Let’s hope public health is up to the Covid-19 task
In South Africa, years of government corruption, looting and incompetence have compromised the fitness of our health system.
A molecular geneticist in protective clothing prepares a test for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes the COVID-19 disease in a hospital lab in the Rhineland Region, Germany, 01 April 2020 (issued 02 April 2020). Countries around the world are taking increased measures to stem the widespread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes the COVID-19 disease. Picture: EPA-EFE/SASCHA STEINBACH
Boris Johnson knows he is one of the fortunate ones to walk out of a hospital intensive care unit, having survived the life-threatening complications of Covid-19.
After spending a week in hospital, most of it in high care, Johnson told his country that his health battle “could have gone either way” and that he owes his life to two intensive care nurses – one from Portugal and one from New Zealand – who watched his condition vigilantly for 48 hours.
There were those who cynically saw Johnson’s recovery coming at just the right time – as more and more Britons were questioning the country’s lockdown, which so far hasn’t managed to stop a rising death toll.
There were others who said that, for the first time, a Conservative leader had decent things to say about the country’s National Health Service.
Johnson said the service is “powered by love” but for years it has been under-funded. It is in a crisis like this that an under-resourced health system is in the biggest danger.
In South Africa, years of government corruption, looting and incompetence have compromised the fitness of our health system.
We hope it is able to recover in time for the looming tsunami of coronavirus infections.
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