Tag: 23/12/21

Categories : General InterestTags :

A Look Back at 2021

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Olya Kobruseva on Pexels


The start of 2021 saw South African hospitals battling for resources amid a COVID surge, and planning for what would be a very controversial and drawn-out vaccination programme which would be partly paid for by the overflowing coffers of the country’s medical aid schemes. Indeed, there was a real concern that the as-yet-to-be-named Beta variant would evade vaccines, which would prove to be true – and a story which would be repeated with the Omicron variant later in the year. In China, the start of an investigation into the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Wuhan was stymied by the Chinese government denying them entry.

The middle of the year saw the Third Wave, now driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant which had ravaged India earlier in the year. Production setbacks further dogged South Africa’s vaccine programme as millions of Johnson & Johnson vaccines were deemed unfit for use. In Brazil, deaths passed half a million amid condemnation of the mishandling of the COVID pandemic by its President Jair Bolsonaro. Economic frustration, stoked by political manoeuvring around the trial of former President Jacob Zuma, saw much of the country erupt in looting and violence. This would seriously damage COVID vaccination and surveillance efforts in the affected areas, particularly KwaZulu-Natal.

Statins seemed to be losing some of their bad image as new studies revealed that they were not associated with cognitive decline, following on from a 2020 study showing many of their feared side effects were the result of the ‘nocebo’ effect. The US government initiated a probe into how a controversial drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease managed to receive approval despite no evidence of benefit. Dr Zweli Mkhize stepped down as Health Minister amidst revelations about procurement irregularities relating to the Digital Vibes contract.

Towards the end of the year, South African vaccination rates fell due to a combination of factors: vaccine hesitancy, apathy and difficulty servicing remote areas. Omicron was detected in late November, immediately raising alarm due to the extremely large number of mutations it possesses. In response, countries around the world announced immediate travel bans or heightened quarantine restrictions. However, these proved futile as the highly contagious Omicron was already loose in the borders of many countries, rendering the controversial containment efforts moot.

Fortunately, early signs from Netcare showed that Omicron caused less severe disease. By year end, new effective COVID treatments were going through these stages of their final approval. Merck’s Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) had shown promise for the treatment of COVID, though later analysis with additional data showed it to be less effective than believed. Expected production for Pfizer’s nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid) was expected to increase to 80 million courses after results showed an 89% reduction of hospitalisation or death for outpatients. As the year closed, there was some good news for South Africa’s economy as travel bans were lifted – though the countries imposing them now had Omicron surges of their own to contend with.

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

‘Switching Off’ Over The Holidays is a Good Idea

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Tim Gouw on Pexels

Not properly ‘switching off’ and disconnecting from work-related electronic communications can be more than just annoying, it can damage your health, research shows.

Researchers from the University of South Australia surveyed more than 2200 academics and professional staff across 40 Australian universities, and found that employees who responded to work emails and texts out of hours had greater odds of experiencing burnout, psychological distress, and poor physical health.

Researchers found that in 2021:

  • 26% of employees felt that they had to respond to work-related texts, calls, and emails from supervisors during their leisure time;
  • 57% said that they’d sent work-related digital communications to other colleagues in the evenings;
  • 50% reported that they often receive work-related texts, calls and emails from colleagues on the weekend;
  • 36% reported that it was the norm to respond immediately to digital communication in their organisation.

UniSA researcher Dr Amy Zadow says that the expectations for employees to be available 24-7 is putting pressure on workers.

“Since COVID, the digitalisation of work has really skyrocketed, blurring work boundaries, and paving the path for people to be contactable at all hours,” Dr Zadow said.

“But being available to work both day and night limits the opportunity for people to recover – doing things such as exercise and catching up with friends and family – and when there is no recovery period you can start to burn out.

“Our research shows that high levels of out-of-hours work digital communication can have a significant impact on your physical and mental wellbeing, affecting work-family relationships, causing psychological distress, and poor physical health.

“Conversely, workers who kept their work boundaries in check experienced less stress and pressure.”

The study found that those who were expected to respond to after-hours work communications on the weekends reported higher levels of psychological distress (56% vs 42%); emotional exhaustion (61% vs 42%); and poor physical health (28% compared to 10%).

UniSA’s Professor Kurt Lushington said that dealing with work-related stress is becoming increasingly important.

“Managing out-of-hours communications can be challenging, but organisations do have the power to discourage ‘work creep’,” Prof Lushington said.

“Setting up policies, practices and procedures to protect psychological health by developing a strong Psychosocial Safety Climate is likely to limit damaging out-of-hours digital communication. And, on a broader scale, this is already being considered in various Enterprise Bargaining Agreements and National Employment Standards.

“The starting place is measuring work demand so that an organisation can mitigate the risk in the first place. Once they do this, they can develop protective actions that can prevent the development or continuations of harmful workplace norms.

“At the end of the workday, everyone should have the right to disconnect.”

Source: University of South Australia