Don’t vacillate, vaccinate

This is an open letter to all South Africans from PSG group chief executive Piet Mouton.

We need to lift all lockdown restrictions as soon as possible to place the country on a path to higher employment and economic recovery, which will only be possible through widespread vaccination.

Those stubbornly choosing not to vaccinate not only pose a health risk, but also an economic risk. You are free to choose – but you are not free from the consequences of your choices.

The vaccination conversation is, in fact, also an economic one. As a listed company that has witnessed and experienced the full effect of the past 18 months on our frail economy, we feel it necessary to also bring this side of the debate to light.

Yes, it is now 18 months since the first lockdown and we are still in uncharted and, perhaps, even more stormy waters. For one, the unemployment rate has increased from 30.1% to 34.4%.

The 4.3% increase means approximately one million more people are now without jobs.

While the political and social complexities that contribute to our high unemployment rate are well known, we also have to acknowledge that fully reopening the economy is an integral step in stopping the ongoing erosion of our economy and to turn the tide on unemployment.

However, we have the means at our disposal, something that will strengthen government’s hand in reducing restrictions and that can prevent further economic deterioration.

That solution is vaccination. We need to get the people of South Africa vaccinated as a matter of urgency.

Vaccines are now freely available to the entire adult population of South Africa. We simply do not have the luxury of engaging in poorly substantiated arguments on vaccine conspiracy.

It is quite apparent that those countries that have vaccinated a large enough proportion of their populations have reopened their economies.

The UK is one example where the vaccination percentage is high and the government has done away with most restrictions.

Even though the number of infections has increased, the number of hospitalised patients and the death rate have materially decreased.

Discovery’s research suggests that people who have been vaccinated are three times less likely to infect others, four times less likely to end up in high care/ICU and 10 times less likely to die compared to unvaccinated individuals.

It is also clear from a plethora of scientific, peer reviewed and substantiated evidence that vaccines against Covid are safe, or at least as safe as other registered medications on the market.

But if a sufficient percentage of our population is not vaccinated, we will simply never return to normality again.

According to reports from the US, those states with poor vaccine uptake currently bear the brunt of severely ill and hospitalised patients infected with the delta variant.

Our situation is far more tenuous. In South Africa, our public healthcare system was already barely coping prior to the pandemic.

The past 18 months have forced the system and healthcare practitioners to their knees.

We are also standing at the edge of an economic precipice. There are notable differences in the International Monetary Fund’s global economic forecasts since the start of the pandemic. There was a significant downward revision of economic growth for lower-middle-income and low-income countries, such as South Africa.

We have reached a point where our government should start enforcing principles like those implemented in many other countries around the world.

If you are not vaccinated, your access to restaurants, public parks, shopping centres, airports, businesses, educational institutions should be limited.

The president has alluded to some form of restriction for the unvaccinated, and we support this. Therefore, for those who either cannot or refuse to see the ripple effect of their choice not to vaccinate, may we suggest that they then also accept the following:

• They lose the right to complain about the state of the economy;
• If their business is struggling; they must accept they have contributed to its potential demise;
• If there is more social unrest fuelled by poverty and unemployment exacerbated by further lockdowns, they should know they have failed to play their part in preventing it;
• They should not complain about lack of service delivery.

If the deeds offices, municipal offices, driver’s licence centres, are closed because somebody contracted Covid, they should accept this as the consequence of their choices;

• They should not complain but should accept lockdowns, curfews and other regulations necessary to curb infections;
• If schools are closed, they should accept they have failed their children and the children of the country and are preventing them from being educated;
• If they fall ill with Covid, they should accept that seeking help from an overburdened healthcare system could have been avoided and that they are helping push our country back into lockdown; and
• They should also accept that by overburdening the healthcare system, they potentially prevent others from accessing hospital ICUs, thereby depriving them of much needed medical care.

The potential loss of lives will be at the hands of those who do not vaccinate. Choice comes with responsibility and consequences. So, we urge you to get vaccinated.

– Moneyweb