In our country, its response has been led from the highest office, and not from the office with the technical expertise to lead anything health related. We saw the politicisation of aid offered in response to the pandemic. Invariably, the livelihoods of Batswana were impacted by politics in a way we have not seen for many years. What became apparent is that those we elected to lead our various interests, in Parliament, are not who we thought they are, on either side of the isle. I suppose the natural consequence of a problematic democracy and governance is the political weaponisation of all things, including those which should ideally be equally availed to all, reasonably. A health system that historically had minimal flaws, is now the site for this years’ corruption allegations, in the middle of a pandemic. That is the thing with rotten systems – they corrupt everything they come in contact with, no matter who they harm on the way – as long as those in the highest echelons of political power benefit, all things are fair game. Science is being suppressed for political and financial gain, with state corruption being unleashed on a larger scale than we have seen it.
Of course, the suppression of science is not peculiar to Botswana. Donal Trump’s administration were the most notorious to achieve this distraction of national attention. It ended in the election of a new President in the United States, but not after many had died as a result of Trump’s negligent leadership. In countries where the vaccine is being developed, we saw politicians suggesting that they act for the best interests of the populations, accelerating availability of diagnostics and treatments. The capitalism in the product innovation and bringing them to market was visibly rampant. The membership, research and lack of transparency in deliberations about the vaccine are examples of how this showed up.
