Govt needs to start banning travel and gatherings

It is amazing that intelligent people persist in screaming at “the media” for supposedly spreading the sort of alarm which leads to panic over the coronavirus pandemic.

Let’s repeat that word: pandemic. This is what the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls it, confirming that it is an infection which is spreading like wildfire across all borders. As of yesterday, more than 125,000 people across 115 countries and territories had been confirmed with the virus, with more than 4,600 deaths so far. And even those figures are being increased hourly as the infection rate spreads exponentially.

In reporting these figures – not inventing them, or compiling “fake news” – the media is, in reality, carrying out a critical civic duty to keep people informed. WHO’s declaration of a global pandemic came on the same day as US President Donald Trump halted all flights into his country from Europe (with the exception of the UK and Ireland).

And, even then, the drastic action was met with concerns by medical experts that the Americans had been too slow to react to the virus threat.

WHO says its biggest concern is the lack of timeous action being taken by many countries. That is what happened in Italy, which is now seeing its hospital services overwhelmed with critical cases of pneumonia from the virus and its medical staff having, effectively, to decide who lives and who dies because the life-saving equipment is insufficient.

Still, there are those in South Africa who remain oblivious – sometimes deliberately so – to the advancing tsunami.

In this sort of situation, we believe, you can never be too cautious. So, everyone needs to be aware and perhaps there is a need to start pressuring government to impose bans on travel and on public gatherings.

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