We have power to stop this virus

IT is quite clear that when human beings are left to their own designs, it inevitably results in chaos and disorder. So, the beginning of organised societies meant there had to be rules and regulations to provide guardrails for orderly societies and communities, and not to unnecessarily inconvenience individuals.

This is why it is often remarked that men and women were not made for the law, but the law was made for men and women.

It simply means laws can be bespoke for particular circumstances to ensure collective buy-in for pre-determined societal outcomes, especially where it is risky for buy-in to be voluntarily ceded.

Centuries of experience have shown that the outbreak of novel viruses and pandemics, including those that attack the respiratory system, like the current novel coronavirus, cannot be readily met by pharmacological interventions because of the sheer amount of time it takes for scientists to understand the disease and come up with efficacious vaccines and medicines.

Instead, history has shown that non-pharmacological interventions such as social distancing, wearing face coverings and avoiding public gatherings are as effective as the vaccines themselves, if followed to a T.

Professor Solwayo Ngwenya — Mpilo Hospital CEO — often says the virus does not have legs, but it uses people as human mules to transport itself from one person to the other.

So, rising transmission rates and infections, therefore, mean we are not doing that which we are supposed to be doing, not only to save ourselves but our loved ones as well.

Last week was particularly painful and grim. In the six-day period from Monday to Friday, we lost 183 of our fellow countrymen, while 5 610 new infections were recorded.

Figures for transmissions could be even higher because of the obvious limitations in testing and difficulties in accounting for non-symptomatic carriers of the virus. These numbers begin to sink in only when the statistics turn into people we know and those who are close to us.

Slowly, this deadly disease is sneaking ever closer to our families, more than we think. Every time that we venture out has become a life-and-death decision.

Which makes preventative measures both critical and urgent.

But, despite the calamity and the existential threat that we currently face, being apparent to the generality of Zimbabweans, there are still those who take satisfaction in breaking the rules.

They foolishly think they are immune to the virus or would survive in the event that they catch it, which is myopic.

Even in the unknown event that they survive, they risk bringing it to those people they consider dear — their parents, grandparents or friends — who could be at high risk of succumbing to the disease. It is as tragic as it is unwanted. On Friday, Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health and Child Care, noted: “It is unfortunate that some of our people continue to defy lockdown measures, as we might have noticed in Mbare, where some errant youths decided, in their own wisdom or lack of it, to organise a musical showcase. If all our people maintained a positive attitude towards measures to combat the coronavirus, there was not going to be any need for imposition of a national lockdown.”

By the same token, attitudes and behaviours would similarly determine the duration of the current lockdown, which comes with a lot of psychosocial, social and economic pain.

Companies, most of which had begun to revel in the new-found stability and prospects, are currently bleeding.

Our decisions and behaviour can stop the haemorrhage, just as our decisions and actions during the festive season might probably account for some, if not most, of the pain we are currently feeling.

We unfortunately seemed to have opened the door for the virus at a time when it had become most virulent.

The decision to lockdown a whole economy should not be taken lightly.

But, as President Mnangagwa continues to reiterate, lives, which cannot be restored when lost, take precedence over everything else, including the economy, which is recoverable.

Relaxing the lockdown would obviously be informed by reduced infections and fatalities (flattening the curve), which can only take place if everyone complies with the current regulations to observe the set health protocols and guidelines.

It really doesn’t have to take roughshod law enforcement agents to enforce compliance, especially when it concerns the worse existential crisis that humanity has faced in modern times.

Maybe some people have become cavalier in enforcing these life-saving guidelines because vaccines are on the way.

Well, the cavalry might be on its way but it must find us alive when it arrives.

It, therefore, makes it incumbent for each and every one of us — not only the police — to enforce these rules.

Ensuring that everyone next to us is wearing a mask and is maintaining social distancing has to be the norm rather than the exception.

We have the power to stop this virus to ensure that we restore a modicum of normalcy in our lives, as we should.