daniel chigunwe
The pressure is building up on Zimbabweans who are reluctant to get vaccinated against Covid-19 with the advantages of just standing in line for your jabs becoming even greater.
The latest Government move to allow churches to resume public services so long as everyone present has been fully vaccinated with both jabs, places a lot more pressure on those who have been looking for excuses, although the move is to meet a deep desire by many to resume public religious life, but in a way that minimised risk.
And even then congregations have to be masked, sitting apart as they social distance and sanitise or wash their hands before they enter the church.
This double set of precautions will also help public health experts and the authorities to see how effective a tightly-controlled degree of almost normal gathering can work.
It is important that church leaders and their congregations embrace this new relaxation fully and responsibly and do their utmost to make it work. They will be leading the way.
If they make it work it opens the door to other organised events, where controls on admission and precautions can be enforced, to be permitted under the same rules.
The previous experiment of allowing limited numbers to attend religious and social gatherings so long as they were masked, sanitised and sat apart did not work.
In fact these became incubators of the third wave and had to be banned early in that wave as a result. Even the limited number permitted at funerals was found to be creating high-risk environments.
The Government decision to move forward was not arbitrary. Already, within the Zimbabwean context, there was a relaxation in Victoria Falls where pushing 90 percent of adults are now vaccinated, and vaccinated tourists are allowed to visit the city and its attractions.
The infection rates in a vaccinated city with the usual masking and other precautions were so low that there were good grounds to move forward and start looking at something that so many find exceptionally important, but which was not critical for the economic survival of Zimbabwe.
Attendances at churches are likely to be very varied. Leaders of many major religious groups have been pressing their followers and fellow worshippers to get vaccinated and have been standing in line to give the lead and the example.
So a lot of Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews and others are going to be able to resume a religious life that at least approaches “normal”, although with a lot of precautions.
And those in these congregations who have been putting off their jabs are now highly likely to be making swift preparations to stand in the queues at their local vaccination centre.
Not only will they be able to go to church, but will not have to duck into a doorway when they see a fellow worshipper, or even their priest or imam, on the pavement.
The evangelical and apostolic strands of religious life have, however, seen theological disputes with some leaders embracing vaccination, or at least accepting it, but many others holding back.
Within the evangelical communities there has also been a flood of social messaging and online sites that are initiated or hosted by anti-vaxers and reflect the astonishing political polarity of the United States of America on health issues, along with weird conspiracy theories that have absolutely nothing to do with either theology or public health.
Perhaps Zimbabweans need to think for themselves; at least our vaccination drive is not rent by political disputes.
Besides this major Government opening, we are also now seeing a growing number of Zimbabwean businesses forging ahead to create far safer working environments.
The basic human resources policy has a double strand: First encourage staff to get vaccinated, and get their spouses vaccinated, with arrangements made where possible and certainly staff released in batches, often with company transport, to get into the queues.
Now, after a decent period for everyone to get their jabs, these businesses are tightening their policies. Vaccinated staff can come to work freely, but unvaccinated staff have to, at their own expense, produce a weekly negative test result.
Those who think this is unfair should think again. One large group, and a rapidly growing group, are those who have accepted vaccination and have made the effort to get their jabs to protect themselves and their families.
They are becoming ever more reluctant to work with colleagues who are not protected. And why should they risk their health and even their lives because someone in their office or factory has a private theory on vaccination or is too lazy to join a queue?
If you want to argue about what is acceptable in a democratic society, California this week took a giant step. All staff in all schools, public and private, must be vaccinated and by all staff the State Governor means everyone from the principal to the janitors.
He reckons, with good scientific backing, that this will provide a far safer environment for the children when the long summer holiday ends. The teacher unions agree.
It must be remembered that vaccination is a major aid to minimising the risks of infection and ensuring that if you are infected you are far less likely to become very ill.
But research in countries with high vaccination rates has shown that the highly-contagious delta variant, in particular, can infect the vaccinated although at far lower rates than the unvaccinated.
And in a country with well over half the population vaccinated, more than 99 percent of American deaths are among the unvaccinated.
This problem of the exceptionally contagious variants is now leading to debate in medical circles about the vaccination levels required for herd immunity, with growing support for universal vaccination.
That may be required in any case since the pools of the unvaccinated are now known to be the breeding ground of these new variants.
But for the individual these debates, while fascinating, are not really critical. We can stand in line, get our jabs, have high levels of protection.
And now with both the Zimbabwean Government and the private sector introducing policies that allow the vaccinated a lot more of a “normal” life, even if we remain masked, than the unvaccinated, there are other practical advantages.
Online Reporter