Waiting in vain

THE GOVERNMENT has by now tried almost everything to woo the hesitant to get vaccinated against covid19.

It has whispered sweet nothings about how the fate of Carnival 2022 hangs in the balance.

It has held open as many doors as possible, establishing vaccination sites – including drive-throughs – all over the country.

It has given the population gifts: not only are all vaccines free of charge. but there is now a menu of different jabs to choose from, depending on your whim and fancy.

It has even resorted to issuing passionately-worded declarations and ultimatums.

It has all been, to a large extent, in vain.

While many people have made full use of the State’s generosity, it remains the case that many others are playing hard to get. Many are not merely vaccine-hesitant but actively resistant and campaigning against vaccination. In the process, these citizens risk everything for themselves and, more disturbingly, for everyone else.

That the Government needs to readjust its approach urgently is brought home by new estimates put out by the Caribbean Public Health Authority (CARPHA) on Friday.

While the State has been aiming to convince enough people to achieve herd immunity through a take-up rate of about 60-70 per cent, CARPHA now estimates herd immunity will only be achieved with vaccination of about 90-95 per cent of the population, because of the more virulent delta variant.

In other words, inadequate supply robbed us of our ability to stop the original alpha variant in its tracks when the threshold was lower. Now it is vaccine hesitancy that threatens to rob us of the chance to stop the delta variant, because the threshold is much higher.

This is because while the classic alpha variant spreads from one person to two or three people, the delta variant spreads more easily, moving from one person to a cluster of eight or nine more.

We need only look at neighbouring Jamaica, where there was this month an upsurge in cases, to see the potential impact on the healthcare system of all of this.

On Sunday, Jamaica’s health authorities disclosed the country’s hospitals were running low on oxygen (and in some cases ran out). This has forced authorities to issue an order for oxygen conservation, and has complicated the fate of hundreds of critically ill covid19 patients as well as other patients whose survival depends on supplementary oxygen.

Our country’s healthcare system came perilously close to full capacity mere months ago, even with substantial numbers of people in home quarantine. It is unimaginable what devastation might be caused if delta runs amok.

The Prime Minister maintains a stance of waiting for the population to have a change of heart.

He’s waiting in vain. And time is running out for all of us.