Cummins: ‘I’ll take the vaccine’

Tourism Minister Senator Lisa Cummins, seeking to allay fears over taking the coronavirus vaccine, has signalled she will be taking it once it becomes available here.

She declared: “I, like many others in this administration, will be among those who, once our medical officials have cleared us, will say ‘here I am, I am willing to be vaccinated’.”

At the same time, a tourism official has suggested that while the protocols must remain in place even as the vaccine is being administered in some source markets, some tweaks may have to be made to those protocols in order to accommodate travellers who may not have taken the vaccine.

The issue came up on Wednesday during the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) fourth quarterly general meeting, which was held virtually.

Minister of Tourism Lisa Cummins called on tourism leaders to help shoot down what she called conspiracy theories among the population, as the country awaits its shipment of the vaccine.

“I am urging you to use your platforms of leadership to dispel the conspiracy theories that have been perpetrated by some in our community for different reasons,” she said.

Insisting that health officials would not put the population at risk, Senator Cummins said there was no need for “the hype over the conspiracy theories about a vaccination”.

She said as long as medical officials have certified it as safe, then there should be no reason for residents to resist.

Senator Cummins: “They certainly have protected us during COVID-19 haven’t they not? Why would they suddenly expose us with a vaccine that hasn’t been tested or is inconsistent with every other vaccine they have given us since we were children – measles mumps, rubella?”

Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffery Bostic gave the assurance earlier this week that before vaccines are approved by officials in Barbados there will be a strict vetting process, which will include guidance from the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the Pan-American Health Organization.

So far, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna have announced varying degree of effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine.

AstraZeneca has reported 90 per cent effectiveness in preventing COVID-19, Pfizer and Moderna have both indicated almost 95 per cent effectiveness.

On Tuesday, a UK grandmother was the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which was approved recently by the UK.

Chairman of the BHTA Geoffrey Roach said the announcement that at least two of the vaccines were almost 95 per cent effective in preventing the viral illness was good news, suggesting that this could result in more people being able to travel to Barbados.

“Anything that can be done at this time that makes it more comfortable for persons to travel, and that increases the health and safety element of travelling, is positive for the industry,” he said.

But Roach pointed out that there were at least two things that should be taken into consideration.

“The first is the logistics around the deployment and the administering of the vaccine. This is a process that is expected to take many months before the vaccines are administered to a significant portion of the populations within our major source markets,” he said.

“The second is that the vaccine is not mandatory, and as such, there will likely be persons who would opt not to be immunized. That being the case, it would mean that there is still the possibility that persons who will travel to Barbados will be a mix of persons who will probably have had the vaccine and persons who might have opted not to take the vaccine.

“So what that suggest certainly is that it will mean that our set of protocols will have to remain in effect for some time to come, even if there is some level of amendment that is required and deemed acceptable to those protocols.”

Roach said he did not anticipate that the performance of the tourism industry would get back to its pre-COVID levels until 2023, adding that “between now and then there is a need for us to focus on the numerous things that we need to do to strengthen the tourism industry”.

Before the pandemic struck, Barbados has been witnessing a rise in tourist arrivals, having welcomed around 700,000 long stay visitors last year and about 850,000 cruise passengers.

With cruise tourism halted since April and the travel industry still reeling from border closures earlier this year, officials are projecting an 85 per cent decline to a mere 235,000 total visitor arrivals. (MM)