The end of the never-ending ‘State of Disaster’ is being dangled like a carrot in front of the South African public, but will it come at too high a price?
We are now so used to living in a world where our freedoms are restricted, that it is tempting to rejoice over the few meagre concessionary morsels now offered to us.
Much like a beggar snatching up an idly tossed coin, we do not realise we should never have been made beggars in the first place. Let us not give away our birth right for a bowl of soup.
I refer to the new draft regulations relating to the surveillance and control of notifiable medical conditions and public health measures published on March 15. If passed, these regulations are supposed to allow us to return to normality, but still enable government to protect us from the pandemic.
This sounds great in theory, but the logic is flawed because research now suggests that nothing, not masks, not social distancing, not curfews, not limits on gatherings, not quarantining and certainly not contact tracing, that government has put in place so far has been able to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19).
These measures were acceptable 2 years ago when science knew almost nothing about the virus and may at best have slowed its progression.
But now that the pandemic has matured, so has science. So much so that these proposals are being laughed out of town by the science world.
A recent opinion piece published by the Daily Maverick and co-authored by 5 of South Africa’s top medical experts in the field of infectious diseases, makes it clearer than ever that government is using an outdated understanding of the pandemic to underpin its decisions.
The title, ‘The incoherent and illogical new government Covid-19 regulations are the real state of disaster,’ says it all.
The authors do not mince their words as they methodically tear the proposal to shreds – a reminder that today’s wisdom may be tomorrow’s foolishness.
The authors include Marc Mendelson, professor of infectious diseases at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, Shabir A Madhi, Dean of Health Sciences and professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Glenda Gray, president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, Jeremy Nel an infectious diseases expert at the University of Witwatersrand, Regina Osih, an infectious diseases specialist and Francois Venter, a professor of medicine also at the University of Witwatersrand.
They maintain that despite the failure to vaccinate the targeted 40 million people (or administer 40 million doses of vaccine) by the end of 2021, the majority of the country’s population has reached herd immunity.
“Even before the Omicron-driven fourth wave that started in late November 2021, up to 70% of the population had been infected at least once, which has since likely increased to >80% after the fourth wave due to Omicron’s high transmissibility.”
This they argue shows that everything we have dutifully been doing up till now has been like farting against thunder.
Not only are these measures useless, they are now harming our ability to recover from the pandemic.
For example, the draft regulations propose that visitors to SA would need proof of full vaccination, or else a recent negative PCR test. At first glance this sounds reasonable.
But as Mendelson and his colleagues point out, if a thousand or even a million people have Covid-19 at any point in time in South Africa, what impact will a handful or even hundreds of cases of Covid-19 coming into the country make? Absolutely none.
Furthermore, vaccinated people can carry the virus and would therefore go undetected.
For the unvaccinated the PCR tests are expensive and unreliable.
They can both easily miss infected persons and incorrectly diagnose as positive people who have recently recovered from Covid.
The tests can pick up the virus for weeks or even months after infectivity is over.
This places an unnecessary financial burden on visitors, hampering tourism without really doing anything to prevent the spread of the virus.
Most masks too, the scientists say, are not worth the fabric they are sewn from.
A mask without a good seal around the nose and mouth “provides little to no protection against being infected and does not meaningfully reduce transmission”.
Likewise, physical distancing has its limitations as SARS-CoV-2 can easily cover the recommended 1 metre distance between people.
“The notion of physical distancing to reduce infection risk is firmly rooted in an era prior to realising that spread of SARS-CoV-2 is mainly via the airborne route, and most efficient in poorly ventilated indoor spaces irrespective of distancing between people.” The focus then should be good ventilation and not physical distancing.
Much like the tale of the emperor’s new clothes, it is time our government stops making fools of us by refusing to let go of the ‘health protocols’ that are no longer medically sound nor helpful to the urgent need to recover our economy and livelihoods.
For breaking news follow The North Coast Courier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Join our Telegram Broadcast Service at: https://t.me/joinchat/yJULuN8NaCs5OGM0
Join our WhatsApp Broadcast Service: Simply add 082 792 9405 (North Coast Courier) as a contact to your phone, and WhatsApp your name and surname to the same number to be added.
