We have to move beyond misinformation and get vaccinated

The Covid-19 pandemic made the choice between public health and the economy perhaps the most difficult decision to be made by authorities throughout the world.

It seemed like an impossible decision, and most countries went for a lockdown to give some space to the health sector.

This strategy succeeded in alleviating the demands on the public health system, but the cost to the economy was horrific, especially in SA where the economy was already struggling.

Therefore both the worldwide effort and the successful production of Covid-19 vaccines was truly a great global breakthrough.

It reminded us that when human beings focus intently on accomplishing a task, they often succeed.

Never mind that soon afterwards vaccine politics emerged, with richer countries hoarding the vaccine and threatening to introduce vaccine apartheid.

At least the vaccine was here; the pool of options had widened. It was no longer public health versus the economy.

This was perhaps the most realistic presentation of the choices we had in the first place.

Even though it seemed at first that there was a dichotomy between public health and the economy, this was false.

Both the collapse of public health and the collapse of the economy produce the same result, a collapsed society.

A sick and dying society has no economy to speak of, and if people die of hunger due to a destroyed economy, their health is unlikely to be maintained anyway.

Owing to the same economic and technological forces that produced the villagisation of the global community and the conditions for a global pandemic, another pandemic emerged.

This was the pandemic of misinformation.

The communication technology of our time has made it possible for both information and misinformation to spread quickly. We saw this when significant numbers of people were concerned about some connection between the 5G technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, people mostly associated with the religious sector, and those who generally distrust authorities, were pointing to associations between Covid-19, the 666 “anti-christ” biblical symbolism and attempts at a world government. Though these connections could be viewed as generally ridiculous, what was not ridiculous was how even educated professionals were seemingly asking the same questions, concerned about these links. Upstanding people who under normal circumstances would be a voice of reason started breaking at the seams, asking unscientific questions, and making illogical assumptions. We could easily blame this on the unprecedented stress and uncertainty which was brought by the pandemic.

Perhaps under such heavy strain, and a lively atmosphere of disinformation, even the sanest of us could crack.

All this points us to an urgent need for our society to pivot to better prepare for any future event like the Covid-19 pandemic. Firstly, we must actively keep our populations informed about as many aspects of life as possible.

The time when it was tolerable for people to be kept in the dark on matters which the elites assumed ordinary people had no business knowing, must be abandoned.

The time when it was excusable for politics and business to use lies to accomplish their narrow-minded ends has come to an end.

Our society cannot afford this because it destroys public trust. When this trust is required in a crisis such as the current pandemic, only distrust dominates. Secondly, if the world has turned into a village, then it is time we learned from those who remember ideal village life and the African philosophies behind it.

How do villages behave, how do they maintain social cohesion, progress, and development?

What does progress mean in a village, is it about turning villages into cities, if so what type of cities?

We must look at the models presented by ideal village life and see what we can learn, scale up and apply at the level of the global village.

Who participates in the village? How is collective wisdom developed, knowledge shared, and solutions offered?

How is contribution encouraged and how is the accumulated value of collective contribution shared?

It really is that time, beyond the narrow dichotomy between capitalism and socialism. The unreasonable resistance towards vaccination must be seen in this light, as a result of being a society that accepts ignorance and tolerates lies.

When a crisis hits, we have vast sections of society contributing little to solutions and resisting readily available solutions.

However, if we have no alternative planet to send the unvaccinated or vice versa to, we need to get as many people as possible vaccinated.

Though perhaps not ideal, rapid education and mandatory vaccination must proceed.