More ammunition for pro-vaxxers

Surviving Covid certainly does not mean the debilitating disease is done with you – the symptoms of “long Covid”, including fatigue and shortness of breath, still afflict many patients a full year after their hospitalisation.

Others will suffer from permanent damage to major organs or body systems because of the vicious “cytokine storm” which occurs in many Covid cases and which is where the body effectively attacks itself to stave off the virus.

A new study, conducted in China with 1,300 people who have recovered from Covid and published in British medical journal The Lancet, said that “long Covid affects people’s ability to resume normal life and their capacity to work”.

That is yet another logical, scientific, counter to the Covid deniers, who say the virus has a tiny fatality rate.

Setting aside the fact that more than 4 million people have already died globally (according to official figures), the lingering effects make the virus even more destructive.

As infection and death rates from Covid in South Africa continue to remain high, we cannot understand the reluctance of people to get vaccinated – which gives them the best chance of survival and society as a whole the best chance of avoiding health and economic damage.