Zero To Zero

The pandemic is unlike anything this generation has experienced before.

The science behind the Covid-19 vaccine makes it easier to understand and accept.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, life has never been the same.

Frontline healthcare workers document their fight against Covid-19 in M-Net’s gripping and emotional new documentary, Zero to Zero.

We can still make this season feel as festive as possible.

Studies have found that social isolation, especially among the elderly, can lead to a decline in overall cognitive functioning. Depression and anxiety also set in as the isolation persists.

The documentary was produced in under six weeks with teams under various forms of lockdown and observing social distancing.

Everyday various sectors across our continent are adjusting and finding ways to deal with challenges brought about by the current coronavirus pandemic.

ICU nurse Mary-Anne Ellis shares her harrowing experience having Covid-19, including the aftereffects on mental and emotional health.

Radiologist and part time filmmaker Professor Leonie Scholtz saw the chance to document the historical Covid-19 pandemic at the Zuid Afrikaans Hospital in Pretoria as the country was put under a national state of disaster in March 2020.

When our world changed overnight because of Covid-19, it was brave healthcare workers world over who fought for us all, and continue to do so.

“Variants emerge from people who are infected, and until we can bring down the numbers of global infections, we will continue to see variants emerge”, says Prof. Penny Moore (National Institute for Communicable Diseases). In an extended interview, Masa Kekana sits down with Moore to look at how the coronavirus and immune responses are being studied, asking questions like: How long will vaccines protect South Africans against COVID-19? #CarteBlanche

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟯 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭. Slow to start with jabs and sluggish to get stock, South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination drive is lagging far behind the rest of the world and even its neighbours in the region. The last time we checked in on the vaccination drive, less than 1 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated. The needle has barely moved since. What’s gone wrong, and can it be fixed? As winter drives the nation indoors, and a third deadly wave of infections approaches, Carte Blanche investigates the drive for herd immunity.

“We all know, the vaccination programme is the single most important response we can have to the virus”, emphasises Martin Kingston (Business for South Africa). Derek Watts sits down with Kingston in an extended interview to ask why our vaccine rollout has hit more roadblocks than our major highways over long weekends. What are these delays and changes costing the country, and what is in place to prevent corruption in this system? #CarteBlanche

Should those with comorbidities across the board be included with the over-60s in the second phase of vaccine rollout? An under-60 asthmatic with a post-COVID condition that renders his lungs at 40% capacity, Julian von Plato longs for the day when he’ll get his SMS for the COVID-19 vaccine to alleviate his understandable fears. In an extended interview, Von Plato talks with Derek Watts about his health history and turbulent life in lockdown. When he first contracted COVID-19, “The bed was soaking wet from sweat”, he relives… “I’m terrified that if I get it again, I will die”. #CarteBlanche

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭. Across the world, COVID-19 lockdowns coincided with an explosion in the use of versatile digital communications technology, as people were forced to work from home. Some trend analysts now say remote work will become the norm and forever change the workplace. City centres globally are suffering from the so-called office wasteland effect with millions of square metres of office space standing empty – and South Africa is no different with the country now having the largest vacancy rates in history. What will become of the millions of empty square metres of office space? Voted one of the Best Places For Remote Working in 2021, Cape Town is positioning itself as the ideal workstation destination in the post-pandemic world of work – could this revive the tourism industry? Carte Blanche encounters out-of-the-box thinking that’s bringing life back to dying spaces as we examine the life of the new post-pandemic digital nomad. #CarteBlanche