With reference to Thabile Mange’s letter Covid-19 kills: stay at home which featured in the 22 May edition of the News.
First of all let me say I don’t underestimate the virus at all, and I know it is extremely and highly dangerous, but you have not looked at all facts accurately and scientifically.
No government can keep their people locked up indefinitely because a virus is out there somewhere.
We have been locked down for over 60 days flat! How long do you suggest we stay home and locked up?
The virus won’t be going away anytime soon and will be with us for years. I totally agree to a lockdown to curb the virus, but definitely not to the strength or force that was imposed on people or on the economy. It was an extremely harsh and tough one to begin with, compared to other countries.
Their death rate was well over 25 000 compared to South Africa’s 400, and they opened up the whole country, not by levels either! To start with, military law was enforced upon us as citizens left right and centre, and our basic constitutional rights were violated by taking away our freedom.
It is enforced by power-hungry policemen and military soldiers who use unlawful force on us as this power has gone straight to their heads, forgetting they are dealing with adults and not kindergarten children!
President Ramaphosa admitted they had made some grave errors in the lockdown, but it was and still is too late for apologies. The economy has collapsed and is a disaster due to the extended lockdown, which increased unemployment even more, left thousands of children starving, thousands of businesses going down and filing for bankruptcy, gender-based violence increasing, bringing about much devastation for our country.
Perhaps you are not aware that Professor Glenda Gray, a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) who, in her personal capacity, was highly critical of the country’s lockdown response, labelling it ‘unscientific’.
She believes the lockdown should be scrapped completely and the country should rather move to non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as hand-washing, wearing masks, social distancing, and prohibition on gatherings.She went on further to say, “We are seeing children with malnutrition for the first time (at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital). We have not seen malnutrition for decades and we are seeing it for the first time in the hospital, but the de-escalation, month on month, to various levels is nonsensical and unscientific.”
We believe, as scientists, that we give and are giving the government good advice, and why they decided not to take the advice or engage readily with the scientists is unknown. Why have experts if you don’t care what they think?
This strategy is not based on science and is completely unmeasured. It?s almost as if someone is sucking regulations out of their thumb and implementing rubbish, quite frankly.
Because of her speaking out, the ‘power-hungry’ government decided to have her investigated and disciplined, but were stopped in their tracks when hundreds of academics all over our country-? among them Professor Francois Venter, a top scientist and Deputy Executive Director of Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute – and many others made their voices heard and also took to social media.
They deplored and strongly condemned the government’s action against her and defended her, and all agreed with her findings.
*On Tuesday morning, 26 May, the South African Medical Research Council board issued a statement, confirming it would not proceed with its intended investigation of Dr Gray.
