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The COVID-19 pandemic raises serious questions concerning the socio-psychological implications of people’s limited propensity to travel as a consequence of movement control orders (MCO) and fears of travelling to public places.

The year was 2000 when an unprecedented outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Singapore claimed the lives of five children. Professor Poh Chit Laa, then a researcher at National University of Singapore, felt herself grieving with a mother who lost two children to the disease. She decided to channel her research focus towards HFMD and its deadly enterovirus 71 (EV-A71). She has never looked back. I wanted my research to make an impact on lives.