Alcohol is on sale again, but it doesn't mean the lesson has been learnt

Crowded, tight space and alcohol use can lead to super spreader events, events that are becoming more and more deadly during South Africa’s second wave

I’m starting to dread looking at the WhatsApp groups that I’m part of…

It seems that every time I open one, there is another announcement of someone who has died. 

I’m sure I’m not alone in the experience that more and more people I know (or are related to people I know) are passing on. Whereas the first wave of COVID was about numbers, for me, the second wave is about names.

Last week on my matric class WhatsApp group, the administrator posted the death notice of the husband of one of the women who was with us at school. Her husband was a medical doctor and had contracted COVID – presumably from those whose lives he was trying to save - and he subsequently passed away. He was only 58 years old and left behind four young children.

As I was trying to find the right words to say to his wife, my daughter came into the room. “Look at this,” she said very irately while pushing her phone into my hand. I looked at the numerous videos on Facebook of people having huge parties on – amongst other places - Kloof Street in Cape Town. Drunken, without masks, they were dancing away in close proximity. 

I felt a fury rise in me.

I could not stop thinking about my old school friend and her four children who have lost the person they loved so much. Of course, he is only one of the more than 400 health care workers who have passed away after contracting COVID since March last year. In December in the Western Cape alone, 20 health care workers have died over a period of 20 days. 

These were all amazing people who gave their lives to save others, and I wonder what their families feel when they see these videos on social media?

How does one explain this level of recklessness, this level of selfishness?

During lockdown, people constantly complained that government doesn’t treat them like adults. They criticized the President and ministers for not caring about the economy and unemployment, and others accused them of being drunk on power. Yet, the moment government lifts restrictions even slightly people start to behave like irresponsible children.  

Let’s braai, drink, dance, party – it is “mos” legal now.

A recent report on News24 quoted some of the emergency response teams in KZN, who said that on the same day that the alcohol restrictions were lifted they were flooded with callouts to car accidents linked to drunken driving (many after curfew), alcohol-induced domestic violence incidents, knife fights, etc.  In Nelson Mandela Bay, hundreds of people (mostly children) were treated in Emergency Departments for serious cut wounds after stepping on broken bottles on the beach. It was estimated that over 200 000 people descended on the beach, many of them drinking.

According to reports, the drink industry has decided to continue with the court case against government’s alcohol ban during lockdown in order to prevent similar bans in the future. One of their main reasons is the loss of jobs – according to them, 165 000 jobs were lost because of the ban on alcohol sales.

It is of course the right of any person or industry to test matters in court, but I have a few questions that are troubling me.

“I recently heard a doctor say, ‘If we knew that there were gunmen out who have already killed 25 000 people, no one would be out partying – in fact, they would barely leave their houses’ “

Firstly: How is it that so many small businesses have (through huge sacrifice from the owners) been able to keep people on through this year of economic hell, but huge companies like SAB shed tens of thousands of jobs? I can’t help wondering how many of those jobs were at the senior management level and how many senior managers (if any) have taken serious salary cuts?

Secondly: What is the drink industry doing to now negate some of the negative fall-out from the re-instated alcohol sales?

I was recently in the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town. They have neatly dressed people with big sashes reading “COVID Marshal” who walk amongst the shoppers. If they spot anyone not wearing a mask properly or breaking other social distancing rules, they approach them and ask them to comply. I was walking behind one of them for a while and it was really heart-warming to see the effect that a firm pointing to a mask worn under the nose or around the chin had. People immediately responded and self-corrected.  

 Now, why doesn’t the booze industry create some jobs by paying for similar types of “marshals” in night clubs and bars?

Or… build some COVID wards or buy extra ambulances?

My guess is that they won’t want to, since they don’t want to be seen accepting any form of responsibility for the increase in violence, car accidents, or COVID infections.

Yet, we are not stupid.

Anyone who works with the victims of domestic violence would be able to tell you what happened during and after the alcohol bans – as would the EMTs, the doctors who work in casualty wards (remember how empty Baragwanath was even over New Year?), and the police.  In fact, we all know – even the drink industry does– if they are being honest.

I was talking to someone over the weekend on the same subject and she said: “Every liquor industry bigshot should be forced to either work in a hospital casualty section for a few weekends or be made to spend a week in a wheel-chair. That may make them think twice about their business plans.”

Thirdly, earlier this year there was an outcry after it became known that the drink industry was paying social media influencers to tweet their opposition to the alcohol ban. Now that the sale of alcohol is legal again, I wonder how much money is being paid to influencers to ask people to drink responsibly and follow COVID safety protocols? My guess is zero…

The drink industry needs to come to the table with more than just complaints and lawsuits. Additionally, individuals in this country need to grow up and take responsibility for their own behavior.

I recently heard a doctor say: “If we knew that there were gunmen out who have already killed 25 000 people, no one would be out partying – in fact, they would barely leave their houses.”

This very deadly second wave erupted from super spreader drunken raves. This week we received the devastating news that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doesn’t seem to have enough efficacy against the new strain of the virus that is dominant in South Africa - thus the immunisation drive with this vaccine has been paused until more is known. The manufacturer has said that they hope to have an “updated” version of the vaccine in the Springtime – only about 6 months from now.

So, the bottom line remains that unless people change their behavior, we will have wave after wave, with more people getting sick, more job losses, more people dying, more education time lost, and yes, more alcohol bans.  

Saddest of all we will keep on losing the people whose skill and care we need after a car accident, domestic violence, and post-party COVID infections.