Features
Danger posed by unreasonable fear of COVID-19
The recent death of a student at KNUST SHS, Kumasi, has painfully brought home the need to urgently deal with unnecessary fear of COVID-19. The fear of this pandemic, if not properly and immediately addressed, would result in a lot of preventable deaths.
I cannot begin to imagine the pain the parents of this deceased young man are going through. As a parent with two children at the same level, my preoccupation with this story is understandable because it could happen to anybody.
Imagine your child is not sick and you are suddenly informed that he had passed away; if you are not mentally strong, you can go mad or get a heart attack. All because people who should have known better and demonstrated compassion as the ethics of their profession demands, were rather paralysed by fear and to some extent “wicked” indifference, leading to the death of an innocent student.
The relevance of my article published two weeks ago about recruitment is clearly borne out by this sad incident. Until we pay attention to proper recruitment systems so that we recruit the right people into our public and civil service, even in the private sector, these are the horrible things we are likely to experience as a nation.
The life of a young man just cut short simply due to the suspicion that he was suffering from COVID-19 and the fear that if the people around him tried to help him they may contract the disease.
The video that was shown on TV revealing the attitude of some teachers standing nearby as some students tried to assist their friend who was suffering, demonstrates a certain lack of compassion which is very strange in people who are in the teaching profession.
The average teacher would quickly call for an ambulance or a taxi and dispatch the victim to the nearest hospital with speed.
Whether through ignorance or sensationalism, COVID-19 has been made to be viewed as a dangerous disease that can easily kill and, therefore, people are so afraid of it. The little I have read about this disease shows that it is not as dangerous as we perceive it to be and that when one observes the prescribed protocol, he or she would not be infected.
Currently, there is no vaccine but a lot of people who contracted it, have recovered from it. In fact, the health authorities have come out to say that the body’s immune system is able to fight the virus when detected early enough. It, therefore, is not something that is so life threatening that it should scare people beyond measure.
A few weeks ago, tears came into my eyes as I listened to a story on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen programme about the death of a pregnant woman. The story, according to the husband of the deceased, the pregnant woman went into labour and was taken by her sister to a hospital at Nsawam since their town was along the Amasaman-Nsawam road, and I guess it was closer to Nsawam.
According to the husband, when his wife and her sister got to the hospital, she was coughing and a nurse on duty at the hospital asked that the pregnant woman be taken to a different hospital.
The explanation was that since she was coughing, the nurse suspected that she was suffering from COVID-19 and was not prepared to risk her life in attending to her. Try as she did, the sister could not persuade the nurse to attend to her pregnant sister, and even though the pregnant woman was in pain, this nurse could not be bothered.
The pregnant woman was then taken to another place after wasting about two hours at the hospital. The husband was then informed to come over, due to the situation to help transfer the wife to another hospital.
The long and short of it was that the lady lost her life in the long run together with her baby. I do not need to be a health specialist to conclude that this nurse in question has no passion for saving human life, and most likely is in the profession for economic reasons, not as a calling.
If care is not taken, there would be a lot more of such avoidable deaths before a vaccine is found and this disease is finally brought under control.
At the beginning of the institution of quarantine of suspected cases, there were rumours making the rounds of a case at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in which a Chinese who was suspected to be a COVID-19 positive, caused a pandemonium because no one was attending to him for fear of contracting the disease.
Apparently, after a while he was hungry and was not going to allow hunger to kill him, so he decided to go find something to eat and everybody was running away from him including security men.
I shudder to think of what would happen when people are confronted with an accident scene in this COVID-19 era and what their response would be. Already, fear of contracting HIV through assisting accident victims is an issue and now the invasion by COVID-19 has compounded the situation.
There are going to be a lot of situations like the ones already discussed, where lives are going to be lost due to fear of contracting the virus unless urgent steps are taken.
Education about the disease must be intensified so that people understand the nature of the virus, mode of transmission and the protective protocols that can be implemented to escape infection.
This would also enable potential helpers to become less afraid of the disease and be able to offer assistance to people who find themselves in emergency situations that are not related to the disease.
If the ordinary folks do not appreciate the general symptoms, anything can be considered to be a manifestation of COVID-19, and would be reluctant to offer help to victims of emergencies.
One of the important tools that can be used in demystifying the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant fear and stigmatisation, is the use of volunteers who come out publicly to declare their COVID-free status after being cured of the disease.
Just as the volunteers who were used to fight stigmatisation in the HIV-AIDS disease, a similar method can be used to fight stigmatisation of the COVID-19 in Ghana.
It is only when people see COVID-19 as just another unfortunate disease that has afflicted mankind and it is not the fault of anybody who contracts it, that people’s attitude towards infected persons would change from scorn to sympathy and empathy.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, must be commended in this regard as he first announced that his Minister of Health had been infected with the virus, thereby demonstrating leadership at the highest level.
One man who cannot escape mention is one Dzrah, who volunteered way back to become an anti-stigmatisation ambassador and the mental torture he went through with his family.
Recently, other people have openly come to declare their status as COVID victims and have shared with us their health status after their healing.
This has started removing doubts from the minds of COVID-skeptic people and has also assured people that the virus can be dealt with if identified in time and treated.This would help shape mindsets and help in the fight against unnecessary fear of COVID-19 to avoid avoidable deaths.
The Average Citizen
A haircut I had about a week ago didn’t go down well with many. Someone quite close to my heart saw it, examined it critically and felt dizzy.
“What’s this?” she proceeded to ask me.
“An international hairdo,” I replied.
She was disgusted, in fact disappointed. The problem with the haircut is that the style is neither Punk, Tokyo Joe nor Show Your Back. If anything, it is a combination of all—and I liked it, for a change.
It was when I bounded downtown that someone called me and enquired whether I was no longer a journalist. He said I looked like a well-fed Warrant Officer.
“Class One or Class Two?” I asked.
Another studied my head as if he was studying physical geography and pronounced that I looked like a boxer who can throw dangerous punches. Still, someone was of the opinion that the haircut didn’t quite fit me, but admitted that I looked like a prosperous merchant.
Commendation
I remember some three months ago, I had a haircut that made two girls fall in love with me. In spite of the fact that the barber was not a graduate, the cut was such that they couldn’t help admiring it. One of them actually ‘checked out’ the style and commended the barber.
The other was more bent on the ‘love matter’ but I was too busy to give her any attention. LOVE!
I was reminded of this when I viewed a premier showing of the latest Sikaman film titled THE POWER OF LOVE. The film kept me thinking. Some of us have long forgotten about what it is like to be head-over-heels in love. When we were students, we had such experiences because there was nothing doing anyway.
We were either learning how stylishly to smoke ‘jot’ or how romantically to fall in love. Anyhow, I was intrigued by this latest movie because of the way love unlimited was portrayed on screen. It took my memory back many years to relive those youthful days when we felt we’d really die if jilted by our lovers.
The storyline of THE POWER OF LOVE is really an exciting one. The combination of love, treachery and intrigue made me feast my eyes intently on the screen, unbelieving the extent the force of love can reach.
Ama and Afua are good friends. But when it comes to matters of the heart, they have different tastes; Ama is content with only her boyfriend (a student) and Afua samples the bigwigs around town. Afua, not satisfied with the shots in town, wants Ama’s boyfriend Joe in addition. She lies to Joe that Ama has often been picked by a man on four-wheels, whereupon Joe dismisses Ama and takes on Afua.
Ama doesn’t realise that it is her best friend Afua who is destroying her relationship with Joe until she catches her having sex with him. She collapses and goes out of her mind from the broken heart. But before then, she had been made pregnant by Joe.
Having escaped from a psychiatric hospital, she roams town murmuring Joe’s name. Heavily pregnant now, she espies Joe boarding a mini bus and runs towards him. Joe, seeing her approaching, quickly disembarks and takes off.
Ama pursues him furiously, and he runs to his home where he finds his bosom friend Frank making love to Afua. He immediately realises the treachery of Afua who instigated him to leave Ama.
He intends leaving the home in disgust and meets mad Ama at the door and embraces her despite her madness. Instantly, she regains her sanity.
Love indeed heals the wounds of the mind and it is the greatest positive force in the world. Incidentally, the greatest negative force is hatred.
Greatest force
Now coming to talk about love, I reiterate it is the greatest force imaginable. That is why a man will butcher his rival to death if he catches him climbing his wife without asking permission; and a woman will go mad if jilted.
It is also for this reason that a young boy who is scared stiff of cemeteries and under normal circumstances would not dare go near one, will this time walk boldly through a cemetery at midnight if that is the only way to his lover’s abode.
The Bible describes love for our neighbours as the surest way to heaven: Love thy neighbour as thyself.
Unfortunately, what Ghanaians are more interested and skilful in is loving the opposite sex. Romance under the cover of darkness is what we understand love to be all about. When it comes to loving our fellow human beings, we are found wanting.
People hate others just because they are of another tribe and do not speak the same native language. Too much grudge-bearing that does not augur well for national development.
War in Liberia, carnage in Rwanda are the results of the absence of love for one’s fellow being. If everybody could express a little bit of love for his fellow being irrespective of tribe, race, politics or religion, Sikaman—and indeed, the world—will be a more habitable place.
This article was first published on Saturday, October 29, 1994
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“Sir,” Ms. Odame said when David Asante answered the call, “my name is Victoria Odame. I’m a teacher at Research School in Koforidua. I would like to come and see you concerning a student called Sarah.”
“Okay, madam. I would be very glad to meet you. How can I make your trip easier?”
“I was going to join a bus to Accra.”
“Here’s what we will do. Take a taxi and ask them to bring you to Accra. I will speak to the driver, give him the directions, and pay him when you get here.”
The taxi stopped in front of the house. The gate opened, and the driver moved to the long driveway and stopped.
“What a beautiful house,” he said.
David and Adoma came out to meet them. Adoma paid the driver as David and Sarah stared at each other.
“Please come in and sit down,” Adoma invited. She served them water.
“You are welcome,” Adoma continued. “We have been waiting anxiously since you called this morning. So please, let’s hear you.”
Before she could open her mouth, Sarah rose, moved to David, hugged him, and sat on his lap. They both broke into tears. Adoma and Ms. Odame also broke into tears.
“Sorry, madam,” David said. “This whole episode has been a very difficult one. But let’s do the proper thing. Let’s hear you first, and I will also speak. I’m sure we need to answer some questions immediately.”
“Okay, sir. I have been taking an interest in Sarah because, although she’s brilliant academically, she seemed to be troubled. Following my discussions with her and some whispers I had been hearing, I went to Aboso Senior High School and spoke to your former colleague, Mr. Hanson. He told me that you were an exemplary teacher who was loved by all, and he also told me about the unfortunate events that caused you to leave for Germany. So I returned to Koforidua with the view to finding the appropriate means of helping to solve this problem.”
“Great. Ms. Odame, I have to thank you for finally helping us to solve this problem. Now, let me state the facts. This is what happened.
“Gladys and I met and got married whilst we were both teachers in the school. Some months into our marriage, she told me that she needed to spend some days with her parents, and I agreed.
“It turned out that she was actually spending time in a hotel with her ex-boyfriend, Simon. This happened again after Sarah was born. I got wind of this and told her that I was no longer interested in the marriage.
“I started preparing to travel to Germany. She pleaded for forgiveness, but I stood my ground. Then she told me that she would punish me for rejecting her.
“She came out later to say that Sarah was not my child, but Simon’s. She went and hid her somewhere, obviously expecting that I would fight to take my child. I was actually going to do that, but my parents advised me that it was almost impossible to win such a fight.
“They advised that, difficult as it sounded, I should leave the child with her because she would come back to me eventually. I have absolutely no problem taking care of you, Sarah. I am taking care of quite a number of kids who are not mine. So that is what happened. My hands were tied. I have been trying to find out how you are doing.
“I kept hearing that you were doing well at school. I also heard that Gladys and her husband were having problems, but I kept hoping that my daughter would at least be okay till it was possible for me to go for her.”
“Sarah, now you have met your dad. You will be free to—”
“I’m not going anywhere!” she declared as she held on to him.
“You don’t have to worry about that, Sarah,” Adoma said. “We have been looking forward to the day you come home. This is your home. Now, you have to meet your siblings.” She called Abrefi and Adaawa.
“Girls, we told you that you have a sister who would join us anytime. Now here she is.”
“Sarah?” Abrefi asked.
“Yes,” Adoma replied. The girls hugged her and took her away.
“Now,” David said, “I think it is time to call Madam Gladys.” He dialed the number.
“My name is David Asante. I’m here in my house with my daughter Sarah. I hear you have told her all sorts of crazy stories about me. I could make life very difficult for you, but I won’t.
“You are your own worst enemy. I don’t think you should be expecting her anytime soon. What do you say?”
Gladys stayed silent for over a minute, then cut the line.
“Food is ready,” Adoma announced. “Everybody, please come to the table.”
Sarah chatted excitedly with her siblings as Adoma and David spoke with Ms. Odame. She kept staring at her father.
“Now, Ms. Odame, after you have brought such joy into our home, should we allow you to go back to Koforidua today, or should we wait till we are ready to release you? I could call your husband and ask permission.
“And please don’t tell me you didn’t bring anything for an overnight stay. There are several supermarkets around here. We can fix that problem quickly.”
“I will beg you to release me. Now that I have been so warmly welcomed here, I already feel part of this home. Koforidua is not that far away, so I will visit often.”
“Well, let’s see what the kids have to say. Ladies, shall I release Ms. Odame to go back to Koforidua?”
“No!” they shouted, and all broke into laughter.
“Ms. Odame, I will have mercy on you. But we are going to do something to make it easy for you to visit us. My wife wants to show you something. Please follow her.”
Adoma led her to the driveway as the others followed. They stopped in front of the car.
“This is a Toyota Corolla 1600. It is very reliable and good on petrol consumption. We are giving this to you in appreciation of your help in getting our daughter back to us.
“And here in this envelope is a little contribution to help you with maintenance. And here in this other envelope is a gift to help with your children’s school fees.”
As she stood, stunned, and stared from the car to the envelopes, David put his hand around his family.
“Let’s leave her to take a look at her car. Ms. Odame, one of my drivers will drive you to Koforidua and leave your car with you. We are waiting inside.”
By Ekow de Heer
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