Citizens must take responsibility for Covid third wave, we just don’t listen

Jack Welch was the hard-driving, not universally liked, chair of the General Electric group in the US for two decades.

But one of his sayings is particularly apt for present-day South Africa as the Covid tragedy envelops us.

“Change,” he warned, “Before you have to.”

Despite all the warnings of the dire looming impact of coronavirus – and even evidence of the devastation it wreaked in our communities in the first and second waves of infection – we were still not willing to change our ways.

We still wanted to party. We still wanted to gather in large groups. We still didn’t want to wear those uncomfortable and unsightly face masks. We didn’t care that much about sanitising.

We didn’t change – and we can see the obvious effects of those selfish attitudes and the belief that “it can’t happen to me”.

Our hospitals – especially in Gauteng – are already full to capacity. And that is before the expected tsunami of admissions – which lags infections by up to two weeks – hits us from the almost vertical spike in the graph of the number of confirmed coronavirus tests.

Now, because we didn’t voluntarily change, circumstances (we sincerely hope) will force us to do so. If we don’t, then we – or the others we infect because of our reckless behaviour – will die.

We can, quite correctly, rage at the government for its inept handling of the whole pandemic and the fact that, when we need hospital beds the most, we simply don’t have them.

And we can point to the exceedingly slow start to the vaccination campaign (which is still limping along) as contributing to the crisis. But, ultimately, we have to take responsibility – as individuals and as a community – for our own health and safety, to a large extent.

None but ourselves can save ourselves.