Washing your hands will save the world
The virus is not infecting governments, it is infecting people. These are the people who need us to stand in solidarity with them. . .
INASMUCH as the novel coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, is not yet an existential threat to humanity, at least not to the levels posed by some man-made phenomena that dot the path of human history, the stealthy way in which the virus has crept past borders to infect thousands across the world sets it apart as perhaps the greatest challenge of our time.
From the HIV pandemic, the threat of nuclear war at the height of the Cold War to the Nazi-instigated Second World War, men and women across the generations have had to contend with seemingly insurmountable circumstances.
The lesson we draw from the fact that they overcame such grim horrors is that we will, in fact, we must overcome Covid-19.
Addressing the British Parliament on the 18th of June 1940, the late British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, is famously quoted as saying: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth (is to) last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.”
All over the world, governments and other institutions are seized with efforts to rein in Covid-19.
The very nature, scope and speed of the virus has only added to the challenge in containing this contagion.
An advisory on coronavirus, posted by the United States’ Centres for Disease Control and Preventions, reveals that although the virus is most contagious when one is sickly and exhibiting symptoms, there have been reports of asymptomatic transmission, which is the ability of the virus to be spread before one shows any symptoms.
This makes efforts to contain the spread that much harder.
That these efforts have met very limited success is evident in the continued spread and rising number of fatalities from the virus. In this day of digital media, the temptation, which some sections of the media and citizens have gleefully jumped onto, is to blame governments for being ill-prepared, slow to react and being opaque with information.
Here in Zimbabwe sections of the media have published articles on the alleged hiding of data on Covid-19 positive patients by Government, constantly finding fault with all efforts to prepare the country’s health sector, ports of entry and citizens in general for the almost inevitable advent of the virus in Zimbabwe.
Without absolving Government of its clear responsibility to provide health services and generally look out for the welfare of Zimbabwean citizens, especially in the face of phenomena such as Covid-19, it is irresponsible, sickening and mischievous for media houses to continue to insinuate that Government is somehow conspiring against the people.
Addressing the media on February 28 2020, World Health Organisation Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Our greatest enemy right now is not the virus itself. It’s fear, rumours and stigma and our greatest assets are facts, reason and solidarity.”
Reason dictates that media houses and citizens publish and share information that is based on facts.
These facts, guided by science, are readily available in the regular briefings from authorities, both local and international.
Solidarity makes it incumbent upon all of us to refrain from stoking fear and panic in fellow citizens by publishing unfounded rumours, which in most cases are patently false. The virus is not infecting governments, it is infecting people. These are the people who need us to stand in solidarity with them.
The media, both mainstream and social, publishes numbers of new infections and fatalities every day. Those numbers are family members to someone — an aunt, a wife, a father, a colleague —yours or mine. It is time to be responsible citizens.
In a Twitter post that demonstrates solidarity with the people, Silindiwe Mhlongo, a South African citizen who says she has been in China for the past 58 days, shares what she says is helping Chinese residents cope.
The thread from Mhlongo, who talks on how residents have also taken the initiative and responsibility of staying safe in their localities and issuing security guards manning apartment complexes with disinfectant to sanitise all who come in, goes on to reveal what could be partly responsible for the slight improvement in living conditions.
“I have seen us transition here in China from a quiet ghost town with strict curfews and empty shelves in our local supermarkets back into a relatively busy town.”
“The consistent theme has been the individual responsibility for one’s health and safety,” said Mhlongo, before adding: “Taking care of yourself takes care of everyone around you.”
Now that is solidarity and responsibility. We need to ask ourselves what we can do to stay safe. What can I do to prevent myself from contracting and spreading the virus to my wife, child or neighbour?
Instead of constantly seeking to discredit others’ efforts, every citizen must take on the responsibility to do what is necessary to keep the novel coronavirus at bay.
While history records that during Churchill’s time, millions stood against the evil tide of Nazi machinations, our finest hour might just be defined by something as innocuous as practising good old hygiene.
Wash your hands!!
Jabulani Mangezi is the Station Manager of Zimpapers’ Mutare-based radio station, Diamond FM. He writes in his personal capacity.