UWI think tank ‘could probe vaccine hesitancy among range of development problems’

A University of the West Indies think tank’s researchers could provide the answers to the current COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the region, a top UWI official has suggested.

And the research arm of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) has the capacity to contribute to many of the region’s other economic and social development priorities, said Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Board for Graduate Studies and Research.

As the uptake of vaccines across the region slows to a trickle, she said: “It is institutions like SALISES that can locate the rationale for vaccine hesitancy, for example, placing it into its proper social, political and economic context so as to inform our policymakers as they try to make sense of a life-threatening problem.”

Professor Belle-Antoine was addressing the opening of the 22nd annual SALISES conference on Tuesday, which was held under the theme, Re-imagining Development for Small Island Developing States (SIDs): Post-Pandemic Transformations.

“Our research agenda must be fine-tuned to suit our needs and it is these priorities that must feed into any projects that are out there,” she said.

Insisting that there was need for “solid, meaningful, courageous and interdisciplinary research” as the region embarks on a new sustainable development model, Professor Belle-Antoine said this research must include various voices in the society.

“So for example, the fisherfolk, the farmers, they too must have a voice in climate change, and it is the UWI that must harness those voices, that wisdom, that experience, and channel it into meaningful research and output to point to a true path to development,” she said.

Pointing to the high global rankings of the UWI, the education official said while the learning institution had done exceedingly well, “there is still some improvement needed for the research dimension of our rankings”.

“Research is still lagging behind other areas, and this is where our research institutions must make their mark. We expect everyone to be prolific and focus on research, but research institutions like SALISES have a special mandate and more is expected from you. That is why you are not allowed to have the distraction of teaching,” she said.

Pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of where more research was needed, she said “this is clearly not simply and only a medical issue”.

She continued: “The pandemic has highlighted, and in some ways, shamed our very social structures, our class and economic dichotomies and the attendant inequalities or prejudices, our historical realities and suffering evident in vaccine hesitancy.

“[It] has exacerbated gender differences, how we love, how we learn, how and why we trust and distrust, bringing pressure on our very governance structure and impacting the political system.”

Insisting that there needed to be a multidisciplinary and inclusive approach to the research needed to help the region, she said “SALISES must be the vessel that brings everyone on board”.

Declaring that the Nobel economics laureate and former UWI Vice Chancellor after whom SALISES was named was a personification of innovation and courage with some unpopular views, Professor Belle-Antoine said: “There are many unpopular issues out there that we must embrace. Some will put us at odds with governments, others with the churches or even with the people – from climate to mandatory vaccines to financial debt and fiscal policy and gender, and the list goes on.”
(MM)