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September 2nd 2021
Published: September 2nd 2021
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Covid-19Covid-19Covid-19

A shambles. No other words!
“Be fast, have no regrets…If you need to be right before you move, you will never win.” – Mike Ryan, epidemiologist at WHO in March 2021.

The last C-19 blog was posted on 3rd August, which is almost a month ago. Not surprisingly, when it comes to C-19, a whole lot has continued to happen and this pandemic is still blazing its destructive path across the world. One of the cravings we humans have in the midst of this unprecedented disaster, is the burning desire to pursue anything or any activity that resembles “normal life.” This can take on many forms. In our case we opted to escape to the amazing charms and allure of the Kruger National Park. Ten days of pure bliss; no TV news, no newspapers, mostly poor cell phone signal and no daily update on C-19 and the chaos it relentlessly heaps on humanity.

The new buzzword is “delta”, a variant which has proven to be the most rapidly spreading, randomly seeking out any country and infecting ever increasing numbers of people. So, countries like England and America, which were crowing about grand “re-openings” of their countries and economies, have had to apply maximum
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Fired as Minister of Defence. Reward; appointed as Speaker of Parliament. Go figure!
brake pressure and re-set their plans. We are back in virus panic mode; no doubt about that! There are a myriad of questions swirling; how should vaccinated people be changing their behaviour based on the delta variant? Virologists openly admit that this variant is a “game changer”, urging vaccinated people to continue wearing masks, although they do claim, based on empirical data, that those vaccinated are not becoming extremely ill and hospitalised. Asymptomatic people are unlikely to spread if unvaccinated. Is vaccine efficacy waning as suggested by some data? The virologist’s consensus is emphatic; protection from severe disease remains very high for those vaccinated although the effectiveness has decreased “somewhat” in the face of delta but there remains excellent protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death. Many countries (including South Africa), are way behind in rolling out vaccinations. What is the long-term outlook? Immunity is the only way out and there simply is not enough immunity to combat delta. In America, many of the good folk of Arkansas have elected not to vaccinate and delta has raged through that state. The solutions include vaccine uptake, vaccine passports and the natural immunity developed through infection. These things need to happen throughout
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The tragedy of this country. Self opiniated politicians and "leaders" get outrageous protection in their pursuit of self importance. Good citizens? Nothing!!!
the world so there is an imperative for all countries to ramp up vaccinations so that they help get humanity out of this mess sooner. I suspect many of the back marker countries in this equation simply do not have the resources or capability to get this critical vaccination job done. Look no further than sunny South Africa; as of 1st September, 2,8 million confirmed cases with 2,6 million recoveries (roughly 93 percent), 82,5 thousand deaths. Our problem is that only 7 million people are fully vaccinated which represents about 19 percent of the adult population (those older than 19). What is particularly interesting are the views of Emile Stripp, an actuary at Discovery Health who has suggested that almost 80 percent of the population may have contracted the virus. He has based his calculations on the case-fatality rate and excess deaths, a measure of the number of fatalities compared with an historical average which are thought to provide a more accurate picture of the impact of the pandemic than the official numbers. He states; “if we know the mortality rate of C-19, we can deduce the likely infection level.” This high infection level could push us closer to so-called herd immunity, estimated at between 80 and 90 percent of the population. The problem is the delta variant could reinfect those who contracted other variants. Interesting views but as with all things Covid-19; who actually knows, with any degree of certainty, what the true numbers are?

Other non-C-19 events around the world continue unabated; massive flooding and damage due to Hurricane Larry smashing into the eastern side of America, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan which is not surprising as the Americans weren’t paying any attention to prior military history when they went into that desperate country a good few years back. No major military power has ever prevailed there; both Russia and England previously engaged at different times and left with their tales between their legs! And here in sunny South Africa, our almost daily dose of toxic bad news continues, underpinned by a governing party that is totally pre-occupied by its own survival largely at the expense of the country it is meant to serve. There is no doubt that for many, despair prevails and the burning question for every single citizen should be; what can we, ordinary citizens do to save our country? One of the most important “things” we can do is to cherish and defend our independent media who have bravely taken on the tidal wave of corruption, theft and many of the atrocious acts of those in power. Where would we be if it were not for the investigative journalists at amaBhungane, who exposed the villainy of the Guptas and others, the many superb and brave journalists who have written a number of books based on exhaustive investigation of their alleged perpetrators (interestingly, not one taken to court by these thieves), organisations such as OUTA (Organisation united against tax abuse), publications such as The Daily Maverick, where a brace of top class journalists churn out story upon story of the malfeasance of those meant to serve this country. The very least we can do is elect to join, subscribe and pay a small monthly amount to ensure these, and other seriously concerned people, can continue with their indispensable work on our behalf. Sadly, many South African will yawn, shake their collective heads and do nothing convincing themselves that it will all “just come right”.

As a signed up and paying “MAVERICK INSIDER”, here is an article written by one of these outstanding journalists as they reach out daily on our behalf;


Standing together is South Africa’s only hope

We are a nation beset by tragedy. So much of it that one might expect us to turn away from death, crime and corruption when we see it happening. But as many brave South Africans have proven again and again, the only way to create a country that is free of corruption, where every South African is served, is to say and do something when we see something wrong happening.This is what slain whistle-blower Babita Deokaran did. At the time of her untimely death, Deokaran was the Gauteng health department’s acting chief financial officer, and was investigating fraudulent Covid-19 contracts at the department. Her evidence and investigation affidavit were part of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation into this tender scandal. On 23 August 2021, at 8am, upon returning from the morning school drop-off, Deokaran was shot in front of her home and later died in hospital.According to a colleague, Deokaran had worked with the SIU long before Covid-19 and corruption around the department’s personal protective equipment tenders, suggesting that she had been exposing people and illegal acts in the health department over at least the past decade. As a financial officer, Deokaran was the “smoking gun”, with a paper trail to sink top-level officials.Like many whistle-blowers before her, Deokaran chose to expose and defend the truth when she saw criminal activity taking place. And just four days after her assassination, police made seven arrests linked to the hit.Because when Deokaran’s neighbours saw something, they did something.After the incident, a neighbour alerted the police that on three occasions he had seen the same BMW used in the hit in front of Deokaran’s house. The car’s occupants took pictures of the house and the neighbour took photos of the car and jotted down the registration number.Working together and speaking up about what they saw was the vital piece of information that enabled investigators to trace the vehicle to a former South African National Defence Force member residing in the Pretoria area.At Daily Maverick we’ve seen enough to know that it is the South Africans who stand together who are going to help our nation achieve the corruption-free future every citizen is entitled to. Our investigative journalists pursue leads by whistle-blowers like Deokaran and follow them to expose and Defend Truth. It is dangerous work, but it is critical if we are going to work to save South African lives.Our work is about ensuring accountability, uncovering evidence, and reversing the culture of looting and impunity. It is about making sure that leaders might think twice about stealing and more about delivering on their commitments to the citizens of this country. Most importantly, it is work that we cannot do without the support of our loyal readers. Globally, the public has started to fund their media because they understand that it is a necessary and much-needed public service. In South Africa there is an even greater need for this public-service journalism, but a much smaller pool of people who could contribute.Thank you for standing up with us to help keep our media free. Your monthly financial contributions are helping us to continue doing the expensive and dangerous investigations that expose the truth of corruption and the people responsible for it.Every South African deserves to live in a safe society; thank you for ensuring that it is one we work for and protect.

“Hope lies beyond inaction! When inaction ends, hope rises like the sun! Inertia is the enemy of hope!” – Mehmet Murat Idan

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2nd September 2021
Covid-19

Freedom of press
Another great read Tim, thanks.
2nd September 2021
Covid-19

Covid-19
I would much rather be raving about Kruger than ranting about Covid-19 and SA challenges.
6th September 2021

Hope
We all hope the world gets healthy again.
6th September 2021

Agree & Love the Insight on SA
C-19 Has changed the way we lived. But we must persevere and fight the impact, to bring back the world to a greater place than before. Love your blog, hope to be back soon. Perhaps I would find more profound writings from you in the future, which I can learn from. Keep up the good work :)
6th September 2021

Covid-19
Thanks for your message.

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