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FIRST WORD
On Hesitancy
This has not been a good season for many Kenyan families , the specter of death has lurked in the corners of every household as Covid has crept and snatched many loved ones who have left this earth gasping for air that their afflicted lungs could not breathe .
Gone are the mocking wisecracks that we used to hear about whether anyone knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone with Covid . The virus is now spoken of in Kenya with hushed tones in many homes but strangely the pandemic seems to be more of an urban threat .
To some families the multiple visitation of the hand of the grim reaper has left emotional and financial devastation as the disease is not covered by insurance and it is an expensive disease to treat which strains a hospital ’ s capacity to deal with many cases simultaneously .
To make the matter even more complicated is the fact that new waves of the disease have come with mutated versions of the original virus and doctors are on a constant learning curve on how to deal with the disease apart from the peril this highly contagious disease poses to their own lives .
Given that the Covid protocols have changed the way we work , live and interact and the only known antidote to the disease are the newly developed vaccines , one would expect that people would be queuing to get the jab , but that is not the case .
Sitting at a funeral service of a friend who had adamantly refused to be vaccinated , it seemed strange that Covid has been with us for eighteen months yet the priest was still exhorting the congregants to go and get vaccinated . Why the hesitancy ?
The reason the priest was making the special plea to those assembled was because the deceased had lost a parent and a sibling in the past two months and the spouse had been hospitalized with the virus but had fortunately recovered . They were all unvaccinated .
It was difficult to fathom how a family that is highly educated , religious and well to do would find itself in such a quandary . What stopped this family and many in the same position from taking the sensible choice of the only option that offered some hope ?
On reflection it appears that the way we are socialized and brought up makes it very difficult for us to make personal decisions . We seem nearly incapable of making rational decisions based on critical thinking mainly because of social co-dependency .
Most Kenyans would have received various vaccines before attaining adulthood but most would have had these vaccines as children where the mothers were mandated to do so by the government or on the advice and recommendation of educational , religious or medical personnel .
It would therefore seem appropriate and sensible if the same sources of past medical action would currently be at the