Glass half full

At the beginning of the week, the news broke that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that we had been waiting for, and which arrived last week, wasn’t going to be very helpful against the mutation most dominant in South Africa.

After all the excitement of the first lot of vaccines having arrived, we felt let down. Consequently, it led to moaning and finger pointing.

For so many of us, this seems to be a knee-jerk reaction. It’s easy. We look for the worst-case scenario, and blame someone so we can resume our position of doing nothing, complaining, and being miserable. It doesn’t help any of us though.

And, as is blatantly clear from the story on page 4 and Dr Israel’s OpEd on this page, those of us who had this reaction missed the point.

Yes, a great deal of money was spent on the vaccine and there was much anticipation of the rollout. But shouldn’t we be relieved that there is enough honesty to stop the vaccine from being distributed and people from being vaccinated for no purpose? The fact that our scientists did the research in time, making it clear that the vaccine was less than we expected, should surely be applauded. We should be proud that we have such scientists, and that there are experts now trying to figure out if this particular vaccine can still be altered or not.

What’s more, if it hadn’t been for South African medical experts, we wouldn’t know about this particular mutation of COVID-19. It was our guys who discovered it, which led to a great deal more knowledge about this coronavirus.

I must say, looking at the same scenario in this way is so much more helpful and inspiring.

The facts are the same. The government procured vaccines, the first of which arrived last week. They weren’t exactly what we needed, and we found out only once we already had them. However, there are a great deal more vaccines – different and more appropriate ones – still on the way.

From that point, it’s how you look at the situation. Yes, it’s possible there was an error or an oversight. That does happen.

However, we caught it in time. We also have many more suitable vaccines on the way. We may still be able to salvage the situation, but we will lose a few weeks in the process. Add to that the fact that we have learnt how proud we can be of our medical scientists.

You know, one of the directors on the board of the SA Jewish Report, Benjy Porter, pointed out this week how fortunate we are to have so many incredible people in top positions in our country.

He was specifically talking about the calibre of people who are willing to make time – their own personal time – to be a part of our webinars. He mentioned two in particular, Eskom Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter (see page 7) and Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, vice-chancellor at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

De Ruyter gave up his Saturday night to be put through his paces in answering questions on our power predicament. He was still doing it at 22:00 with a courteous smile, and graciously answered questions to the best of his ability.

Marwala was so impressive last Thursday in addressing how we futureproof ourselves to ensure that we aren’t victims of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

As deputy chairperson of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and in his position at UJ, Marwala has his hands full, but he selflessly made time for us.

Obviously, like these two men, there are exceptional people who give their all for this amazing country in which we live. This is something that should inspire us.

The reality is that we have outstanding people in this country – not everyone, but a majority. The same goes for our particular community.

Most people want the same things and aspire to do good. Yes, we know there are bad people among us, and a fair number of them are in senior political positions. However, they are still in the minority, and there are far more of us who are good and do amazing things in our lives.

On last week’s front page, we wrote about Professor Efraim Kramer stepping down from the work he was doing. To my amazement, so many chose to badmouth him for his choice rather than to recognise the work that he has done for the community. He put in months of work to help make sure that our shuls were safe. He wrote protocols on safe weddings and much more. He did this only because he cared so deeply for our community’s well-being.

He was angry, and he had his reasons. Instead of thanking him for all the work he put in for us and trying to understand why he was angry, some lambasted him for challenging members of the community who are ignoring the safeguards. I do appreciate that they were a small minority, but it wasn’t helpful, respectful, and didn’t show integrity.

This week, we take you behind the scenes to see the reality faced by frontline doctors dealing with COVID-19 patients (page 3). They, too, get frustrated when people ignore the protocols because they see the results of this. Let’s recognise why, instead of lambasting them.

Right now, we are seeing a little lightness as the second wave abates. If we follow protocols and take precautions, we can hold off a third wave or reduce it significantly. It’s up to us.

We can choose to see only the bad in our country and wallow in it, or we can recognise the good that people do, and celebrate that.

I choose the latter.

Shabbat Shalom!