#BTEditorial – Individual choice but national consequence

If Barbados is to extricate itself from the COVID-19 mire in which it appears to be sinking, the question of personal responsibility must be addressed frontally.

The current administration has made it clear there are no plans to mandate Barbadians to take the COVID-19 vaccines that have been acquired. Some of them were generous gifts, others were acquired at great expense.

So, what is to be the next step? How much longer must we wait for the other 100 000-plus people on this island to make up their minds on whether they will take the vaccine?

It has been nearly two years into the epidemic, with over 6 000 people in home isolation, another 926 in isolation facilities and 170 people dead.

We suspect that if there are nearly 100 000 people who remain unvaccinated, it is unlikely they will change their minds at this stage.

All the efforts at persuading Barbadians to choose vaccines, the moral suasion, the charm effect, public education programmes, the personalities and entertainers used in messaging have not moved this segment of our population to act.

Some have asked the question:  Are the lives of the vaccinated to be risked and left in the hands and at the mercy of those who choose not to be vaccinated?

And when we say lives are at risk, it is not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the assurances from the management of various health institutions that the highest standards of care are still being maintained, we have our doubts.

With resources stretched so thinly seeking to provide care at all the isolation facilities, including Harrison Point in St Lucy where the sickest of COVID-19 positive patients are warded, it does not take much to deduce that not many resources are left to address the myriad health concerns and emergencies that existed prior to the pandemic.

As a recent United Nations paper on the use of scarce resources during the pandemic, noted: “Health care professionals are a highly valued resource, particularly during a pandemic. While they themselves are relatively scarce, unlike ventilators or other equipment, they cannot be urgently manufactured or run at 100 per cent capacity or occupancy for long periods”.

We have watched our healthcare providers appeal, beseech, and prod their fellow countrymen to consistently follow the protocols, and most of all, take the vaccine.

One of the important faces in the fight has been Dr Corey Forde, an infection control specialist and lead consultant at the Harrison Point Isolation Centre. We have also been hearing frequently from Dr Clyde Cave, the consultant paediatrician and head of medical services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The two highly trained specialists have been working around the clock for nearly 24 months with their colleagues and support staff.

It is time that these frontline workers be given a break. But they cannot receive that respite if the country continues on the current trajectory.

In the absence of a mandate that is backed by a firm legislative framework, it is going to be an uphill battle making any significant headway in a bid to increase the vaccination rates.

However, it appears Prime Minister Mottley, following advice from experts, is minded to consider areas other than vaccinations as the anchor on which these key national decisions will be made.

“I received advice that we cannot only look at the vaccinated people, but we now have to also look at those who have anti-bodies because, effectively, it is both the vaccinated people and the people who have had it (COVID-19) with the antibodies that are more or less protected.

“It is against that backdrop that our first destination point would be to carry hopefully the curfew to 11 o’clock or midnight. I don’t want to pronounce on it today. I am in the process of having a conversation.

“I think when we reach closer to that ultimate threshold, whether that threshold is 75 per cent or 80 per cent of the eligible population, that is when we would like to remove the restrictions completely,” she is reported to have said during a Press conference from Brussels, Belgium earlier this week.

Whether 75 per cent of 80 per cent of the population is the vaccination target, it will not matter if people continue to ignore the simple protocols such as washing hands frequently, maintaining your distance from other people and wearing a mask.

COVID-19 has not gone anywhere. In fact, we are now hearing reports from Europe where countries like Germany and Britain are experiencing more surges.

Personal responsibility will have to be the centre of all the messaging going forward because COVID-19 is morphing. On each occasion when victory is declared against this disease, the celebration is short-lived because the disease returns in an even more destructive form.