From fear to self-responsibility

DR SEAN MATTHEWS

HOW LONG will TT’s officials continue to try to use fear tactics on the populace? It is time to move on and change the messaging. To say our vaccination rate has stalled is to put it nicely. Even with our horrible death rate during the surge of delta variant cases these vaccination rates did not increase significantly. The Government did what it had to do and made vaccines easily available to those who wanted it. The people have made their personal decisions regarding vaccination. There are very few who at this point will suddenly be convinced to be vaccinated.

We claim to keep following the science, but it seems we are chopping off our nose to spite our face. One major example was the closure of beaches, even though science had shown this is one of the safest activities that could have been done during the pandemic. So what did this do? Led to people congregating at houses and enclosed areas to lime anyway, and people acted shocked when covid19 cases continued to surge.

A lot of what seems to be done is “theatre.” Case in point is our ridiculous mask law. People are required to wear a mask in their own vehicle with their own family members. How can this make sense? We know this law was placed due to the PH taxis and police being unable to tell who is a family and who is in a PH taxi. But so what? This is where we need to move on to some common sense and self-responsibility.

If a taxi driver is not wearing a mask, then the passengers have the choice to not get in that taxi and the same goes for a driver. The driver can choose to only allow people in the car that wear masks. We can then keep the mask mandate for public transport. This is not rocket science; let the people make their own decisions in this aspect.

Another great example of hygiene theatre is this constant sanitising of surfaces. The one that always makes me laugh is at the bank when you get up from your seat to go to the teller, a person immediately runs to the chair and wipes down the seat. Did I miss the latest seat-licking craze? Otherwise, that seat is of no danger to spreading covid19. But people like the hygiene theatre. Which brings me to the saddest part of all this theatre – our schools.

This is going to be looked back on as the biggest failure of the pandemic – the fact that our children have missed almost two years of physical school and the ridiculous protocols being looked at to partially reopen. This includes leaving a day every week for the school to be properly sanitised. We know that surface transfer is not responsible for significant covid19 infections, but knowing the school is sanitised makes some feel better, because of the fear that was instilled in the messaging from our officials. Simple normal cleaning is all that is required unless in a hot zone such as a covid19 ward in a hospital.

It is true many of our schools are overcrowded and yes there may be some increased transmission for a time. But what is the alternative? The cost is too dear. We are losing so many of our youth to even worse influences – gangs and crime. This is not something that we will pay for one year down the road but possibly a whole generation.

There is minimal support for those who can’t get online to attend classes and less support for those who suffer from conditions such as anxiety or depression. As a paediatrician I see it often, young children are poorly socialised, not meeting developmental milestones due to the lack of interaction with other children and face-to-face teaching.

This can only worsen our class divide, as those who can afford it organise “pods” to make sure their children are getting in-person attention and will keep up with their academic development. But most will not be in that category, as both parents may need to work to make ends meet, leaving the children unsupervised or minimally supervised at home.

An understandable concern that is cited is the possible increase in MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children) cases in our paediatric population. This was also a concern worldwide by doctors as they saw larger numbers of children being infected during the omicron surge. However, it has been seen with every variant the relative number of cases of MIS-C to paediatric covid19 infections has been dropping. This therefore cannot be used as an excuse to keep our children out of school. The price we are going to pay is just too high.

Of course, the easiest way to avoid severe illness is having your child vaccinated. This has been proven to reduce the risk of MIS-C to almost one in a million. It’s known that for most of the paediatric population, symptoms are mild and do not put any strain on our healthcare system. We can see it in the hospitals, looking at hospitalised covid19 positive patients. There is no major increase in paediatric numbers, if one excludes the age group under three months and those with other conditions such as sickle cell disease, as those are patients that would have been admitted to hospital with any febrile illness whether it be covid19 or not.

We see it everywhere that people are making their own decisions. Some decide to go out to a bar with friends, while others still keep their circle tight. One is not better than the other, life has to continue on. Personal responsibility is key. And I firmly believe it is our personal responsibility as a nation to ensure the best for our children, and this I believe means nothing less than face-to-face physical school.

Dr Sean Matthews is a paediatrician