THE personal Covid-19 strategy is a moving target. But here is where I am at the moment.
While waiting for the vaccine, there are other things folks can do:
♦ Avoid getting the virus (we know the drill – masking, sanitising, social distancing etc)
♦ Steaming
♦ More importantly ensure that if or when you get the virus you can quickly survive it. This we can do by building a strong immune system as follows:
a) Physical exercise – this boosts your immune system and helps you to have strong lungs – the major target of the virus. Literally to date, no sportsperson (NBA, NFL, rugby or football) has died of this disease. They have contracted it but have been able to shrug it off.
b) Taking vitamins that boost the immune system in particular: Zinc 50mg, D 2000IU, C 2000mg. Also just taking supplementary multi-vitamins in general.
c) A healthy balanced diet, and lots of water.
d) Effectively managing co-morbidities, underlying conditions such as BP, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and obesity.
e) Natural remedies- zumbani/umsuzwane, moringa; concoction of ginger, garlic, lemon and honey. Embrace the natural remedies.
f) Ivermectin – the wonder drug. We must take this medicine as a preventive measure and for treatment. Dosage 1 by 12mg tablet once a week for six weeks and then one tablet a month thereafter, for prophylaxis, and then more frequently for treatment.
Ivermectin works both as a preventative drug and also deals with the Covid-19 viral load if one is infected. Ignore the noise from naysayers.
Of course, Big Pharma together with Western governments and the controlled World Health Organisation will not support or promote the basic solutions outlined above. They want to create complicated patented remedies out of which they can make super profits.
Am I now pushing a conspiracy against the pharmaceutical industry? Big Pharma is not a conspiracy theory. It is conspiracy practice. Even before Covid-19, the driver of Big Pharma is not wellness but long-term disease management. The focus is on disease treatment and not wellness attainment. The longer you continue to take the medication, the better for Big Pharma. They want you to be sick and then buy medicines. Achieving wellness in the population is not their ambition.
If there are drugs, techniques or lifestyle that make you well so that you don’t have to take medicines, Big Pharma is not interested in that. They will certainly not promote those methods. Big Pharma is a commercial enterprise and not a wellness-driven enterprise.
As an illustration, let us assume that the answer to Covid-19 was just steaming and nothing else. If all scientific research the world over was to prove that this is the answer – just steaming – do you think Big Pharma would promote the steaming method as medical remedy to Covid-19? How much money will they make out of the steaming solution? Zilch! I rest my case.
Conspiracy Theories Around Covid-19 Vaccines
The problem is that part of the history and experience of vaccines has been pretty negative for people of African descent, for example the Tuskegee experiment. Blacks have also been victims of other medical experiments and in some cases, medical genocide. This is the context in which the conspiracy theories about vaccines arise.
However, with this pandemic, blacks/Africans can independently (hopefully) check the vaccines for safety and efficacy. They must do this. The racially inclined risks can be mitigated.
The conspiracy theories around vaccines are exaggerated and can be debunked. Africans can also check and ensure that there is uniform application of the vaccines across races and populations.
There should be no vaccines targeting certain groups, and not used in other groups. Hence the fears of vaccine abuse can be somewhat mitigated. We have to be vigilant, of course.
Then there is the issue of vaccine nationalism; where rich nations are now competing instead of cooperating among themselves; and they are also not working with the poor nations. These rich nations are in fact now hoarding the vaccines, to the extent that some are planning to have four times what their populations need, and yet the poor nations have no access or limited access to vaccines. Anyway, that is another subject – vaccine nationalism.
The tragedy of it all in the matter of vaccines is that there is no African country or Black-owned company producing a Covid-19 vaccine. The African is an observer – a subject and not a participant in vaccine development. This is a terrible indictment of all us people of African descent. Shame on us.
That there is a black doctor working on the vaccine at Pfizer is irrelevant and inconsequential. An African country or Black-owned company producing a vaccine – that’s what we need. It would allay these conspiracy theories. It will also give us agency and control as Africans.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am not opposed to vaccines. I have already explained the basis and background of the conspiracies against vaccines. The justified concerns can be addressed and rendered irrelevant and innocuous by African agency. I support vaccines that we as Africans have checked out to be safe and efficacious. Ideally, we should develop our own vaccines using our African universities, pharmaceutical companies and experts, with the guidance, involvement and funding of our African governments.
How can 55 African governments, 1.3 billion Africans, a collective GDP of US$2.5 trillion, all these African businesses, universities, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and scientists fail to produce a single Covid-19 vaccine? This is beyond pathetic.
We need to get our act together. With this inexcusable ineptitude, why should other nations take us seriously? Really?
Arthur G.O. Mutambara is Zimbabwe’s former deputy prime minister
