Since our festive is in the summer we always expect it to rain 🌧 and this time around we were blessed with an abundance of rain. The rain did affect normal order of business but it didn’t deter us from still maximizing our festive season. We still stood for hours at funerals in the rain 🌧, partied the whole night in the rain and went to events in the rain. You’d be surprised at how many people actually own umbrellas. Staying at home is not an option. If the loud music from all the different drinking spots or cars passing by doesn’t keep you awake then social media will definitely remind you of what you missing out on. Rain 🌧 or no rain 🌧 it’s an extended period of time to indulge in cold beverages stored in ice cubes 🧊. After so many activities in the rain, it was inevitable that someone would eventually catch the flu and unfortunately, I did. I drank with it until the festive season came to a conclusion. It was a time to recover and get back to normal.
So one day as I was laying on the couch nursing my festive season hangover and the flu I had picked up I came across Coronavirus on the news status bar and it only mentioned the symptoms that time. It instantly caught my attention because like most people I also do drink a lot of Coronas 🍺. And my friends and I had been constantly arguing that some Coronas 🍺 tasted differently than others. Expert Corona 🍺 drinkers were even specific on which one to buy by differentiating between the bottle caps. Their reasoning was that one would give you a severe headache the following day. I didn’t care much about all of that, I just wanted to drink and get drunk and not go to different bottle stores looking for a specific Corona🍺. I regretted not listening to the Corona 🍺 drinking experts who told me how to differentiate using the bottle caps and here I was sure that I was to be a statistic. All of a sudden all those symptoms resonated with the condition I was in. For a moment I could see my funeral, my mother and my sister crying inconsolably, my brothers building tents and my friends pouring out liquor for me. I was not ready for that so I decided to research it more and google gave me some answers that consoled me but I still had the flu and I decided to investigate further by starting from the beginning.
The World Health Organization defines the a Coronavirus as follows :
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
The fact that it was first detected in China 🇨🇳 meant that we as South Africans 🇿🇦 were not really going to be affected as China is over 11100 kilometers far from us. This was not the first time that China 🇨🇳 had experienced an outbreak of a respiratory virus in my lifetime. They had the SARS ( severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak back in 2002 and it was quickly contained. I’m not a medical 🏥 expert but I thought I knew enough and I assumed that since they were able to contain the SARS epidemic quickly then it would not take a rocket scientist to do the same with this Coronavirus. It seems to be not the case this time as this virus is now spreading worldwide and has the potential to wipe us all out.
Most countries around the world have set up measures to prevent the spread of this virus and it is said that China built a hospital 🏥 in 10 days to combat this particular virus yet it is still spreading. Usually, as Africans, we would not concern ourselves with this virus as we have our own things to deal with but this is becoming worrisome now. We don’t have the capacity to build a hospital in 10 days let alone in one year.
What we know so far is about Coronavirus is that it originated in a Chinese seafood market where they also illegally trade wild animals like rabbits, birds, snakes, marmots, and bats. Recently they said it comes from pangolins(see image above). Pangolins are endangered species which even fetch hundreds of thousand rands on the black market. The Chinese use their scales for medicine and their meat are eaten as a delicacy. Talk about nature fighting back. We all have to make a living one way or the other but the consequences of this particular industry are obviously grave because this disease kills even faster than Aids and poverty. After the illegal traders contracted it from the animals it started spreading from human to human and is transmitted by droplets of bodily fluids such as saliva or mucus from an infected person dispersed in the air or on surfaces by coughing or sneezing. In fact, you run a risk by catching it just by breathing. The doctor that warned his government about the virus also died from it. People are dying around the world because a certain group of people got tired of eating regular beef, lamb, pork or chicken.
A high number of people get infected in airplanes and in response to this, a lot of airlines have suspended flights to China as a precaution. American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia and many more of the big aviation companies have done that. Even here in Africa, Tanzanian and Rwandan airways have followed suit. In our dear South Africa, 🇿🇦 all we have done is hear the minister of Health telling us that they are ready in every way for Coronavirus. Like me, he probably thought it was caused by the beer. Ready for what actually? To contain it? To cure it? To do what exactly?
We don’t want to be ready for this virus. We do not want this virus on our shores. Why not follow suit like most countries and suspend all flights from China 🇨🇳 to South Africa 🇿🇦 until this virus has a cure.
The Cubans 🇨🇺 with their primary health care system will always tell you that prevention is better than cure. Those are the steps that we should be taking.
The only way we can prevent this virus from exposing our already short-staffed medical professionals and our inadequate response to global threats is by suspending all direct flights.
Flights from China are still landing on a daily basis at OR Tambo international airport. If first world countries like England 🏴, USA 🇺🇸 and many other G8 countries who actually have a background of making medical breakthroughs and inventing medical equipment to combat diseases are canceling entrance into their countries because they can’t as yet deal with this epidemic is not alarming enough for our South African government then I don’t know what will be. Do we perhaps believe that we are more medically equipped to deal with this virus or is there something I’m missing? Employees at OR Tambo international airport are given protective masks 😷 to wear and all international passengers are supposedly tested before being allowed entrance. This is not enough and as much as I am a patriot I have read too many stories of babies dying at hospitals, the life esidimeni hospital scandal and countless cases of negligence. If these things can happen at hospitals where qualified medical professionals work then what are the chances of a mishap happening at OR Tambo international airport where staff members who have minimum knowledge of medicine are working? I recently read that even protective masks 😷 are not 100 percent efficient. The only jobs that people wake up knowing that they are risking their lives are illegal mining ⛏ and money heists and these jobs have a risk-reward system. Working retail, security or customs does not come with those same financial incentives and yet people still have to wake up and go to work and risk contracting that virus. In such a dire economy people have no choice but to continue risking getting infected in fear of losing their jobs. The risks are not limited to OR International airport only.
According to me the Lebombo border post which is the third busiest entry point in South Africa 🇿🇦 after OR Tambo international airport and Beitbridge is the one that puts us in the most danger. It is recorded that there was a movement of close to a million people just at Lebombo border post last year. We are very fortunate that the Mozambican 🇲🇿 government has followed suit and suspended all travel between Mozambique 🇲🇿 and China. This does not mean that we are totally safe because it’s known that most construction 🚧 projects in Mozambique are contracted to the Chinese. What are the possibilities of them not coming from Wuhan, China 🇨🇳 where the virus was first detected?
It’s no secret that Mozambique 🇲🇿 as a country is very vulnerable to epidemics. It takes only one infected person to infect a lot more people and it is known that Mozambican nationals have ways and means of crossing into the country illegally and undetected. I genuinely hope that’s not the case because the Nkomazi municipality where Lebombo border post is, is predominantly a rural area and only has 2 hospitals which cater to 40000 documented citizens and many more foreigners. There is no way they’d be able to deal with such an epidemic. Nkomazi municipality also harbors Swaziland 🇸🇿. So it’s very easy for one mishap to infect 3 countries. I’ve spent a huge amount of time with politicians who were once in exile and they always mentioned the difficulty entering or leaving South Africa during the times of Apartheid. The government needs to invest in fixing and manning our borders. I’m not suggesting that we build a wall like Donald Trump is doing in the USA 🇺🇸 but we could use the same blueprints the apartheid government used. As someone whose been to different countries I’ve followed their rules and taken injections and medications just to get entrance to them. This is what we also need. People are allowed into South Africa 🇿🇦 with or without a visa depending on their passports but it’s imperative that they adhere to the conditions we set.
We don’t eat bats, dogs or pangolins and we shouldn’t die because of people who do. I just hope that the government will take preventive measures before we all succumb to this horrendous virus.
The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) recommends we do the following to minimize contracting this virus :
• Washing your hands often for at least 20 seconds with soap and water. An alcohol-based sanitizer can work in the absence of soap and water.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Stay home when you’re sick.
• Cover your mouth when you cough, or sneeze with a tissue and throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
I will conclude this with a quote from Mission Impossible 2. The events happening around this virus were perfectly depicted by that movie.
“Every search for a hero must begin with something which every hero requires – a villain.” Dr. Nekhorvic on Mission Impossible 2
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new world mischief 