Arms ready, where are the jabs?
Mmegi Editor | Friday March 26, 2021 13:21
In recent days, Mmegi has reached out, repeatedly for that matter, to the officials involved in this exercise was met with a wall of resistance when trying to clarify the status of the vaccination roll out programme. Batswana are asking questions about when the Covishield jabs, which were welcomed at the Sir Seretse Khama airport about three weeks ago, will find their way into arms. And as the media, often hailed by health authorities as a ‘partner,’ we are equally in the dark as to the latest developments around the vaccination programme.
Both the media and the public’s request to be kept in the loop about the latest developments is not driven by morbid curiosity or a callous desire to pile pressure on our exhausted and overwhelmed health authorities. Rather, the request is driven by the rising cases of COVID-19 evident around us, the hospitalisations of family and friends and the deaths that have become so frequent that people are numbed by pain. For more than a year, disbelief and deep sadness have engulfed the country as Batswana have turned their lives upside down adhering to the various safety protocols and the “new normal” health authorities have asked people to abide by.
Our funeral rites, used as a method of mutual grief counselling, have been cut to two hours and 50 guests each even as deaths escalate, while the societal rituals we use to commiserate and lift spirits, such as weddings and sporting events, have been banned. Even church services, where we go to heal our souls, have been cut. Communing with family during festive seasons is strongly discouraged and in fact, it is likely that the upcoming Easter holidays could have an interzonal ban.
Batswana have complied with all these changes not only because of civic responsibility, but because they understand that the fight is not just for health authorities, but for the lives and livelihoods of everyone who calls this country a home. This belief in shared responsibility is now being shaken by the veil of silence health authorities have draped over the single biggest sliver of hope that has emerged since the virus arrived – the vaccination programme. On state TV on Tuesday, Health Services director, Dr Malebogo Kebabonye was clearly uncomfortable when directly questioned about when the first jabs would arrive in arms and her explanations were, to put it mildly, either vague or for those who understood her, unconvincing.
While we may dismiss the photos of other regional leaders and officials getting jabs as cheap publicity, these are nonetheless important in reviving public confidence that a vaccination programme is underway and that there is hope. Reviving public hope and confidence are critical at a time when COVID-19 cases and deaths are rising, if not simply for the strengthening of national morale, then for helping business and investor faith in the economy. To the health authorities, we have trusted you with our lives thus far. Take us into your confidence.
Today’s thought
“The government is us; we are the government, you and I.”
- Theodore Roosevelt