People dicing with death

The worst that South Africa feared is here.

Covid-19 devastation has become so real that even the hardest of conspiracy theorists must be shaken by the reality of hospitals running out of beds, intensive care units running out of oxygen tanks, the funeral industry running out of coffins and family, close friends and neighbours losing a loved one every other day.

Some sceptics used the argument that Covid-19, like all other related pulmonary diseases such as the flu, only have a mortality rate of 1%.

But right now, it is clear that this is a pandemic that is taking away lives that were never going to be in danger under normal circumstances.

The harsh realities faced by citizens is that of disrupted lives, a shattered economy and the fear of severe disease or death hanging in the air.

The only lasting solution to this pandemic is medical intervention in the form of a drug or drugs that will provide immunity to the majority of the population, making it almost impossible for the Covid-19 virus to make a person sick.

This kind of medical intervention is neither new, or a recent development.

Vaccines have been with the human race for over two centuries now, starting with Edward Jenner developing the smallpox vaccine in 1796.

Yet there are people who would have others believe that the development of the vaccine is as novel as the Covid-19 virus itself.

The opposition to vaccines in Western democracies is not a new thing. People have objected to vaccines for a variety of reasons, including religious ones.

Some have rejected vaccines based on their poor understanding of the science behind the development of the vaccine, alleging that vaccines cause a whole host of conditions, including autism.

Their reasons vary but the result is that a percentage of the population in these countries have always rejected vaccines, a phenomenon that, thanks to social media, has spread to even less developed countries.

Debating about whether a person has the right to accept or reject a vaccine when a pandemic has claimed over 20,000 lives in a month is a luxury which the country cannot afford.

The irony is that those demonising the Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa are beneficiaries of previous vaccinations for polio, small pox, measles and other diseases for which the government made it mandatory for all children to get
immunised through vaccinations.

It must be accepted that the various vaccines for Covid-19 were developed in record time, clinical trials were rushed and the usual protocols that are followed in vaccine development have had to be adjusted.

But the scientific data has been published and peer-review mechanisms still adhered to.

In other words, for those wanting to challenge the efficacy of the vaccines and prove that they don’t provide immunity like their developers claim they do, the scientific mechanisms are there.

In just over a year, the coronavirus has changed the way humanity behaves, the way economic activity is carried out.

It has disrupted the way humans do life. But the worst that it has done is instil fear and anxiety in people. The fear of getting sick and the fear of death.

It might sound intelligent and educated for some people to promote conspiracy theories about what the vaccine might contain and the unsubstantiated theories about the vaccine being used to create a mythical new world order.

But at its most basic, the demonisation of the Covid-19 vaccine is an attempt to keep the world in bondage, in fear, and that’s probably worse than death itself.

Sydney Majoko.

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