Lockdown’s pros and unfortunate cons

The hard lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic were not only poorly thought out,  unfortunate, and unconvincing, but experts say they also stirred resentment and undermined its intended purpose.

There has been heightened debate on the efficacy of lockdowns to curb the spread of Covid-19, with Pandemic Data and Analytics (Panda) coming out sharply against the wisdom on the lockdown.

But Stellenbosch University’s Dr Jo Barnes has slated the argument on whether the lockdown was efficient or not, saying the position taken by many, especially those linked to the economy or financial sector, tended to be simplistic.

She said declarations that “lockdown does not work” were also unhelpful as SA will have to use lockdowns in local areas where the virus flares up for limited periods for the same reason as the country did initially.

“Reality demands that we realise that some sort of limited lockdown will be necessary in areas where the case  numbers flare up, while concentrating on much better management techniques without lockdown measures
everywhere,” Barnes said.

“It is not a position of either and or and any groups making such declarations may have agendas of their own or  positions that they are trying to defend.”

Barnes warned that the situation in the United States was a good example of where such polarisation could lead and why it should be avoided.

She said the efficacy of lockdown was judged as though there was no middle ground, but the reality was a lot more  complicated and nuanced.

She said the hard lockdown did curb the spread and gave the health services a chance to prepare mitigation measures.

“One must make a clear distinction between lockdown as a strategy and the way it was implemented in SA.

Unfortunately, not all of the lockdown measures as instituted in this country were helpful or well thought out and
many were also really poorly managed,” she said.

She said the lockdown measures lost focus and shifted onto other social issues such as smoking and alcohol abuse, issues the country has been grappling with for a long time.

Barnes found the drives to curb smoking, alcohol and substance abuse unfortunate.

“The explanations of the connection of these curbs to case numbers were unconvincing and caused a lot of resentment that damaged the effectiveness of pandemic control measures,” she said.

According to Barnes, the continuation of the pandemic was driven to a large extent by lack of adherence to simple control measures, as well as the occurrence of poorly managed superspreader events.

“We need to learn to manage attendance to large gatherings a lot more effectively.

“This disease will be with us for much longer than the makers of vaccines and the politicians will have us believe,” she added.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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