Our focus now needs to be on the vaccines

Dear Editor,

Covid-19 has thrown the world upside down. It has brought along unimaginable complexities that require serious thought and all the human and financial resources available. We love to herald in a new year with optimism, social gatherings and festivity. However, the unrestrained and irresponsible mingling and movement of citizens during the Christmas season, many without masks, will undoubtedly result in an exponential rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. It has been proven that it spreads more quickly at social gatherings.

The world and Guyana heaved a sigh of relief on learning that a vaccine had been developed to combat the pandemic. Many Guyanese would have been proud to also hear that a son of our soil was a key participant in the development of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine. We welcome the recent development of several vaccines. It proves that humans have the tools, knowledge and skills to overcome gargantuan challenges.

The Guyanese government provides illusory rhetoric in their campaign against Covid -19. They need to create solutionsbased methods. From the onset of the pandemic, there was a slow response in stymieing the spread. This is a major contributory factor to the large number of our present cases. That blame would fall on our previous administration. However, we have witnessed the present government failing to practice what they preach in relation to Covid-19 resistant measures. Methods would be curfews from early in the evenings through a ten to twelve hours span, restricting local and international travel, wearing masks, washing and sanitising hands regularly, physical distancing, contact tracing, testing, effective methods of treatment and allowing only essential services and businesses to operate. High-risk individuals who are those over sixty years old and those with preexisting conditions, should stay home and engage remotely. The countries which had quickly implemented those measures, had a minimal number of cases in proportion to their population. It is said that our cases are among the highest in the Caribbean in proportion to our population.

Our focus now needs to be on the vaccines; obtaining them as quickly as possible, choosing the most effective, the cost, storage facilities, encouraging the population to take them, creating additional resources such as personal protective equipment, sufficient staffing at hospitals and health care centres and training of personnel in administering the vaccines. No cost should be spared where lives are involved and there can be no economic activity without human beings. Herd immunity is necessary and this can only be achieved when 60-70% of the population is immunised. The well-known and foremost United States epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said that it would require 70-90% of the population being immunized. Herd immunity has been proven to be effective in every eradication in history.

However, propaganda about the harmful side effects of vaccines has created

scepticism in people. To compound these fears, the speed at which the Covid-19 vaccines were developed have also created doubts about their efficacy. However, a lot of funding was given to the research and development of the Covid-19 vaccines and sound tests have been done to prove their effectiveness. Many people who have refused to take a vaccine have developed the disease that it was intended to prevent. Pictures of the effects of Covid-19 on the body should be displayed in specific places, maybe those with high traffic and of course in health institutions. What is unsure and of course unproven until people start getting the vaccine, is how long the immunity will last.

Guyana was late in enrolling with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to receive a vaccine when developed. Twelve member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) had enrolled early. We have not heard from the government of any other source of supply that we should have been tapping. Our first supply from CARPHA is expected to arrive sometime in March and be able to immunize at least 20% of the population. When will we get more supplies and when will we be able to vaccinate most, if not all of our citizens? 186 countries have signed for the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (Covax Facility) and the amount of vaccines available have to be distributed to these countries. This will require vigilance and effort by their governments and civic organizations. Will there be an equitable distribution or will the wealthy countries be given priority? Their citizens are already being administered the vaccines. All countries are vulnerable, so the equitable distribution of the vaccines is necessary if the virus is to be prevented from being continuously transmitted worldwide.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony has said that we will be receiving the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. The nation deserves validation of this as it concerns personal safety which must be protected above anything else. This revelation by Dr. Anthony is commendable because these vaccines have a 94-95% rating of efficacy, which is far higher than the other vaccines. They are also the most costly per dose and for storage.

Faithfully, Conrad Barrow