Drastic action on jabs is needed if we are to weather more of Covid’s shocks

AVaccines for all must be made mandatory, for the good of all

nything can happen with Covid-19 and it probably will, as 16 months of lockdown have amply demonstrated. Even within the past 48 hours, it has emerged in the US that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant of the virus — admittedly, a rare event— are just as infectious as unvaccinated people. And after a slow start, thanks to an inexplicable delay in realising it would have to be proactive, the health department has managed to increase its per capita vaccination rate by a factor of 15 since the rollout began. Given the anguish and justified anger over SA’s late arrival at the vaccine party, this is an achievement that ought to be celebrated, as should Friday’s announcement that our supply pipeline will be full until the end of the year.

Some obvious problems remain, however, as the pandemic landscape continually shifts beneath our feet. More than seven weeks after sending Zweli Mkhize on special leave and parachuting the tourism minister into the hot seat, President Cyril Ramaphosa has not yet clarified his leadership plans for a health ministry grappling with the biggest crisis it is ever likely to face. Ramaphosa broke his silence on Thursday, a month after the Special Investigating Unit sent him its report on the R150m Digital Vibes affair, but only to say what he always seems to say — that he is thinking about it, that he will act, sometime.

Other instances of alleged corruption linked to the pandemic, many of them arising from the early scramble for personal protective equipment, have been dealt with, to be fair. The tiptoeing around a scion of the ANC would be more troubling only if it was more surprising.

Then there is the tendency for style over substance in the response to the pandemic. A curfew, for instance, might signify sound and fury, but it no longer appears to make sense. The merits of crude and lengthy bans on alcohol sales have been difficult to pin down, and there are undoubtedly more elegant ways of handling SA’s drinking problem if the intention is to protect the healthcare system. Soldiers overstepping the mark in attempting to keep people inside crowded homes — when being outside is one of the best ways to avoid infection — is another example of how things have gone wrong. The less said about the police minister’s beach forays, the better.

Thankfully, the latter two examples of wrongheadedness have receded in our memories, and the relevant ministers now have bigger worries after their abject failures to prevent and police the looting frenzy three weeks ago. With luck, we will be spared further pandemic interventions from their offices.

It would be entirely wrong, however, to suggest there are no more shocks in our future, and there was a broad hint about one of them in a comment on Friday by Nicholas Crisp, the health department deputy director-general in charge of the vaccine rollout. Men, he said, are not pitching up for jabs in the necessary numbers.

One of the long-standing problems in the treatment of SA’s HIV/Aids epidemic has been the reluctance of men to get tested and treated, and Crisp’s comment suggests the same phenomenon is already plaguing a vaccine rollout that remains in its infancy. An influx of 18- to 34-year-olds at vaccination sites in September will mask the scale of men’s hesitancy. But unless we grasp the nettle now, towards the end of the year we will be facing a significant obstacle on our road to community immunity.

For the moment, we are at a crossroads. The third wave of infections is still crashing down on our shores but we are relatively well placed to repel it. To maintain the momentum the vaccination rollout has acquired, a momentous and controversial decision is needed: jabs for all must be made mandatory, for the good of all.

Many of our rights have been diluted over the past 16 months. Unless we make this final compromise on our right to decide what to put into our bodies, Covid-19’s stranglehold on lives, livelihoods and freedom will take years to break.