Holding out for that vaccine

If you had asked me in September last year whether I would willingly have the vaccine against COVID-19, I would have told you I wasn’t sure. I was dubious about it, concerned about the long-term effect it might have. Not being a scientist, I wondered how it was possible to know the impact on our bodies the vaccine would have in 10 to 15 years.

However, if you ask me now, my answer would be an unreserved, “Hell yeah, bring it on!”

That vaccine is our chance to reclaim our lives. It’s our chance to no longer live in fear of getting or spreading a deadly virus. It will enable us to work towards getting our economy back on track, among other positive things.

It’s now clear that top scientists the world over have made sure that these vaccines are going to help and not harm us. So, I feel confident the vaccine is the best way forward. I only wish we could get it sooner.

I have heard all the fearmongering stories (see page 3) and I believe them to be just that. However, it’s concerning that there are so many who aren’t willing to have the vaccination.

To successfully stem this coronavirus, two-thirds of the population must be vaccinated. If we don’t manage that, we won’t be able to achieve herd immunity. While having the vaccine will prevent you from getting very sick, you can still spread the virus.

At this point, there are some in our community working around the clock to get vaccines for South Africa. Most important is our Absa Jewish Achiever Kia Community Award winner, Professor Barry Schoub, who is the chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 vaccines. This same man was retiring to the coast when he was called back to help guide our communal leaders through what later became a pandemic. So much for retirement, considering that he now holds one of the most pivotal positions in the country in combatting this virus.

I trust he will do the right thing. He appears to be handling the situation with aplomb.

Discovery Chief Executive Adrian Gore is also in the hotseat, working with the government to get vaccines here as fast as possible.

This week, we asked a selection of South Africans who now live in Israel to write about their experience of being vaccinated. These pieces (pages 10 and 11) reiterated for me just how much we need these vaccines fast.

This is especially so because there are those in our community and in the greater population who simply won’t abide by the COVID-19 laws set down by the government.

Now, I totally understand that we are frustrated with this situation. I was so sure that by now this pandemic would be behind us and we could move into 2021, getting back some semblance of our normal lives. I certainly don’t want to be home bound or not able to have a social life.

More than anything, I wanted my son who is starting a new school to be able to meet his teachers, experience the school, and make new friends. Well, for now, that looks like it isn’t going to happen.

Yes, it’s frustrating, but we have to safeguard ourselves, our families, our community, and our country from more deaths and more people getting very ill. It’s as simple as that.

We can’t play G-d, do what we want, and expect to survive unscathed. It won’t happen. This deadly virus is just waiting for us to slip up.

Pulmonologist Dr Carron Zinman, who is working around the clock to save lives, says 90% of her patients in hospital could have prevented getting the virus. Knowing this, we can’t make up our own rules.

At the SA Jewish Report, we keep hearing stories (see page 1) about people flouting COVID-19 laws and making themselves and others sick. To be honest, I don’t get any pleasure in publishing such stories. I can assure you that not one of our reporters do either. Who wants to make people feel uncomfortable or bad about being caught out? We don’t. We also don’t want people swearing at us and threatening us because they don’t want us to write about what they have knowingly done.

The people behind weddings, parties, and social events like these are responsible for making people sick, and may well be killing people. When they flout the law, do they think about this? Do they wonder how they will live with themselves if someone should die?

So, we continue to write about it because if we can, in our small way, make people realise that by doing this they are risking their own and other people’s lives, then we are doing our job.

We all want to celebrate simchas in the larger than life way that us Jews do. I would love to dance the horah with friends and family in celebration.

Who would have thought just how much we could long for a hug from a sibling or parent? Who would have thought that a l’chaim with your whole extended family could be something a person would yearn for when they live in the same country?

I so miss all these experiences, but they aren’t going to be available to me for a while. So, like all of us, I just have to suck it up and wait until we are vaccinated and given the green light to go ahead.

I don’t know when this will be, but if we hang tight, the time will come. Please, let’s do what we have to in order to stay healthy so we can be here and be healthy when that day comes.

Shabbat Shalom!