If Barbados is to improve its accessibility to current and future vaccines, it ought to create the infrastructure to produce them here, the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) shadow spokesperson on health has suggested.
Paul Gibson told the party’s weekly Sunday discussion held on their social media platforms, it was time for the island to make bigger investments into the field of medical research, as a way to assist with the health of its citizens, as well as bring in much-needed interest from international production companies.
He declared: “I wrote a proposal in 2020 to the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) where I suggested that Barbados use some of the old plantations that we have, we have a lot of plantations out there that are property of the Crown, where we have many acres, and we have the capacity right here to have space, it’s a safe environment, where we can have approval for FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved plants right here in Barbados to be manufacturers of vaccines.
“I also suggested that we can have some of the technocrats that live far and wide, that are trained, that are Barbadians who want to come back home, that are doing this in other jurisdictions, [can] come back to Barbados and actually be a part of that process, of developing the scientific, and the developmental and manufacturing part within the pharmaceutical space.”
As Barbados continues to build relations with African nations, as well as other countries, this possibility of such an investment on Barbadian shores is very plausible, Gibson said.
In responding to several queries as to whether the vaccine’s rollout will immediately lead to citizens being fully protected from the virus, Gibson said the vaccine was an important step in protection but is not the only factor.
“The vaccine is not the cure-all, it is part of the process, and the process must work in order for it to be efficient. While the vaccination is still going on, it must be said, that you must still hand wash, you must still wear your mask, and you must still sanitize your hands, while the campaign is going on. You cannot now stop doing that because you would not have achieved herd immunity as yet,” he stressed.
With the Indian government having donated some 100,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine last week, some Barbadians expressed reservations around taking the shot, because India itself did not design the vaccine. Though Gibson acknowledged the fact of the jab’s origin, he countered that India has been the main manufacturer for vaccines and other medicines used around the world for years, so this practice is not unusual in the least.
“People give India a bad rap, but India makes more than 70 per cent of the world’s pharmaceuticals,” he told the audience.”They have many FDA-approved plants in those locations – when you get an FDA approved plant, you can get very high quality products, and we are thankful to the government of India for allowing us access to that product. The reality is that quite a few products come out of India nowadays, and they are sent to Europe, Canada, USA and they are consumed worldwide.”
The Serum Institute of India where the vaccine is being manufactured is the world’s largest vaccine maker.
(SB)
