#BTEditorial – Victory declaration abroad too early, we must keep our guard up

In the Joe Biden administration’s haste to declare at least one major victory over their predecessor by trying to hit a self-imposed target to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the American adult population by July 4, it may have created an even greater challenge for the United States.

And we know well that when Uncle Sam sneezes, the rest of the world must be prepared for infection.

The president’s target has been surpassed in some American states, but in others, it is woefully off the mark. Media reports reveal that 70 per cent of people ages 30 and older have already received the COVID-19 jab.

A state like Florida, from which we in Barbados get many of our cruise ship passengers originating and boarding, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly.

It is a most worrying development because major air carriers like American Airlines who provide us with significant airlift, transits its flights to us through the Miami International Airport hub.

The frankly idiotic and self-defeating stand of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to ban so-called cruise ship vaccine passports which represent a preventative mechanism to control spread of coronavirus, is a clear and present danger to tourism destinations like us.

A Miami Herald editorial yesterday put it best, as cruise operators too, are livid at DeSantis’ seeming politically motivated decision making on this critical matter.

“Governor Ron DeSantis is once again planning to go to court — on our dime — to defend the dangerous notion that cruise ships should be allowed to accept passengers without either requiring COVID-19 vaccines or following a series of steps designed to provide safety to their customers and crew.

“And he’s doing it as Florida distinguishes itself once again as one of the top sources of new COVID infections in the country. It’s a bad look, governor.

“Maybe DeSantis has been able to blot out those horrible days in 2020 when cruise ships with infected passengers were turned away from ports around the world as those on board suffered and died. Well, we haven’t.”

On this occasion, the Republican presidential aspirant is not just playing with the lives of Americans, he is threatening the lives and livelihoods of the citizens of every Caribbean island at which these cruise ships dock.

As with us in Barbados, the anti-vax movement is becoming bolder, louder in the US, and in some cases, are lobbying harder to persuade others to join their cause.

The under-30s are providing the greatest challenge to the efforts here to reach the up-hill battle to achieve herd immunity. We expect that Government’s national vaccine coordinating team headed by Major David Clarke and Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand, will be concentrating their efforts on persuading younger Barbadians between ages 18 and 35 to get inoculated at a similar rate as the over 50s.

Dr Anthony Fauci has said, and our own infection control specialist Dr Corey Forde has intimated, “Every death from COVID-19 is avoidable and it is a tragedy when it happens.”

We are convinced that the country has reached the stage where it cannot allow an ‘anti-vaxer’ movement to undermine and undo the progress that has been made to shore up the flagging economy by seeking to protect as many of our citizens as possible from severe illness.

The local ‘anti-vaxers’ have relied on the argument that the vaccines do not stop you from contracting COVID-19, neither do they stop you from spreading it if you become infected.

This is true. But they often neglect to highlight the fact that since Barbados started its COVID-19 national vaccine programme, the persons who have become infected and were being treated at Harrison Point were the unvaccinated.

The vaccines reduce severe illness, death, and transmission rate. The fact is that if the country is not forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars treating COVID-19 infections and mitigating the socio-economic fallout from the disease, that money could be redirected to other areas of the economy.

To date, Barbados is nearing the 100 000 milestone for adults who have come forward to be vaccinated, and we applaud them. Almost 74 000 are now fully vaccinated.

At the same time, we are watching with deep concern what is happening in the United Kingdom where ‘freedom day’ for British partygoers and shoppers could mean another national shutdown could be our reality if very stringent measures are not imposed on British travellers.

We need the foreign dollars and employment opportunities that will come with more British visitors. However, we also want to have a healthy population that is not ravaged by coronavirus.

Boris Johnson too wants to get the British economy firing again and he has lifted every COVID-19 mandate. No social distancing, no masks, no restrictions on gathering, and Britons are ecstatic.

There is likely to be a ripple effect for us from Johnson’s decision. And we have to be prepared to confront what could turn out to another cruel winter tourist season that coincides with another wave of infections.