Last week we learned that a new variant of the Covid-19 virus had been detected in SA.
This as the number of cases began to increase, ushering in what appears to be the predicted fourth wave of infections this summer.
The international community has, perhaps predictably, reacted in a knee-jerk fashion, with the UK the first country to place us and our neighbouring countries on a temporary red list travel ban.
That decision was soon proven to be ignorant as the variant was later detected elsewhere in Europe.
Here at home, the Covid-19 National Command Council met on Saturday to discuss the country’s response to the latest surge in infections.
At the time of writing, President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to address the nation, no doubt an anxiety-inducing moment for individuals, households and business sectors across the country.
For the last two years since this pandemic broke, the central theme of our national response has been to enforce various levels of lockdowns – a justifiable decision at the onset of this crisis but its effectiveness has since waned.
In fact, a number of our scientists have repeatedly stated that aside from the economic devastation they bring, lockdowns are not necessarily an effective way to curb transmissions.
What our country needs is to get as many of us as possible vaccinated.
Only 24% of our eligible population has been vaccinated.
This is a worrying statistic, which reflects hesitancy, often driven by unfounded and dangerous narratives peddled against vaccines.
Many have called for the government to rethink its stance and rather make vaccination mandatory.
While this call is understandable in the face of the risks posed by those who are not vaccinated, it is unlikely to yield the desired result.
Time and again history has demonstrated that encouraging people to make informed, evidence-based medical choices is far more effective than enforcement.
A lot more has to be done, including implementing vaccine passports for entry into certain public spaces in order to persuade people to get inoculated.
What we cannot afford, however, is yet another set of lockdown restrictions, which only serve to push our economy to the brink of collapse while achieving little to help our public health cause.
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