First couple to be vaccinated this month
Dr Willie Bruwer said the only way to prevent a potentially deadlier fourth wave is to get vaccinated.
JANA-MARI SMITH
WINDHOEK
President Hage Geingob and First Lady Monica Geingos plan to get vaccinated before the end of this month.
Geingos revealed this during a frank discussion with Dr Willie Bruwer, a pulmonologist at Lady Pohamba Private Hospital and the physician who treated the couple during their bout with Covid-19 recently.
She said their current plan is to get the jab on Tuesday, 29 June, based on the four-week waiting period after clearing the Covid-19 infection.
The discussion forms part of the First Lady’s work to address the third wave that has engulfed Namibia, and to tackle crucial information and misinformation on the virus.
“We are losing too many lives to Covid-19. This is a crisis,” she said last week. Geingos said for the next three weeks her social media accounts will be dedicated to “fighting misinformation and amplifying public health messaging from the ministry of health”.
She has engaged the hashtags #DoYourPart, #BeSafe, #BeKind and #BeInformed as part of the public awareness drive.
Not an anti-vaxxer
Geingos and Bruwer underlined that the first couple’s decision to delay their vaccinations were not related to anti-vax sentiments.
She emphasised that she is “not an anti-vaxxer” and that she and her family had discussed getting vaccinated, but these plans were put on hold when she and Geingob tested positive.
“Neither of us have an anti-vaxx philosophy. We wanted to get vaccinated.”
She admitted that “in hindsight, I should have vaccinated earlier”.
Bruwer stressed that the available vaccines in Namibia “are very effective”. “We should use them to try and get as many people as possible vaccinated. Because ultimately the vaccine is the thing that will get us out of trouble.”
Get vaccinated
Bruwer underscored that apart from the third wave, which has taken a heavy toll on healthcare services and the lives of Namibians, the only way to prevent a potentially deadlier fourth wave is to get vaccinated.
He explained further that while a fully vaccinated person can contract the virus, they “don’t end up in hospital”.
“That is what we want to do with the vaccine. We want to prevent hospitalisations; we want to prevent death.”
He pointed out that in other parts of the world, where vaccination rates have shot up to 60% to 70% or higher of the population, death rates have dropped significantly and life is returning to normal.
Emotional scars
Geingos also addressed the emotional impact of the pandemic.
“There were nights I would wake up and it felt like I was woken up by adrenaline. It was probably just anxiety,” she said.
Bruwer confirmed that depression and anxiety might be “one of the lasting effects in our healthcare system”.
He explained that many patients are “suddenly confronted with a disease where you have to confront your own mortality, because that is all you see.”
“I think the emotional scars we will have from this will be a tremendous problem going forward in the years to come,” Bruwer said.
WINDHOEK
President Hage Geingob and First Lady Monica Geingos plan to get vaccinated before the end of this month.
Geingos revealed this during a frank discussion with Dr Willie Bruwer, a pulmonologist at Lady Pohamba Private Hospital and the physician who treated the couple during their bout with Covid-19 recently.
She said their current plan is to get the jab on Tuesday, 29 June, based on the four-week waiting period after clearing the Covid-19 infection.
The discussion forms part of the First Lady’s work to address the third wave that has engulfed Namibia, and to tackle crucial information and misinformation on the virus.
“We are losing too many lives to Covid-19. This is a crisis,” she said last week. Geingos said for the next three weeks her social media accounts will be dedicated to “fighting misinformation and amplifying public health messaging from the ministry of health”.
She has engaged the hashtags #DoYourPart, #BeSafe, #BeKind and #BeInformed as part of the public awareness drive.
Not an anti-vaxxer
Geingos and Bruwer underlined that the first couple’s decision to delay their vaccinations were not related to anti-vax sentiments.
She emphasised that she is “not an anti-vaxxer” and that she and her family had discussed getting vaccinated, but these plans were put on hold when she and Geingob tested positive.
“Neither of us have an anti-vaxx philosophy. We wanted to get vaccinated.”
She admitted that “in hindsight, I should have vaccinated earlier”.
Bruwer stressed that the available vaccines in Namibia “are very effective”. “We should use them to try and get as many people as possible vaccinated. Because ultimately the vaccine is the thing that will get us out of trouble.”
Get vaccinated
Bruwer underscored that apart from the third wave, which has taken a heavy toll on healthcare services and the lives of Namibians, the only way to prevent a potentially deadlier fourth wave is to get vaccinated.
He explained further that while a fully vaccinated person can contract the virus, they “don’t end up in hospital”.
“That is what we want to do with the vaccine. We want to prevent hospitalisations; we want to prevent death.”
He pointed out that in other parts of the world, where vaccination rates have shot up to 60% to 70% or higher of the population, death rates have dropped significantly and life is returning to normal.
Emotional scars
Geingos also addressed the emotional impact of the pandemic.
“There were nights I would wake up and it felt like I was woken up by adrenaline. It was probably just anxiety,” she said.
Bruwer confirmed that depression and anxiety might be “one of the lasting effects in our healthcare system”.
He explained that many patients are “suddenly confronted with a disease where you have to confront your own mortality, because that is all you see.”
“I think the emotional scars we will have from this will be a tremendous problem going forward in the years to come,” Bruwer said.
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