#BTEditorial – Vaccine only way out of being stuck inside

At 11 o’clock tonight, the streets were still and clear as another national curfew took effect.

The silence sent a deafening message – we have not defeated the microscopic viral enemy, COVID-19, that checked in since March 2020 and has defied every effort to be banished from these shores.

We are here because the latest figures show a worrying spike in cases.

According to Tuesday’s dashboard, ten new cases were recorded and 104 people are in isolation. This follows Sunday’s revelation of 40 new cases that included clusters at a church and a St Michael business.

By now, most of us must have accepted the word of experts that we will have to get on with our lives with this Coronavirus, though for how long is anyone’s guess.

Admittedly, with a bit of protest, some resignation and nonchalance, we wear our masks, sanitize our hands and struggle to keep our physical distance from friends, colleagues, and neighbours.

But that’s still not enough.

According to the World Health Organization and virtually every other medical expert across the globe, the best strategy for preventing outbreaks and surges that could reverse hard fought public health gains, hinder a return to normalcy and economic recovery, is a redoubled push towards vaccination and, ultimately, herd immunity.

This repeated statement does not sit well with anti-vaxxers or the undecided on the sidelines, and it’s not for us to pressure anyone, but we are yet to see any other successful alternatives which offer equal impact.

Across the globe, some of the more developed countries are taking no chances. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that for healthcare workers, vaccines would be mandatory, and that a “health pass” (an app showing one’s vaccination status or recent negative test) would soon be required to access culture or leisure venues of a large capacity. From August, the pass will be mandatory to access cafes, restaurants, malls, planes and trains in France.

Similarly, Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also gave a televised address Monday in which he announced that COVID-19 shots would be mandatory for nursing home and healthcare workers and only vaccinated people will be allowed indoors in bars, cinemas, theatres and enclosed spaces.

We are not advocating that the Mia Mottley administration should go this route. We support Government’s current position that vaccinations are not mandatory but citizens should seek the best advice from their doctors on how to proceed to protect themselves and their families.

However, it’s hard to ignore how other countries are trying to move beyond COVID-19 and it’s clear that most are hinging their fortunes on achieving herd immunity.

To date, 96 283 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Barbados and 72 672 have received both doses. That’s 26.8 per cent of the population that has been fully vaccinated.

Co-coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand concedes there is some progress but not enough for us to take comfort.

She said: “I would have hoped to be a little further, because this is a pandemic and we need to be vaccinating people very quickly. We need people to get their vaccinations as soon as possible.

“I am even hoping for 80 per cent to have a very good herd immunity, but if we are only at 30 per cent now, you can understand we still have some way to go. We are only one-third of the way along and the quicker we get to herd immunity, the better we can get back to a semi-normal life. So it is important that people do their duty and come forward and not only protect themselves, but protect the country as a whole.”

A vaccine doesn’t just contribute to herd immunity – it protects the individual from illness, too. And, without it, we’re likely to see cases spike, particularly with the fast emerging, highly transmissible Delta, Alpha and Gamma variants, all of which are present here.

We can’t shut down or enforce a curfew in Barbados every few weeks. Too much, as we have already observed, is at stake.

Given these issues and our limited health care resources, Government will clearly have to ramp up its public education campaign on why vaccinations are the best bet while at the same time sourcing adequate vaccines for the population.

There’s no need to butt heads with anti-vaxxers and others who are hesitant; rather, authorities should focus on presenting the facts to root out the false narratives about vaccines and get to the bottom of why people are still reluctant.

Surely, not all will be convinced. But some will get the information they need to take the jab and other hardliners might just reconsider. Inaction has consequences and those consequences Barbados can hardly bear.