THE LOCK DOWN WILL END, WHAT TO DO?

It was an initiation ceremony. A rite of passage. Call it what you may.

It involved getting all the S1 boys to jump from the diving board into the pool about seven meters below.

For swimmers this would not be a problem, but for the senior boys lying in wait in the water, whose intention was to “dunk” the new entrants to the school when they hit the water.

I can not forget the feeling of running out of breath as they kept my head under water and the relief when I was tossed to the side of the pool sputtering, coughing and spitting.

Watching a video recently of covid-19 patient struggling for breath, reminded me of that time more than 30 years ago when I was fighting for breath underwater and yet there was none to be had.

Of course,

people with respiratory challenges know this reality all too well. I left mine behind in the school swimming pool.

I have no intention of repeating that experience in my life time, nor would I wish it on anyone else, except for … but that is a story for another day.

As we approach the lifting of the lock down that  memory is what keeps me in check. Social distancing will be key. Shaking hands, out. Hugs? How do you spell that? 

Knowing what we know now after more than two months of bombardment with corona virus messaging, we should not need anyone to tell us how to behave.

"President Yoweri Museveni when he does eventually lift the lockdown, most probably in phases for months to come, will be making a general prescription but we have an individual responsibility we can not abdicate to him....

While as a country we have been spared the health effects of contracting the disease – we have had 126 covid-19 cases at time of writing this, we have not been spared the economic downside.

A report released last week by the organisation Financial Sector Deepening, Uganda (fsd Uganda) showed that four in five of us could not maintain their normal lifestyle after just 15 days of lockdown.

I almost laughed the other day when someone said lifting the lockdown will mean we have survived the virus. As long as there are cases around the world a reopening of our borders and airports mean we will risk infection sometime in the future.

With the best estimates for the development of a viable vaccine seen late next year, it is clear we will live in fear of the disease for at least one more year.

A sharp spike in the infection rates may see the imposition of other lock downs in future.

"Unlike the other viral infection that sends chills down our spine, HIV/AIDS, if you contract Covid-19 you can spread it to your loved ones with not so much as a sneeze in their direction. Which makes personal responsibility even more urgent.

I fear that our low infection rate during this first wave has bred a complacency, which is setting us up for a higher infection rate during the second wave.

The Spanish flu of the early 20th century, which laid waste to western Europe, had a more fatal second wave because people came out jubilating in the streets after the lock down was lifted then.

We will have to restrain our relief and jubilation.

 

From a health perspective it is safe to say we have passed the first test, but that will count for nothing if infections increase rapidly and wipe out the gains of this first struggle.

The critics of the lockdown are loud but not overwhelming. As a society we have had to measure the risk of opening up versus the health risks.

Which brings me to another point. Madagascar has been helping all and sundry with their home made remedy for the disease, I hear they are going to start charging for it.

"The conventional health industry have threatened to laugh them out of town, as snake oil salesmen and worse. But the portion is in high demand on the continent, with countries as far afield as Guinea and  Mali signing up...

Given the circumstances a more appropriate reaction would be to study the drug’s efficacy in Madagscar and if found to have some promise, research its component parts to see what works or not.

But we know the huge investments made by the pharmaceutical companies can not allow for some home remedy to steal their thunder, unless it is promoted by themselves, of course.

I say give Madagascar’s concoction the benefit of doubt. This as I reach for my own concoction of honey, ginger, garlic, lemon and Mululusa all mixed in hot water.