From our President's Pen......
Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,
The Africa Centennial
is next month!! There is a lot of work to do in order for our club to have a
showing and based on our age, we should definitely show what we have done over
the years in the community. I will be approaching some of the older members for
assistance to get our story told. We have an opportunity to showcase ourselves
– please read the latest DG Newsletter and let me know your thoughts and I will
collect all the stories and thoughts. There are some questionnaires to be
filled in – I will forward them via email – please look out for them and
assist.
Please register to attend the Centennial Conference – it
looks like it is going to be spectacular, as online events go – at the cost of
R350 for the 2 days, it will be worth it.
Looking forward to having the inductions here on Friday –
all welcome, come early and wear a mask!!
Have a great week.
Ann Hope-Bailie
President - Rotary Club of Rosebank
Last Friday......
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| Your Ramble Editor zooming in to Prof Blumberg's presentation while enjoying a few days of R&R in the lowveld. |
Prof Lucille Blumberg, a founder member of the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn and a Paul Harris Fellow, found time in her hectic schedule to address us and give us some valuable insights on the Covid pandemic.
The Corona virus belongs to a large group of viruses that affect the upper respiratory tract and causes in its mildest form the common cold.
There have been a few lesser pandemics in the 21st Century, such as SARS 1 (Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome) in 2002 -2004, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) 2010 - 2012 and now the SARS Covid 2 which we first heard about on the last day of 2019.
It probably originated from bats (the reservoir host) but would have needed an intermediary host before being transmitted to humans, and that to this day is a mystery. It could have been chinchillas, pangolin or mink.
To date there have been more than 112 million confirmed Covid cases and over 4 million deaths worldwide.
In South Africa we have weathered the 2nd wave, but who knows if and when we will be hit by a third wave, but Prof Lucille seems to think it could be in April or May, if there are super-spreader events over the Easter period.
The new Covid variant, B1 -351, is nothing out of the ordinary. Viruses have large numbers of mutations, but this one has proven to be more transmissible, although not necessarily more deadly.
The prof spoke at length about the vaccine, and is very comfortable with the safety of the vaccine, her concern is more the efficacy. She is not worried about storage temperatures, she remarked that the Ebola vaccine had to be stored at -80 degrees Celsius.
At present there are at least 12 different vaccines available worldwide with varying ranges of cost, production and amount of dose administration (1 or 2). It is important to have a variety to choose from, and although the authorities decided not to administer the Astra Zeneca vaccine it would still be effective in severe cases.
In the Prof's opinion the authorities have performed miracles to get the vaccine into the country and that that the roll-out so far has been successful.
The health care workers are being vaccinated as we speak, the next group to receive the vaccine will be the older age groups with co-morbidities followed by essential workers and by April the teachers will have been vaccinated.
So, all in all a mainly positive outlook on the program.
But most importantly we have to remain vigilant and continue with non-pharmaceutical precautions.
She is against any of the "wonder" drugs like Ivermectin, she considers cortisone and oxygen miracle treatment.
Rotary International is in a unique position to assist in the fight against Covid due to our long involvement in the eradication of Polio.
The Sun never sets in Rotary....
Last Tuesday, the 23rd of February we celebrated Rotary's 116th birthday and from 5:30 to 9:00 pm District 9400 celebrated our youth. It was heartwarming to experience the energy and enthusiasm of our future, and the Rotary Club of Rosebank featured prominently.
It was with great pride we watched a splendid video put together by our President Ann showcasing our Youth Leadership Camps. If you have not had a chance to see it please click on the link below and enjoy.
The Exceptional Nurse Campaign...
In 2015 a group of nurses, business men and women from various churches in Cape Town met together for the first time.
they shared the deep concern for the critical shortage of professional and specialist nurses employed by the National department of Health -NDoH. After many hours of research, meeting with leaders in various Public Hospitals and the National Department of Health, the Exceptional Nurse Campaign - TEN was born.
They are funded by Company Social Investment (CSI) and personal donations.
Every year they have donated care packs to the nursing staff countrywide, as a token of encouragement and motivation, and to this end the Baptist Church of Rosettenville was approached this year to source, pack and distribute 800 such care packs to the Covid nurses at the Baragwanath Hospital. Our very own fellow Rotarian Marianne Soal was instrumental of coordinating this mammoth task and on Saturday the 27th President Ann, PP Jean Bernardo PE Costa Qually accompanied her group of volunteers to distribute these tokens of appreciation to 800 grateful recipients.
This Friday....
Charmaine and Anne have been Zooming in to so many of our Friday meetings that they could already be considered honorary members, but this Friday we are making it official.
Brooks Spector needs no introduction. His take on American politics will no doubt be very interesting.
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