RX Radio’s Fatboy has opined that lockdown measures that were exercised to curb the spread of Covid-19 were unnecessary and that most mandates were intended to generate money for involved parties.
This was during The Fatboy Show as he and his Co-host Olive Najjuma commented on the 17 billion shillings collected by the Government from the mandatory Covid-19 testing.
According to figures from the Health Ministry, 171,000 incoming travelers were tested between October 2021 to February 15, 2022 when the mandates were lifted, generating a sum of 17 billion shillings during the five month period.
“To me, it seems that the initial testing might all have been intended to make money because Covid is still there, cases are high, it's still a very infectious variant and yet we are removing the restrictions,” Fatboy said.
Fatboy and Olive went on to say that returning to the old normal despite the repercussions caused by the measures questions whether they were supposed to be obligatory.
“I was having a chat with someone and I was wondering how after two years of bringing us to our knees, of the economy being decimated, people losing sources of income, jobs and what not, here we are with everything opened like nothing ever happened. Okay apart from June last year when people were evidently dying, I am now questioning everything,” Olive said.
However, Fatboy insisted that even in June 2021, the lockdown measures established to curb the Delta variant were unnecessary.
“Covid is a seasonal influenza that comes in waves, the concern should be that the most vulnerable are protected and provided with medical care that can guarantee their survival while letting the rest of the society function. But last year, the measures were instituted when the virus was already in the community and was probably on its way out that the policies put in place ended up being redundant,” he argued.
“If lives were saved, it was because people were going for testing early, getting early treatment and exercising as mitigating factors that helped them survive. I honestly don’t think it was the lockdowns or curfews,” Fatboy added.
Olive however disagreed on this saying that the lockdown did save some lives.
Fatboy further stated that there needs to be accountability for implementing such measures due to their consequences.“There needs to be more transparency such that in future when there’s another crisis, more stakeholders will be involved and not only the bureaucrats who face no repercussions. Because how is that fate of a country placed in the hands of people who face no accountability if they are wrong?” he questioned.
“For instance being in the position of a CEO, if the company performs poorly, the board of directors can hold me accountable and even terminate or sue me for causing financial loss. Accountability is usually required in the private sector but not in the public sector,” he complained.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.