The woman on the front line, plus five highlights from 'Vrye Weekblad'

Here's what's hot in the latest edition of the Afrikaans digital weekly

12 March 2021 - 06:47 By TimesLIVE
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Prof Glenda Gray.
Prof Glenda Gray.
Image: Supplied

No-one has done more than the vaccine hunter, doctor and researcher, Prof Glenda Gray, to lead SA through the destructive first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic shocked us out of our comfort zone, Gray tells Elsabé Brits in the latest issue of Vrye Weekblad.

“It got us to do the kind of work we were made to do. Some of my colleagues say we have spent a lifetime preparing ourselves to do precisely this. We prepared with HIV, and this one is our pandemic. We simply had to respond.”

Covid-19 has changed the landscape and our way of life forever, Gray believes. “There is an indelible etching on our psyche. When I see everyone with masks in the street, the distance between people, it makes me incredibly sad. The world is so different.

“During the peaks, the waves — the human destruction and the politics. Then the job losses. The mental health issues, the children who aren’t at school. That rocked humanity’s cage, in every way — from our psychological to our physical and economic health, and the welfare of our children. It has made the world a far more serious place than ever before.

“We had to grow up, I believe.”

Where does she find the courage to keep pushing forward? Has she ever felt that it was all becoming too much?

“Often, then you think 'oh no, the wheels are coming off!' You know, even today. Then there’s our team, the fewer than 10 people working together on the response. And if one says: ‘I am falling apart’, then someone else will offer perspective.”

Her immediate team works seven days a week, more than 12 hours a day. “If mistakes are made and people feel irritated, you just have to say: ‘I understand, you are doing fantastic work. We’ve got you.’ It isn’t easy.”


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Gray considers the identification of the 501Y.V2 variant (also known as B. 1.35) by the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) a highlight for science in SA.

But then came the worry about the impact of this variant on the effectiveness of vaccines.

“To watch how the variant knocked out a vaccine’s neutralising capacity was quite terrifying. To sit with that kind of worry during the December holidays was alarming. It was my greatest source of worry — that the vaccine’s effectiveness would be affected, and then it was.”

Read the full interview and more news and analysis in this week's edition of Vrye Weekblad.


Must-read articles in this week's Vrye Weekblad

TANGLED WEB | The meeting of the ANC top six in the stale office of Luthuli House, and the media statement that followed, tells us a lot about the power relations inside the once glorious freedom movement, writes Piet Croucamp.

FREE TO READ — GREEN GOLD | Anneliese Burgess tells the story of how the humble indigenous oro verde from Central America became one of the world’s leading food trends — and how criminal elements in Mexico (and here) are targeting the green gold.

GUARDIAN ANGELS | After his mother-in-law’s stroke, Jan van der Merwe launched Angels Initiative to change the outcomes for stroke patients around the world. He explains why a new stroke awareness campaign is targeting children between the ages of five and nine.

COVID POVERTY | President Joe Biden and the Democrats are moving briskly to transform both the country and its pandemic economy — but could runaway inflation get in the way of their plans? 

WE LOVE THE ISLAND | Vrye Weekblad’s resident satirist C Louise Kortenhoven wades into the furore over M-Net’s latest and much-maligned reality series, with a little help from Hlaudi, Meghan and Eusebius.


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