Time to fight frustrations

Two months ago, as the pandemic started sweeping across the world, we all jumped in right behind the politicians who were instructing us. Now, as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc in many countries, we allow our frustrations to get the better of us. Most mornings when I’m out exercising, I see so many people who are not wearing face masks, and it seems almost always to be the same demographic. Is it arrogance or an act of defiance I wonder? After the first week of Level 4, we seem to have settled back to some kind of South African normality. Gone are the suburban masses, in their lycra and seldom-used tackies. Now we are back to the regular runners and the domestic workers pushing children in prams or walking dogs. Where are the parents of the little ones, or owners of those animals, the ones who only a few weeks ago were crowding these very streets?

I keep on hearing that Covid-19 is no different from the flu and that thousands of people die from the flu every year. How quickly we forget that in New York, almost 10,000 people died in two weeks. That in Spain the number of dead to date exceeds 25,000. All of this, in a matter of weeks, not months, as is the case with the flu season. And let’s remember that we have a vaccine for the flu. These numbers will not replace those who will die of the flu. They will be additions.

Then there is the suggestion that it is pointless trying to mitigate the coronavirus. Every time such ill-informed suggestions are put forth, the virus chooses another example to keep us focused. A number of children in the United States, many in New York, have been afflicted with mysterious illnesses in recent weeks. Are we willing to risk the health of our children just because we are frustrated or because we want to open the economy? So far, we have managed to keep the fatalities at a reasonable level but it is also true that, on a daily basis, the numbers of people dying are escalating. 

Unlike South Africa, Holland chose a different path to that recommended by the World Health Organisation. On 16 March, the Dutch prime minister announced that Holland would build “group immunity” by allowing the virus to roam the population in a controlled manner. After several hundred deaths the Dutch government abandoned the policy. To date, more than 5,000 people have died in Holland, although that figure is believed to be an underestimation. And in the process the minister of health has resigned.

Sweden also decided not to lock down. To date, there have been more deaths from the coronavirus in Sweden than the combined number of deaths in the rest of the Scandinavian countries, where Finland, Norway and Denmark chose to follow the directives of the World Health Organisation. While the Swedish government has been resolute in its decision not to shut down the economy, not everyone agrees.  Cecilia Soderberg-Naucler, a viral immunology researcher, has expressed her concern over the number of deaths in her country. 

Spain was less proactive than South Africa in the beginning. The population only really responded when the daily death toll started rising in unbelievable numbers. Currently, Spain has more than 235,000 cases of coronavirus victims and more than 27,000 deaths.