Amid TN's 100% theatre occupancy move, tired doctor's open letter to Vijay & Simbu viral

'I am tired. We are all tired', a resident doctor from Puducherry has written in an open letter after the Tamil Nadu government allowed 100% seating occupancy in cinema halls in an announcement that came after actors Vijay Master and Simbu's Eeswaran met CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami, as their releases are scheduled to hit screens on January 13 and 14 respectively. 

Amid COVID-19, Aravinth Srinivas, who is a resident doctor at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry took to Facebook to write an open letter to Vijay, Silambarasan and the government of Tamil Nadu which went viral. However, the Facebook post is no longer available or may have been removed.

Resident Doctor's Open letter

In a Facebook post, Srinivas said, I am tired including thousand of doctors like me, health care workers, police officials and sanitary workers are tired. I am not glorifying our work but we have worked so hard on the ground level to make sure the situation is under control during the pandemic. But we deserve some break and do not want to fall prey to someone's selfishness and greed. 

He added that the pandemic isn't over yet and people are still dying. A 100% theatre occupancy will be a suicide attempt. He compared the situation to a blatant barter system, trading lives for money. "Can we please slowly try and concentrate on our lives and make sure we tide through this pandemic peacefully and not reignite the slowly burning out flame, that is still not completely put out? I wanted to make this post scientific and explain why we are still in danger. But that’s when I asked myself, “what’s the point ?” Yours tiredly A poor, tired resident doctor" he wrote 

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The government's move has received both positive and negative feedback from the industry, healthcare and social media users. Several people from the Tamil film industry have welcomed the government's decision but the Health Secretary, some celebrities and many people are against the move.

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J Radhakrishnan, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary, expressed concerns regarding the move and said that he saw the order issued by the Revenue Department and will look into the Indian government guidelines, standard operating procedure (SOPs) and challenges and bring it to their notice.

Tamil cinema actor Arvind Swamy tweeted and criticised the government's decision of opening the cinema halls.

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