#BTEditorial – A long uphill battle remains

This week was the best of times in some ways, and it was also the worst of times. This week there was a demonstration of the demands of leadership when Prime Minister Mia Mottley made an impassioned plea to Barbadians to try that much harder to increase the number of persons who have taken the COVID-19 vaccines.

She heaped praise on the near 130 000 citizens and residents who have determined that it was better to be safe than sorry by taking the vaccine, while also contributing to the health and safety of those around them.

This week also revealed just how perilously close this country is coming to a COVID-19 disaster that is akin to what we have read about and watched in the media for more than a year in other countries.

Doctor Clyde Cave, the director of medical services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has expressed deep concern about the number of our people who are turning up at the Accident and Emergency Department with COVID-19 symptoms and are close to death’s door.

His expressed worry that the trickle of patients is growing in intensity and could become a flood, derailing the well-coordinated plan to seek, as far as humanly possible, to insulate the QEH from a COVID-19 contagion.

Cave, one of this country’s most respected paediatric specialists said: “There are increased numbers of people who are concerned, and we know that concern is real, because we are identifying increasing numbers of people who test positive for COVID.

“Some of these are the Delta variant and if we follow world experience, we expect those numbers to increase and not only increase but increase rapidly.”

As far as our lone infectious disease control specialist and head of the COVID-19 Isolation Facilities, Dr Corey Forde is concerned, this island is on the precipice due to the widespread infections of the Delta variant in the community, non-adherence to the COVID protocols and insufficient numbers of vaccinated persons.

Without divine intervention or a complete shut down of the country for an extended period to undertake a massive testing process, it is likely the situation with the spread of the viral illness will get even worse.

It is a situation we take absolutely no pleasure in forecasting. But from our standpoint, it appears that such an outcome is inevitable despite all our collective efforts.

The push towards the goal of 50 000 more Barbadians being vaccinated over the next month, and the move to incentivise people with the possibility of relaxed restrictions for the coming holiday season, is quite an inducement.

We fear it will take more than the Prime Minister’s one-off request, but an accompanying blitz of messaging surrounding the enticement, to get people excited about the possibilities.

Government’s new COVID-19 public advisor Mr David Ellis will surely recommend to Government that this call to action will require steady and frequent reinforcement.

But even as we continue the efforts to convince those who are reticent to take any of the three vaccines available free of cost to the public, the scandal surrounding the failed efforts to procure vaccines for Barbados, St Lucia and The Bahamas, could not have come at a worse time.

With more details trickling out about the whole farcical affair, we now have the mind-boggling decision by the United Kingdom not to accept COVID-19 certificates from the African continent, India, Asia, and Latin America, where countries have been largely utilising the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India under license from Oxford AstraZeneca in Britain.

With most Barbadians inoculated with the India-produced version, it would appear that Britain will reject the certification from Barbadians who are allowed to travel visa-free to Britain and most parts of the European Union.

It will mean despite being vaccinated with the World Health Organisation (WHO) approved vaccine, the UK’s refusal to accept it will result in vaccinated Barbadians being forced to quarantine for several days before being allowed to mingle.

The vaccine scandal now enveloping three regional governments and a local company, coupled with the highly discriminatory action of the British government will make it even more difficult to convince those people who remain hesitant, to take the vaccine.

Dr Richard Mihigo of the WHO puts it this way. “[Britain’s] message doesn’t really speak to solidarity and cooperation that we all believe are the cornerstone and ingredients for us to emerge from this pandemic together.”

Dr Mihigo went even further, insisting that the message from Britain had created confusion and was adding to “more reticence and reluctance for people to receive vaccines”.

The picture this week in the COVID-19 battle appears to be just more of the same, as we struggle to conquer in this two-year-old offensive.