Johannesburg - The war for the hearts and souls of the vaxxed and resolutely anti-vaxxed is reaching fever-pitch.
On the one side the messaging to get everyone vaccinated to sidestep the Grinch is crystal clear: the Omicron variant might be too new to make sweeping predictions about it, but it seems if you are vaxxed, you don’t die. In fact, the symptoms (long may this continue) appear much milder than other variants.
Corporate South Africa is starting to do its bit too, following on from universities. From next year, you’re going to have to be vaccinated if you want to work at Pick ’n Pay and MTN. This has been catnip to the tin foil hat wearing illuminati, studding social media with screen shots of their cancelled contracts and vows to shop elsewhere.
It’s very heartening if they do start to self-isolate from the rest of us who have taken the trouble to get vaccinated. The other upside is that they won’t be able to do their research, as most of them do, on the toilet and on their smartphones. Perhaps it’s too much to hope that the other cellphone companies will follow suit – it could be a killer blow for the anti-vaxxers.
The ivermectin Karens are increasingly being joined by the equally virulent RET-istas who seem to have a pathological aversion to vaccinations, presumably because, in their minds, one live pro-vaxxer is one pro-Cyril Ramaphosa too many.
Dudu Zuma Sambudla, who we last heard of tweeting from the rooftops trying to gee-up the desperate in South Africa’s stillborn July insurrection, was tapping away this week: “I Have Done Some Reading And My Own Research. How Many Clinical Trials Have Been Done With These Trial Vaccines!? Or Are You Telling Me That WE Must Be The Clinical Trials? Andizi Mina! I Would Happily Sit At Home And Boycott These Stupid Vaccine Passports Etc…”
If only she would sit at home.
Then there’s the public protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, whose concept of which public she’s protecting appears remarkably circumscribed, veering out of her lane again.
The SABC put out a poll this week, asking which was the better option: vaccination or a stricter lockdown in dealing with Omicron. She replied enigmatically that doctors should use “existing” drugs to treat patients as they have a 96% success rate.
Are vaccines “existing drugs”? Pfizer, J&J and Moderna are, but not the Chinese and Russian jabs that the Teletubbies held super-spreader events for. Was she warning against the Manto Tshabala-Msimang era of garlic, beetroot, snake oil and rat poison, or was she harking back to it?
We didn’t have long to wait to find out.
“After infection for treatment at home: Prednisone, Sinupret Forte, Diclofam, AC200, disprin and supplements like zinc, vitamin C, niacin, tumeric powder Eucalyptus, dandelion tea, garlic, onion, ginger,” she responded after Mbhazima Shilowa had baited her to reply.
If there is any truth to the fear that the Covid-19 vaccine could possibly alter our IQ levels, South Africa should really start marketing this as an incentive to get jabbed for Christmas.