An extraordinary journey to....our HOMES

---

“It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn’t get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.” – Richard P. Feynman

On any journey undertaken, irrespective of destination or duration, there is always a moment of reflection at some point. Questions swirl in the mind; how far have I travelled, am I on the right routing, how much further, what lies ahead? The Covid-19 “journey” is one that every human being on planet earth is currently undertaking and, if many of us dropped anchor to reflect at this point in time, there is probably only one recurring question in most minds; when will this nightmare end? On 26^th March the national lock down started in South Africa and effectively changed just about everything that we were accustomed to doing as we went about our daily lives. This means by 26^th July, at the end of this week, this virus will have had the nation in it’s frightening grip for 16 full weeks. For the world it has been longer given that China recorded its first infections at the end of 2019. For those hardy, long suffering readers of these Covid-19 blogs, I thank you, and given that this is Blog #21, I fear I will be writing many more. In the very first blog published on 31^st March 2020, I included the following little snippet; “A final word. Our World is constantly changing and evolving but Covid-19 may be the unintended trigger that accelerates social and economic change.” Well, the events around the death of George Floyd which gave birth to #blacklivesmatter, the onslaught on slavery and its associated history has seen massive destruction of statues and historic symbols and recently sport has been targeted and wrapped into the #blacklivesmatter movement. These are tectonic movements in the structural plates of societies and there is no doubt there are many more “shocks” to come. Eric Hoffer (social and moral philosopher who died in 1983) had this to say about mass movements; “The reason that the inferior elements of a nation can exert a marked influence on its course is that... crave to dissolve their spoiled, meaningless selves in some soul-stirring spectacular communal undertaking.” The economic implosion around the world is there for all to see given the huge job losses, business failures, starvation and the collapse of the travel/tourism industry. The American and European Treasuries have run out of ventilators and are now applying “mouth to mouth” therapy to their economies by pumping trillions into them in their frantic desperation to avert catastrophe. These are artificial solutions which I suspect fly in the face of conventional banking/economic wisdom and there may well be an extremely unhappy ending at some point in the future.

Gazing ahead at what is now looking like a long journey with no clear end in sight, it makes sense to take stock of the Covid-19 journey thus far. The WHO dashboard as of 19^th July reveals the following; Globally 14,043,176 confirmed cases, 597,583 deaths. Here in South Africa, our tally is now; 350,879 confirmed cases, 4,948 deaths. What is significant is that, globally, the recovery rate is just on 60 percent at any point in time and deaths stand at 4.25 percent of confirmed cases (South Africa 1.41 percent). What is completely unknown is how many untested people have been infected and shown little or no symptoms and then recovered.

There are a few stand out Covid-19 anomalies which leave the scientific communities baffled. By way of example; why has this virus not had a major impact on young people up to age 18 years? Not quite the case; in China a study found that 65 of 68 children with confirmed Covid-19 admitted to hospital lived in households with previously infected adults, indicating they caught the virus from the adult rather than transmitting it. In another study in Australia, nine students and nine teachers were infected across 15 schools who had been in close contact with 735 other students and 128 staff members. In America children and teens represent 2 percent of all Covid-19 infections but in some states that number is approaching 10 percent. There is a big push in many countries to open schools despite the huge uncertainty on how the virus infects young people. The real issue for South Africa is the bizarre decision a week ago to allow the taxi industry to fill their taxis to 100 percent (read 125 percent). There has been a backlash from eminent scientists advising the “Command Council”. They argue that 12-20 people (who counts?) in a taxi is the perfect environment for spreading the virus and warn that this decision could see infections spiking massively. Bringing this back to the school issue; many teachers, school staff and children use taxis as their primary means of transport. Is there a solution? Logic would suggest that the original Level 3 restriction of 70 percent occupancy would have been far safer. The cartoon included says it all!

Staying with the twists and turns of Covid-19; the Russians have been up to their usual unique, sinister tricks. Firstly, there is huge scepticism about their published virus infection and death rates. To add to this, they have been covertly trying to infiltrate and extract vital information about vaccines in progress in mainly Western countries. They do have a pharma company working on a vaccine and, despite it being very early days in its development, a number of their elite politicians and business leaders have been given a shot. Nasdrovia!

The real breaking news currently is the progress being made with the possible roll out of a vaccine. The two front runners are Moderna and the University of Oxford, who have a pharma company, AstraZeneca, lined up to produce 2 billion doses. Not wasting any time, the UK has sneaked in an order for 90 million doses. What is fascinating are the large number of bio-pharm companies involved in this frenetic race to develop a vaccine. Many are listed on US stock exchanges, have never produced or sold a thing and yet, have seen stratospheric increases in their share prices. By way of example, Moderna’s share price has rocketed by 763 percent in the last 52 weeks. If they get it right, who knows how much further it will rise. Plenty at stake and massive upside for whichever vaccine developer is first out of the blocks. Anyone currently watching SkyNews, CNN or the BBC will have seen the huge amount of coverage being given to the Oxford University trials which were administered to a large group of volunteers and Phase One results have proven to be very positive. Let’s hope that statues at this prestigious university will not be trashed although intellect seems to count for very little in these crazy times. Herd mentality seems to be the current buzz word dressed up as “mass movements”.

The word immunity is defined as follows: protection or exemption from something, especially an obligation or penalty. Relevance, you may ask? Well, here’s the thing. We South Africans have developed an immunity to the crazy events, decisions, incidents and ANC Government behaviour we have witnessed for some time. We seem to regard ourselves as “exempt” and with no “obligation” as mind numbing incidents occur day to day. By way of example; CR announced at the commencement of the lock down that Government needed four weeks to get the countries health care infrastructure up to all sorts of lofty levels to meet the challenge of Covid-19. We all sat doe-eyed and watched and nodded our collective heads in the over riding belief that this was spot on and our Government was doing a great job. CR has since made spasmodic appearances to brief the nation but not once has he provided a scorecard of what was promised versus what has been achieved. Only three examples are needed to indicate massive failure; firstly, a foreign broadcaster, the BBC, exposes the horrendous situation at the Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth. Anyone who watched the video must have cringed in abject embarrassment that we, South Africans, could have sunk to such depths of abject pitiless behaviour towards our fellow citizens. This was a quote from BBC:“An exclusive, weeks-long BBC investigation inside filthy hospitals in South Africa has exposed an extraordinary array of systemic failures showing how exhausted doctors and nurses are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients and a health service near collapse.” And then, reports are published almost daily of a shortage across the country of 12,000 healthcare/nursing staff. Those incredibly dedicated healthcare workers on the front lines have to resort to protest action to highlight their plight; lack of PPE and support from the Health Ministry. And then to cap it all; Volkswagen in Port Elizabeth made one of their massive factory sites available for an emergency hospital to deal with massive Covid-19 spikes. The German Government funded the costs. Port Elizabeth hospitals are at bursting point but, unbelievably, this facility cannot be fully utilised because of a lack of healthcare staff. No doubt, I will have my critics accusing me of being negative etc., but as a nation we should be as mad as spitting cobras and rioting out on the streets. These failures are what justify “mass movements” and yet we do…NOTHING! We should hang our collective heads in shame.

This blog cannot leave the Eskom debacle on the side lines. Consider the following; the mining and manufacturing industries are operating way below capacity, hotels and any hospitality related building has the lights off and yet, for a week or so recently we had load shedding. In February of this year, prior to Covid-19, CR and his unsuitably qualified Minister responsible for keeping the lights on, Pravin Gordhan, announced a 5-point plan which they assured the nation would keep the lights on. And we sat doe-eyed and believed their garbage. And we simply allow this to continue…….

“Magicians use slight of hand to wow you with their tricks. Politicians use misdirection to wow you with theirs.” – Anthony T. Hinks

---

Photos

Covid-19
CR had a spot of bother trying to put on his face mask.

Covid-19
CR getting his nuts squeezed by the taxi industry, Does he have a backbone?

Covid-19
The SAA story is like nothing ever seen in terms of tragic comedy. But the show goes on...led by none other than Pravin Ghordan!

Covid-19
Kanye West stands as a US Presidential candidate. Maybe we haven't cornered the market on tragic comedy?