A year from that first COVID-19-alert cappuccino

A year ago, on 5 March, it was announced that the first case of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in South Africa. I remember so vividly that I was walking to Seattle to get a short double shot cappuccino (low fat) when I looked down, and saw the alert on my phone. I had been anxiously waiting for this announcement. So much so, that the news, in a strange way, came as a relief to me. I knew that when I looked up, I would see a different word.

A world altered.

On 5 March a year ago, South Africa began its COVID-19 journey. During this time, we were forced to educate ourselves, face our own mortality and the mortality of those around us. We had to shift how we work, how we exercise, how we socialise, and how we communicate. We had to be strong for others, and others had to be strong for us. We had to embrace our own vulnerability and celebrate the vulnerability of our co-workers, friends, and family.

We had to come to terms with the fact that the medical experts didn’t know everything, and would be learning as they went along. We had to accept that no government would get this absolutely right, and there were people who would take advantage of the crises for political or financial gain.

And we would see remarkable acts performed by the normal people. Nurses and doctors and physios and first responders and support staff became superheroes. And those involved in charity became the lifeblood for so many.

This Sunday marks the anniversary of a weekly COVID-19 podcast in which we try to address as many of the questions and concerns that people have. This Sunday, in fact, marks the 50th edition, and also should notch up our 200 000th viewer.

We began our journey in studio in Rosebank before lockdown. We moved into our homes, recorded from hospitals, and even on the beach before closure in December. We journeyed through hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and bleach, and debated if the tuberculosis vaccine would perhaps protect us. We watched in horror as Italy buried its dead, and Americans ripped each other apart. We followed the vaccines and the variants that would continue to reshape our experience.

When we began this project, we could have no idea where it would take us and who we would reach. I had no data to base the proposal on, and no experience to draw on. I simply asked well-meaning people to choose to have faith in an idea and sponsor it. Because after all, we might not have chosen to live through a pandemic. But we could choose how we would deal with it.

On 5 March a year ago, the first COVID-19 case was announced in South Africa. We have no way of knowing when the last case will be diagnosed, and if we will even be paying attention when that happens. Perhaps by then we will all have been vaccinated. And when I walk to Seattle to get a short double shot cappuccino (low fat), I won’t even notice that there was an alert on my phone.