Anti-vaxxers can learn from Ramaphosa’s illness

The news that President Cyril Ramaphosa has tested positive for Covid caused some excitement among those
that are generally opposed to the use of vaccines in the fight against the pandemic.

“See, even if vaccinated you still get infected!” they scream.

It could be explained to them a million times that the vaccine reduces the chances of an infected person dying but it would not make any difference, they would still find a way of twisting everything.

It is commendable that the Presidency has chosen to go public with the president’s positive Covid result because this goes a long way in educating citizens and reinforcing the message that this pandemic will be around for the
foreseeable future.

It also carries a very powerful sentiment because it comes just as the fourth wave threatens to pull the country back
into the economically devastating harder lockdowns. Covid affects everyone, including the country’s number one citizen.

ALSO READ: Vaccine myths: Yes, fully inoculated Ramaphosa tested positive for Covid-19

There is so much noise around the pandemic that it becomes almost impossible to sift through it and appreciate groundbreaking discoveries.

Two weeks ago, Dr Wassila Jassat from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported that 87% of those requiring hospitalisation were not vaccinated (around the Tshwane metropolitan municipality).

These are results from early studies concerning vaccines but for a country that has such a high level of vaccine hesitancy, they could be used to change that narrative.

It is because of the confirmed effectiveness of the vaccine that the news around the president testing positive only makes for interesting news for those refusing to vaccinate.

The reassuring knowledge that the vaccine makes it less likely for a person to end up in hospital with severe Covid disease is a game changer.

It is quite amazing that the numbers of newly infected people have been increasing exponentially since the beginning of December but panic buttons were not pressed.

The president and his entourage managed to complete their West African visit. Previously, the president and National Coronavirus Command Council have been quick to shut down economic activity and close down the
liquor and hospitality industries with far fewer numbers on the daily infections board.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa receiving treatment after testing positive for Covid-19

But they have now decided “to balance the need to save lives against the need to save livelihoods”.

That’s a milestone on the path towards lifting the pandemic’s doom and gloom. Doctors and researchers are tentatively saying that the current wave of the pandemic seems to be driven by a strain that is less virulent, resulting in fewer hospital admissions and deaths.

Uncertainty is still a part of any positives but it is not the uncertainty borne out of fear of mass deaths or mass hospitalisations that will cripple the health system.

The certainty that even more than 20 000 new infections do not signal a complete collapse of the government’s response to Covid can only become stronger when action has been taken to ensure that only a minority remains
unvaccinated.

The surest way to ensure that the uncertainty that cripples businesses and destroys livelihoods is got rid of is to ensure that vaccinations become the order of the day.