As Singapore continues to do whatever she can to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, the good, the bad and the ugly sides of Singaporeans have come to the fore.

What is particularly disturbing, however, are fresh anecdotes of how nurses working in Singapore in 2020 are suddenly ostracised by some members of the public.

This is despite how nurses deserve to be saluted for working at the front lines and putting their lives on the line just to do their jobs of helping those who are unwell.

And why are they ostracised?

According to one anecdote, nurses in uniform who take public transport are deemed to be potential spreaders of viruses because they did not change out of their work clothes.

Nurses in uniform shunned

A Feb. 7 Facebook post by a woman, who is apparently a staff nurse working in a hospital in Singapore, has been widely shared as it addressed this issue of nurses being ostracised.

The Facebook post shared a screen shot of an Instagram Story about how a nurse was berated on the MRT train by two other women:

What Instagram Story is about

The Instagram Story was apparently put up by another woman who is also a nurse in Singapore.

The woman who posted the Instagram Story personally witnessed the incident on the MRT train.

However, she was told off when she stepped in to speak up for the nurse who was being berated by two other fellow commuters.

To add insult to injury, the nurse who was subjected to the unkind remarks did not even understand what was being said about her, as she is non-Chinese.

The Instagram Story also separately claimed another fellow nurse was chased out of the MRT train recently for wearing her uniform.

The Instagram Story then asked if nurses had to change out of their uniforms before taking public transport to appease those who take an unkind view of them.

Facebook post commiserates with nurses who face this same plight

The Facebook post that shared this Instagram Story anecdote commiserated with the nurses in peril:

The Facebook post, which was shared some 3,000 times in less than eight hours, also recounted how something similar happened previously in 2002 and 2003 when the SARS outbreak occurred in Singapore.

Those working as healthcare professionals were suddenly made to feel unclean and unwelcome by other paranoid Singaporeans.

These healthcare professionals then resorted to changing out of their uniforms just to show up in public.

The irony is, however, not lost.

The Facebook post wrote, summing up the irrational behaviour of those who shun healthcare workers:

If you think the nurses and doctors carries lots of germs or if you think that we are dirty, please get your family to nurse you when you are hospitalised

Singaporeans are really spoilt brads and selfish individuals who only cares about themselves ?

#kiasukiasi

Top photos via here & here