Join the celebrities and take the vaccine.

‘COME with me if you want to live!’ called out Arnold Schwarzenegger, as he drove into Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles to receive his vaccination against COVID-19. This action star is one of many celebrities and politicians taking action against the coronavirus that has taken hundreds and thousands of lives worldwide.

While anti-vaxxers are content to give the pandemic free reign to decimate the population, we’ve received positive messages from presidents and vice presidents, in varying states of undress, receiving their inoculations – Joe Biden with his shirt sleeve rolled up, Bibi Netanyahu wearing a black T shirt, and Constantine Chiwenga, sporting a white undershirt. Broadcast journalist Olubunmi Okunnu, reporting in Pidjin English for BBC news on African leaders collecting the vaccine live on TV, said ‘E no dey clear whether Mnangagwa collect privately later later.’

Samuel took to Instagram and posted a photo of himself wearing the mask along with a caption that read, “At The Forum getting that 1st jab!!”

Invoking the moon landing, Netanyahu said ‘that was a small jab for a man, one giant leap for the health of us all’. Pulp Fiction star Samuel Jackson wore an Avengers face mask when receiving his first jab, while President Macky Sall of Senegal was formally dressed in a dark blue suit and wore a white face mask.

After receiving a donation of 200,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines from China recently, Zimbabwe has commenced efforts to vaccinate its population, starting with healthcare and frontline workers. In addition, the government is in talks with Russia over procuring a shipment of Sputnik V vaccines, once scorned by the west, but now a favourite after The Lancet medical journal showed that it protects as well as the US and the European vaccines.

Whether residing in the rural areas, high density or low density suburbs, many Zimbabweans are conflicted about the efficacy of the vaccines. As a way of winning public confidence, President Mnangagwa has affirmed that he and his cabinet will be inoculated when the second vaccine consignment arrives. There’s no confirmation as yet that either Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, or Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, have set a date to receive vaccinations.

Being alive today is an extraordinary piece of good luck, given the decline of natural resources, the chemical pollution of the earth, atmosphere and oceans, food insecurity and pandemics of new diseases. Ash Wednesday, on February 17, marked the start of the penitential Lenten season, the distribution of ashes to the foreheads of the faithful, and the injunction to ‘remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return’. The liturgical season of fasting and prayer, this is the second year that Lent has been overshadowed by a global pandemic.

During the six weeks of Lent, Christians are required to fast, and to abstain from luxuries such as alcohol or chocolate. It’s also a time for getting one’s life in order, such as healing rifts within the family, apologising to injured parties, giving alms to the poor and deepening one’s spiritual life.

After the excesses of Valentine’s Day and the variety of pancakes flipped on Shrove Tuesday, cutting down to one full meal a day can come as a shock to the system. Reducing and simplifying meals during Lent, however, especially during a pandemic, can make one aware of the difficulties some families are facing as a result of losing their livelihoods and falling into extreme poverty during lockdown. Giving money or goods to charity can make a difference and making time to spend with people in need is said to be the greatest gift you can give.

In Biblical times, the devout would wear sackcloth and cover their heads with ashes as a sign of penitence. Today on Amazon you can find an array of burlap dresses for women and girls and rough hessian buccaneer pants for men, all comfortably stylish and bearing no resemblance to the stiff camel and goat hair garments worn by penitents in the past.

Whether you decide to mortify your body by wearing a hair shirt, or give up eating meat for the 40 days of the Lenten season, resolve to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by taking the vaccine as soon as it is offered to you.  A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff