The Sunday Mail
We appeared to be singing from the same hymn with the wizened fellows until someone mentioned the word “vaccination” and all hell broke loose.
In an instant, matters came to a head.
We watched as three of the four old men faded in the distance, while the one who remained behind gave us a piece of his mind.
“Young men, you ain’t seen anything. Do you see my grey hair? It’s a sign that I have seen a lot and if you want to die young, then continue talking about that injection. Kana mashaya zvekutaura, rukai zvamboko,” the old man said in a voice filled with emotion.
“There is a catch somewhere. You die the moment you allow people to inject whatever they want into your bloodstream. Munopera kuti tsvai,” added the old man.
He neither had facts nor scientific evidence to back his claims.
However, he is not the only one.
There are some people who hold the same misbegotten view.
It is not unusual to be accosted by mask-less scantily dressed waist-wiggling lasses in places of merriment in the ghetto.
Men, too, are not to be outdone.
They are spending time in bars, which are supposed to be closed, dancing without wearing masks and continuing with life as if all is well.
Once you try to reason with them, you are asked, “Bambo, kusiri kufa ndekupi? (We will all die one day).”
People are also disregarding the curfew.
There is fearsome laxity as if people are in an undeclared competition to see who dies first.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children,” reads the Bible in Hosea 4:6.
My heart bleeds.
People are throwing themselves in harm’s way by deciding not to take jabs that are being given free of charge.
Despite the known fact that people the world over are dying because of Covid-19, we sadly still have some who are not willing to be vaccinated.
Zimbabwe has not been spared the harrowing effects of the pandemic. Nearly 4 000 people have succumbed to the pandemic.
China, where the coronavirus was first detected in 2019, has reintroduced lockdowns in some provinces that have been affected by a fresh outbreak.
According to newspaper reports, China’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year-and-a-half ago escalated on Wednesday with dozens of more cases around the country.
Until recently, China had lived virtually free of the virus, with extremely strict border controls and local protocols successfully stamping out flare-ups when they occurred.
Now, the country is reportedly on high alert as a fresh outbreak connected to the international airport in the eastern city of Nanjing spread to at least 17 provinces.
China reported 71 new cases of Covid-19 from local transmission on Wednesday, more than half of them in coastal Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital.
In Wuhan, the central city where the first cases of Covid-19 were identified in late 2019, mass testing has shown some of its newly reported cases have a high degree of similarity to cases discovered in Jiangsu province.
Those cases have been identified as being caused by the highly transmissible delta variant.
Back home, some people are devilishly telling gullible people they will die or fall sick if they get vaccinated.
Sadly, lies often do the rounds while the truth is still putting on its shoes. There is need to continue raising awareness on the need to observe World Health Organisation protocols of masking up, sanitising and maintaining social distance.
Already, health ambassador First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa is doing all she can to spread awareness on the need to embrace vaccination.
We need to double down on ensuring that we contain the virus. Though the country is still under lockdown, bars are always full, with imbibers dancing the night away.
We need to change our habits and promote vaccination. Let us make the right decisions for a brighter tomorrow.
Get the jab.
Inotambika mughetto.
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