After months of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread lockdown, we must now take stock of how the crisis has disrupted the strategic decision-making framework for organisations and try to build a new one to look beyond the immediate crisis.
Firstly, the solution: achieving herd immunity. The data shows a profile that delivers a level of immunity that prevents critical consequences with relative safety from major side effects.
As more people are vaccinated, families and communities will be able to gradually return to a more normal routine.
Though no one is sure when the pandemic will be over, every person who gets protection from the coronavirus helps us move closer to normal life.
While the COVID-19 vaccine decision remains a personal decision, this decision protects my personal health and wellbeing, a non-negotiable factor.
It affords a level of safety and security to my family, colleagues, community, and other stakeholders while providing business continuity to keep the economy going and livelihoods protected.
I will urge others to research using credible publications to inform your decision, as I did.
The research, production and distribution of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines in a relatively short time is a major development in the pandemic.
This in itself is a demonstration of the resilient capacity of our scientific community.
Vaccine hesitancy is indeed a challenge, existing among persons of varying backgrounds, ages and ethnicities.
Some people are deciding not to get the coronavirus vaccines until more people have had them. But waiting too long to be vaccinated allows the coronavirus to continue spreading in the community, with new variants emerging.
Severe COVID-19 can be very dangerous: The sooner you get vaccinated, the sooner you are protected.
Taking the vaccine therefore on all fronts is the better option.
Our frontline workers have been leading the charge to save lives and livelihoods and are our real heroes.
I commend all our essential care workers serving our population within this pandemic.
Like a massive storm, the crisis overwhelmed our health-care systems and adversely affected every single sector.
We need to prepare for the post-COVID world where people and companies need to rethink, reset strategy and skills to meet the new opportunities that are emerging.
The COVID-19 vaccine is my passport to this new, emerging World.