WHY I AM GRATEFUL FOR COVID-19

Hey!

Note that I wrote this blog in November 2020, so my views might be different now. LOL

But what is a public health blog without a piece on Covid-19, right?

We cannot lie, Covid-19 hit us hard, I am saying it in past tense because I would like to believe that it is all going to an end.

Honestly when Covid-19 was first discovered I never thought it would reach Malawi, we quite have a history of somehow dodging pandemics (LOL). Maybe just one pandemic. Remember Ebola? Yeah!

To my surprise after months of having no cases, we had a case.

I was still in denial until I witnessed some people die, some people that I knew.

Eventually it was serious. Everyone started wearing masks, I stopped going to WORK and the world stopped.

Thank God! that somehow before 2020 ended we managed to contain the spread of Covid-19 even with our poor health infrastructures (Story for another day).

For me, COVID-19 was/is a disaster, I would not want it to come back or continue, obviously. It is a horrible pandemic. GET THAT RIGHT!

But I am so grateful that in the middle of it all, Covid-19 has helped people to be more hygienic and very careful.

I have always had a problem with the hygiene/health practices that people practice, especially in my country, Malawi.

Every year people die because of Cholera. Even though there are a lot of factors as to why a lot of people die of Cholera. One of them is that people don’t wash hands and food.

Before Covid-19 most people, especially from the rural areas never really cared about washing their hands despite various NGO’s efforts in advocating for healthy habits including washing of hands.

People used to wash hands only when they want to eat “Nsima” . No other food, just Nsima.
Worse still, a group of people would wash hands using the same water in one basin.

But with Covid-19, people are not taking chances, people are washing hands, wearing masks, and washing the mangoes, the apples and everything they eat.

I really really want this culture sustained. I hope it will be sustained.

For this very reason I am very grateful that through the storm (Covid-19), we have grabbed some good habits and we are sticking to them.

BTW, where can I volunteer to enforce washing hands and zero littering in Malawi?

Thank you for reading till the end.