No ICU beds, a clear alarm bell for all

THE EDITOR: Principal Medical Officer of Health Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards could not be any clearer as she spoke earlier this week – the country's parallel health care system is maxed out in terms of the availability of ICU beds for critically ill covid19 patients.

If ever the entire country needed to pay attention to the pandemic and its ramifications for us as a nation and a people, it is now!

This virus does not care about race, religion or station in life. The news that ICU beds are filled and that the majority of people lying on these beds, gasping for breath, are unvaccinated, is a cause for deep concern.

How does this revelation affect me, you may ask?

Well, it means if you or someone you know or love falls seriously ill with this virus, there is no guarantee the critical care you or your loved one may need in the parallel health system will be available.

This turn of events can never be good news to us as a nation, as doctors are now left with the supremely difficult and potentially heart-breaking choice of deciding who can get the critical care and thus, a chance to live, and who will have to be sent home, most likely to die.

What is even more worrying is the fact that the daily new infection rate has not dropped and is remaining constant at over 100 cases a day. Covid19 continues to spread through the length and breadth of our country and worst still, the delta variant.

Health officials have said that 96 per cent of the total admissions to the intensive care and the high dependency units of the parallel health system are unvaccinated citizens. This says a lot about how we as a people are treating with the seriousness of this virus and the pandemic.

You don't have to be a UWI graduate to get the message from these statistics: the unvaccinated face the greatest threat of serious illness and death from this virus.

It was noteworthy that in making the plea for the population to get vaccinated, one of the health officials at the press conference earlier this week spoke of two vaccinated people who contracted the virus, with one having minor symptoms while the other had no symptoms at all, and was not visibly ill. That is the efficacy of the covid19 vaccines.

At the end of the day, the decision is still up to you to get vaccinated or not. The ball is still in your court.

Yes, the vaccine does not prevent covid19 nor is it a cure. What it does is minimise the risk of serious illness and death.

In the broader context of the pandemic, doesn't it make sense to do all within your power to live with this virus, which clearly shows no sign of abating? The vaccines are the best form of defence science can give against covid19 at this time.

My heart goes out to those people in the ICU who do not know if they will make it through the day.

I urge those who have not done so as yet to do your research, weigh the pros and cons and take the vaccine. It could be the difference between you being able to fight off the virus or getting a one-way ticket to the afterlife. The choice is yours.

ARNOLD GOPEESINGH

SAN JUAN