Dear Editor,

Death resulting from COVID-19 has prompted some peculiarities about our approach to the transitioning from life to death. Consider the following.

With the recent COVID-19-related passing of retired US four-star General Colin Powell, it was oddly reported by a major British media corporation that Powell “was fully vaccinated”. This is in stark contrast to our local reporting of COVID-19-related deaths in which we indicate that the deceased has not been vaccinated, but never seem to mention vaccination status if they are indeed vaccinated.

Possibly there were some geopolitics involved in that British media house disclosing General Powell’s vaccination status, with the seemingly disproportionate resistance which the British/Swedish jab had been getting from US health authorities.

This, though, does not detract from the imbalance which obtains in news reports as it pertains to COVID-19-related deaths. What we would love to see is this ‘causal’ feature of reports of deaths being applied to road crash fatalities and the wearing, or failure thereof, of seat belts and crash helmets, albeit still in a balanced manner. Which takes us to the next illustration.

Photos of the deceased, but still notorious, Pastor Kevin O Smith, while he was being stretchered to get medical treatment for his crash-inflicted injuries, showed him with his face mask on. In spite of what some experts tell us about face masks not significantly impeding efficient breathing, when the human body is trying to recover from or minimise its oxygen deficit, it is only sensible that we try our best to allow it to do so. As such, mask-wearing policies in clinical and other oxygen-demanding settings have to be promptly reviewed, lest we continue to be unconsciously complicit in the demise of critically ill or sensitive patients.

On a more personal note, a business associate recently lost his grown child to a chronic but reversible condition. Normally, the cause of death is put on the back burner in those initial moments of grief when the sad news is being imparted, but he unhesitatingly volunteered to offer it, I suspect because COVID-19 was not the cause.

Another father, who was fully vaccinated, was heard telling his grown son that he would rather know that his son died having been vaccinated, than die because he was not vaccinated.

As Jesus once said when he chastised one of His disciples for rebuking the prophecy and honour of fulfilling His heavenly Father’s will, “You are concerned [more] with things that are of men than the things that are of heaven.”

Andre O Sheppy

Norwood Meadows

Norwood

St James