• African countries should not wait to learn the truth the Italian way.
• There are lessons from the global trends of the spiraling virus: Healthcare workers are not the frontline defenders in the fight against the pandemic. The citizenry are — doctors treat the afflicted.
Image: OZONE
There is a heavy price to pay for procrastination.
When the Coronavirus infections began to soar in late February, and death bells started tolling, Italian leaders were still tossing to their good life, urging the people "not to change our habits."
Ten days later the contagion caught up with 5,883 people; 233 were dead. The partying governing party leader confirmed he, too, had the virus. So did many others he was asking to keep the leisure-loving Italian way of like.
The infections have raced to the 100,000-mark, with 10,000 dead, an average of 800 a day. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Military trucks are ferrying the fallen to crematoriums. There are no requiem masses. This is the price Italy is paying for procrastination.
US President Donald Trump, who is promising to open up the country for business by Easter, is also being accused of prevarication. He initially saw the virus, coming in the mix of the January impeachment debates, as a 'Democratic hoax' to deny him reelection in November.
Critics say the man is not listening to professional advice. But the US response may still be better off: Federal governors are holding out strongly to spare America the Armageddon. Naval ships are being converted into temporary hospitals.
Jordan took a lockdown trajectory within days of reporting its first cases of Covid-19. Borders were shut, schools were closed. People arriving on international flights were quarantined, some in five-star hotels, which the government had seized.
The Jordanian military patrolled entrants to cities, jailing those who defy the curfew. But the going got tougher, as days dragged. After four days of a lockdown, the people bolted. They could not contain their hunger.
Fights broke out among crowds clamoring for food, which military trucks were delivering. They soon learnt there can be no social distancing, which the World Health Organization advises, among the angry. At such times the beast takes over the best of humanity.
In India, police and soldiers cane lockdown breakers. It does not matter whether the reason for breaking the curfew is to look for work, food, or medicine. The vulnerable are caught between the mythical rock and a hard place. The backlash is an eery echo of Babani Battacharya's 'So Many Hungers'. The setting is India, in the context of mass destitution.
There is exodus from cities to villages. Flattening the curve - reducing infections - is as harsh as the rampaging virus. Viral images of the Indian exodus, and curfew defiers, crying like children facing hungry hyenas on village paths, should drive this lesson home: Personal discipline is crucial to ebbing the trail of infections. But people still crowd in social places, public service vehicles still carry more passengers, making a mockery of social distancing.
The 7pm to 5am curfew, which enters the sixth day today, bleeds the economy. It exposes the vulnerability of the masses. Fishermen cannot lay nets following the ban on night engagements. The blue economy is suffering. The people who live on this economy are suffering.
About three weeks after the first local case of Covid-19 was announced, citizens are still largely indifferent, even as President Uhuru Kenyatta sets the country on an emergency mode. He is preparing the people for a lockdown should it become necessary.
Dangerous times, and it has never been this bleak for Kenya, call for draconian measures to save humanity from destruction. Curfew defiers should be ready to pay the price, even if it means a lockup at the Nyayo National Stadium. Those who refuse self-quarantine orders have been forced into isolation at their cost.
Purveyors of fake news, as Health CS Mutahi Kagwe hinted two weeks ago, could be locked up in quarantine centres, from where they can get the 'truth'. Truth, though, is always late, yet it holds the key to getting it right. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer says: "All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
African countries should not wait to learn the truth the Italian way. There are lessons from the global trends of the spiraling virus: Healthcare workers are not the frontline defenders in the fight against the pandemic. The citizenry are - doctors treat the afflicted.
The virus does not spread on its own. People spread it. There is no cure yet, prevention remains key. This requires discipline. The government reserves the right to enforce the order to protect the common good. But there is something else: The other side of indiscipline is desperation. Kenyans who rely on daily wages for a livelihood, would rather die fending for their families than fall on their knees locked up. Hard choices lie ahead.