yourself and others.

Visit our podcast section to hear a deeper and more detailed explanation on the topic “Konten Positif Menyembuhkan COVID-19” by Daniel V. Lie, President/Global Chief Executive of digima ASIA collaborating with SmartFM Radio on the Smart DigiTalk program.