By Kabelo Mollo
The internet is a wonderful tool. It has made information immediately available, and has made face value research that much easier for the average man. How many times have you encouraged somebody that ‘Google is your friend’?
Or is that a millennial thing? People born before the computer still want to look through Encyclopedia Britannica? I kid. With all that information at our fingertips we have become quasi experts in all fields.
The advent of social media has also given us a platform to show off our expertise. Any topical matter there is, we’re on hand to offer our expert opinions on the matter. Whether it’s sports, politics, or even specialised fields like medicine, and law. The economy, finance and other skills like marketing are daily fodder for this panel of experts. Graduated from the school of internet, and YouTube!
Recently I was watching a popular podcast where a South African celebrity was being interviewed. She had made so much sense until they started discussing COVID-19. She then went in to a medically technical area. Bear in mind, I’m no medical health expert but even I could hear she was wading in to treacherous territory! Said celebrity proceeded to talk with conviction on a matter only scientists and doctors should be. I cringed. She confidently told the interviewer all of this information was available on the internet. My body recoiled. She had gleaned this conviction from a few web searches. I could imagine her going down a rabbit hole of information and disinformation led by folks with bona fides and quacks alike. Treacherous territory indeed!
In the last little while our focus has turned from the relationship between five g towers and COVID-19, to the vaccine that is upon us. The same agents of disinformation who were busy with wild outlandish theories regarding how and where the virus emanated are back. Now, they armed with new facts regarding the vaccine and it’s potential to alter DNA and whatever else they’re purveying as factual news.
All the while geniuses and dimwits alike are lapping the conspiracy theories up. I know there are some reading this right now belittling this column for being pro vaccine. Why do you know better they’ll ask? The answer is simple. I don’t know better. I don’t know what I don’t know, and the internet is yet to equip me with the knowledge I would need to stand as an expert against this vaccine which has been developed by the very top medical scientists and been peer reviewed accordingly…
Here’s the thing right. This whole viral pandemic has polarised the world. Everyone seems to have a view on what it is, what it isn’t, how to treat and how not to treat it. So I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the vaccine will also set tongues wagging, but I have found myself dumbstruck by the responses in some quarters relating to the vaccine occurrence.
From microchips that will be inserted to track your movements, to Bill and Melinda Gates’ population control, to other more extreme and I dare say ludicrous theorems, all of them have been fascinating. The internet and its vast array of knowledge has led to many of these detractors knowing what they know.
Scientists though should not give up on us. Eventually we will come around, even in spite of what we learn online. Somebody who is clearly pro science and pro vaccine asked on one of the social media “are you familiar with a village that has recently been ravaged by rubella? No? How about polio? Also not? Well that’s as a result of medical sciences and vaccines”. Very well put I thought to myself and as I scrolled down looking for naysayer comments. There weren’t any. How strange!
If there’s an advocacy group I can join or offer support to, for vaccines in Southern Africa I’d really like to volunteer my services. I am one hundred per cent behind rolling the vaccine out and returning some sense of normalcy to our lives. I believe wholeheartedly in the science and scientists that developed the vaccines, and I believe as wholly that we should get these jabs.
Incidentally, I also believe that post vaccine we should continue to be safe, and careful. I have not got the standard cold and flu I ordinarily would have during the winter months. One of my favourite things about this new normal. I suppose the combination of mask wearing, social distancing and immune-boosting has led to that. I haven’t had a cold or flu or in over a year. My fiancée was chuckling to herself that if anything, this is where COVID-19 has been great. See, nothing is all bad, just as nothing is all good.
We are a vulnerable society because unfortunately ours is a poor society. We are defined as least developed by international institutions, and should therefore assume that important facets of our lives like our healthcare will have gaps. In my view, we should continue to do our bit to keep ourselves safe, that includes regular washing of hands and sanitising, wearing a mask whenever we go out, social distancing and finally getting the vaccine when it’s rolled out.
Let’s absolutely take the words of scientists who haven’t learned what they know from the internet and YouTube, but have done their “ten thousand hours”. I am for vaccine. I hope you are too.
