Fyzabad MP wants private sector involvement in vaccine procurement

Member of Parliament for Fyzabad Dr Lackram Bodoe said the government needs to revisit the role of the private sector in the procurement and distribution of the vaccine.

Bodoe was speaking at the UNC's weekly press conference at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port of Spain on Sunday.

He said the government needs to look at whether there is a role for the private sector to play. “Explore all avenues…pull out all the stops,” he said, adding it was important to do so with the emergence of the Brazilian P1 variant, detected in 15 people to date.

He said the AstraZeneca vaccine has been shown to be effective against the Brazilian and UK variants further emphasising the need to get as many vaccinated as possible.

“I was very disturbed that the Prime Minister seemed to announce, in a tone of resignation last Thursday afternoon, that no vaccines are to be found anywhere.” Hosein was referring to a press conference held by Dr Rowley where he announced further restrictions to be implemented until May 23. “It is certainly an attitude we cannot afford to entertain.”

However, on Saturday, the government said the public vaccination drive will resume on Monday and it is hoped that 20,000 to 30,000 people will be vaccinated.

Bodoe said as a medical practitioner he is concerned about the possibility of local variants developing. “I say this carefully and I say this based on the evidence where we have seen in India, the amount of community spread is such that, in an attempt to survive, the virus mutated (leading to) a local strain in that country. That can very well happen in a country where numbers continue to rise.”

He said while he hopes that is not a high possibility, he thought it was important to raise the issue especially if it takes a long time to procure vaccines.

Bodoe said it can be argued that the late roll-out of vaccines could have contributed to the recent increase in cases. “As members of the Opposition we are not here to argue that; those are moot points. Our role is to seek the interest of citizens and ask questions of the government’s plan in view of this crisis.”

Bodoe also suggested a link between the number of deaths and the variant. “That is something we have to wait on for the Ministry of Health’s official figures.”

He said TT is faced with concerns that those who received their first shot of the two-dose vaccine are now dependent on the timely arrival of the second tranche from Covax, for their second shot, which raises their protection from 60 per cent to 80-82 per cent.

“The longer it takes for us to get vaccines, the longer lockdown can be. We are asking government to explore all avenues to procure the million-plus vaccines needed to achieve herd immunity.”

He said he agrees with the government’s decision to only purchase World Health Organisation-approved vaccines. He said with developed countries in possession of excess vaccines, hopefully there would be a flood of these vaccines on the market.

“Without the vaccines there would be a gap that would extend lockdown. Where would TT be at the end of July without the vaccines?”