Of words and coronavirus

K1 – KOO, Covid has got us by the roots of our hairs, hasn't it?

K2 – Why do you say that?

K1 – That's exactly what I mean. As soon as I said “COVID”, you should have immediately cottoned on to the fact that I was referring to the PIONEER fish processing factory at Tema, where one person was able to infect 533 people with the Covid-19 virus! But you didn't even know the name of the factory! That's how things are in our country -- so many things are inexplicably shrouded in darkness and secrecy! Shouldn't this matter have been front-page news from day one, with official condemnations and warnings?

Koo, maybe you're being over-reactive? The infection took place. They discovered it. And the infected people are presumably in the hospital. So what about it?

What about it? Look at the proportionality of it, my dear fellow. One factory, 533 infections. So what about a potential 100 factories (let me cross my fingers, God help is, Amen!)

Oh well, these things happen!

But shouldn't the factory have been closed down officially?

I believe it was closed for one day?

One day! By the factory's owners, I believe. I am not interested in what THEY did. What did our Government DO?

Er-- er-- It was the President himself who gave the figures?

Exactly! NOT the Ministry of Health! Shouldn't that Ministry have used its powers to fine the company millions of dollars for ignoring government directives and allowing so many people to defy social distance rules and so on? The 533 infections couldn't have arisen from thin air?

How do you observe social distance rules in a fish processing factory? Some people bring fish. Others cut and clean it. Others cook it. Others can it..... 120,000 tonnes of it or so!! Now reduced to "a mere" 20,000 tonnes. It's no joke. Even if they strived to observe “social distance” rules, the sheer volume -- and, of course, habit -- would drive the workers towards each other! Look, I confess to this: the other day, a guy came to borrow a book from me. Before I knew it, I had shaken his hand!

Oh, so the habit is defeating the social distance rule?

Hahaha! Obviously, you didn't see the Minister of Health on the TV the other day. He said we should “learn to live” with Covid-19!

Die with it, more likely! If the Minister of Health has given up...

I don't think he's given up. He was just being realistic. He's saying we should cultivate the habit of doing things that will keep COVID away. Like, wash our hands frequently. Like, stop shaking hands with our friends, relatives, and colleagues. Like not going out without wearing masks. But when the Chinese and THE South Koreans and the Singaporeans told their people to observe the rules on those practices, THEY ENFORCED THEIR VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS WITH POLICE ACTION! WE ARE not DOING THAT? That's what worries me. What do the Minister of Health and his officials do by way of action? I mean, they wouldn't even tell us the name of the factory at Tema where these monstrous breaches took place to infect so many people. I mean think of it -- 533!! They should have made a great deal of noise and used the occurrence to educate other factories on what NOT to do, shouldn't they?

How exactly do you mean?

Exactly! I don't know how the infections occurred! Was there a gateman who had been infected? If there was such a gateman, did he infect people as he inspected their identity cards when they were coming in to work? Or did the infections occur when he was physically examining workers' bodies as they were trooping out after work, in case they had hidden some o0f the products of the factory on their bodies to go and sell it? You know how serious factories are about any practices that make a dent in their profits... What DID happen? We ought to be told!.

Hmmm!

I think whatever the practices were that caused the infection, they should have been publicised widely so that other factories would refrain from carrying out similar practices and ending up with similar results. After all, factories tend to be run along the same lines everywhere?

Too late! I believe something similar may have occurred at Obuasi already?

I wouldn't be at all surprised! I mean – the mines have been carrying out their primitive security checks for donkey's years....physical examination close at hand!

Yiee, Koo, we are in trouble. If our health authorities are neglecting to punish such factories and refraining to make an example of them, then where do we go next? Look at Britain, which has a better National Health Service than us. Deaths there are creeping towards the forty thousand mark! The US is looking inside the barrel of the gun and counting maybe 100,000 dead bodies.....

And they have better health facilities – and a better ability to procure personal protection equipment – than us!

Koo, do you think that on a deeper analysis, the Minister of Health's statement that we should “learn to live with COVID” is an admission that fatalism is creeping into our fight with COVID-19?

Koo, I don't know. But someone in the know claims that the people in charge are JUST TOO TIRED! THEY ARE DOING THEIR VERY BEST BUT THE SITUATION THROWS UP CHALLENGE AFTER CHALLENGE! I mean, how did the factories at Tema and Obuasi run into trouble? After all that had been said and done? You would have thought that the message had got through. Regular briefings and all that?

Hmmm! Koo, do you realise what you may just have stumbled upon? We ARE fighting COVID, but with mere WORDS! We expect the words of the authorities to be heard and carried out. But societies don't work like that?

That's why if you protect recalcitrant factories by refusing to punish them and instead, hide their names from public ignominy, you are telling a different story from the one you are preaching from the rooftops.

I suppose if you ask the populace to “tune in to their TV sets" for the next preaching session and you convey the message, "So as we say, not as we do!"...."We are carrying out “enhanced contact tracing”, are we not? We are publishing figures of infections and watching carefully to find out when the figures will flatten out, are we not? Don't worry!”

“Learn to live with Covid-19, ah!”

”Quite easily done!” Isn't it?