It has been six months this week since President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a nationwide lockdown to try and contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Also this week, the number of people in the world who have died as a result of the coronavirus exceeded one million.
We measure things by numbers in our statistics-obsessed world, but the numbers are of neither interest nor comfort to those who have lost people they loved to a disease that as yet has no confirmed cure nor prophylaxis.
Numbers, for the bereaved, are counted in days and nights of grief.
On Monday, to mark World News Day (as opposed to any other day on which accurate news matters), CNN interviewed Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US.
Fauci said, in as tactful a way as he could muster, that the White House coronavirus task force appointed to tell President Donald Trump what is going on in the realms of science and medicine might not be doing such a great job in terms of fact-checking.
“I’m concerned that sometimes things are said that are really taken either out of context or actually incorrect,” he said.
This in a country that tops the global charts for confirmed Covid-19 cases (more than 7 million) and coronavirus-related deaths (more than 205,000).
In SA, many feel that the hard lockdown imposed by SA’s government was a mistake ... But in any rights-based society, lives must come before livelihoods.
Outside of the US, Covid-19 is having its own world party as economies open up and humans frolic in a state of happy denial. Belgium, Germany, France and the UK are among the countries that have announced a resumption of restrictions in response to a surge in new infections.
Let us not follow in their injudicious footsteps.
We who live in Africa are patting ourselves on the backs because our Covid-19 death-to-infection ratio is inexplicably lower than that reported in the rest of the world. Just over 36,000 deaths have been confirmed on the entire continent so far.
Let us not forget, however, that many of those 36,000 dead people might still be enjoying the company of their friends and families had stronger precautions been taken by those around them.
In SA, many feel that the hard lockdown imposed by SA’s government was a mistake because of the job losses, poverty and deprivation that ensued. But in any rights-based society, lives must come before livelihoods.
Now hard lockdown is over. The economy is as free as it can be to recover as best it can. Again, there are conflicting views on the wisdom of this path. Last week The Lancet medical journal published a research report which concluded that no country should ease lockdown restrictions unless it can confidently tick five boxes: knowledge of infection status; community engagement; adequate public health capacity; adequate health system capacity; and border controls.
SA does not score very highly on any of those counts, which is why it is now even more crucial for each of us to play a part. The lives of others are in our hands. If we do not behave in a rational, informed manner, with the good of our wider communities at heart, we will soon be back where we started – not square one but level 5.
The coronavirus neither knows nor cares what level we are on. The coronavirus does not discriminate. It attacks and sometimes kills people of all ages and races and situations – no matter what any ignorant neighbour might say about it being dangerous only for fat people or old people or poor people.
The coronavirus feeds on ignorance. It is not just airborne but idiot-borne.
Don’t be an idiot. Sanitising constantly, observing social distance, avoiding unnecessary gatherings and wearing a mask in any and every public situation are not about protecting yourself, but about sparing others from potential illness, death, grief and loss.
What decent person wouldn’t do that, if it were in their power?
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