Avoiding the blame game

COVID-19 has done so much damage to our world, and not just to the numbers of people who have contracted or died from it.

Nothing can be worse than someone you love dying from this dreaded illness. Having it hovering over you with long-term effects that have an impact on your life is also horrible.

Unfortunately, this pandemic has got to a stage in South Africa and in our community where we all now know people who have died from it and others who have been badly scarred.

We also know people who have been totally asymptomatic.

The point is this super contagious life-threatening sickness is like playing Russian Roulette – you don’t know how it will affect you. And in this second mutation in South Africa, the young and fit aren’t protected from the worst of it. Some are getting very ill or even dying. We don’t know how our bodies will react to it or whether we will be susceptible to getting it twice. See Dr Carron Zinman’s opinion piece on this page.)

In fact, there seems to be a number of different experiences of this virus. (See pages 10 and 11.)

When you go into certain public places, they take your temperature because that was originally believed to be a sure sign of someone with the virus. However, I have spoken to a number of people who have had COVID-19 but didn’t have a temperature.

Even the tests don’t seem to be 100% fool proof. There are many who get false negatives, which can have obvious dire consequences in spreading the virus.

This virus has caused so much animosity and anger between people. It’s par for the course to play the blame game, either with people who underplay the virus or are sticklers about maintaining the protocols.

I have witnessed people looking down their noses at those of us who stick to the letter of the COVID-19 laws, believing we are overreacting. While others thumb their noses at those who underplay the virus and don’t follow the protocols.

I believe we all have the right to what we believe as long as we aren’t harming anyone else. However, if you get on a plane with COVID-19, you are likely to harm others. If you know you have symptoms or have a good chance of having contracted the virus, you are potentially going to harm people if you go shopping, visiting, or mixing with people (even those in your inner circle).

I imagine that nobody would purposely do that, right? Unfortunately, it appears as if there have been many such cases within and without our community.

There are people who, in spite of knowing there was a possibility that they might have had the virus, got on a plane home or even went to a party. In fact, they may well tell you that they have been super cautious…

That almost feels worse than those who underplay COVID-19 as a flu because you believe they are following protocols when they aren’t. In such cases, you might just let your guard down a little with horrible repercussions.

I’m guilty of getting upset with people who put other people’s lives at risk. That’s the problem with this virus: when you take risks, they not only hurt you, they hurt others. In fact, they may kill.

If people didn’t take such risks, surely we would be able to get a handle on this virus and stop it spreading so fast?

I resonated with Dr Anton Meyberg’s comment (on a podcast with Howard Feldman during the holidays) about people who underplay this virus as a flu. He suggested they go and work in the COVID-19 wards without personal protective equipment (PPE). Obviously, they wouldn’t need PPE if they don’t believe it was a dire illness, why would they?

You see, I’m casting blame. And such sentiments have caused conflict between people, even within the same family. Even between best friends and life partners.

These conflicts are just more collateral damage from this horrific pandemic. So unnecessary!

It reminds me a little of how many of us were back in the apartheid days, when some of us supported apartheid and others didn’t. There were families in which one person was a card-carrying African National Congress member and another would treat black people as lesser humans. I know this is an extreme example, but there is a similarity in the anger and fear expressed.

With this as the backdrop to this first edition of our newspaper in 2021, I was inspired by an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa written by Benjy Porter, a businessman, a community stalwart, and a board member of the SA Jewish Report. (See page 15.)

Instead of blaming or looking for fault in the government or anyone, he offered to help wherever he could.

Recognising the tough task the president and the government have in fighting this pandemic and keeping the country afloat, he suggested where he could be of service.

Meanwhile, there are so many of us who condemn or bad mouth the government for not doing enough, making terrible mistakes, or not doing things fast enough. Perhaps they are right, but running them down doesn’t help anything or anyone.

What Porter is doing is an example to us all of what we can do, and if every one of us offered to help in some way, perhaps we really could make a difference.

We are a community of go-getters. We are a community who make things happen. We can also be a community in which individuals play the blame game and take unnecessary risks.

But if you turn that nastiness around and into positive action, we won’t have time for the blame game, nor will we be interested in it.

I’m not saying it’s okay to risk people’s lives, I’m saying let’s focus on helping and doing the right thing so we can get rid of this pandemic and killer virus as soon as possible.

You with me?

Let’s make 2021 the year we made a difference in defeating the COVID-19 enemy!

Shabbat Shalom!