India to our Aid

Excerpt from Jamaica Observer column published Monday March 01, 2021

By Jean Lowrie-Chin

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Here we are in March 2021, one year after the COVID-19 alert was sounded in Jamaica and we closed down our offices, started working more from home, wearing masks, sanitising; doing all the right things to stay well. Meanwhile, some of our fellow citizens were partying and going maskless about their business and taking the illness home to their elderly relatives.

You better believe that these offenders are not all poor, uneducated Jamaicans; some are well-off people whose arrogance has risen to stupidity.

With our hospitals at capacity and our medical personnel in exhaustion, we welcomed the news last Friday that a generous gift of 50,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from the Indian Government will arrive this week. The Indian High Commissioner to Jamaica Masakui Rungsung said this was the result of the valiant efforts made with various agencies in his country: “This situation has given us sleepless nights,” he shared. Present at the announcement was Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, whose diplomatic skills have brought much goodwill to Jamaica. We thank High Commissioner Rungsung and his Government for this urgently needed contribution.

Vaccine distribution

A letter widely circulated on various platforms from the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ) requesting information on seniors in preparation for vaccine distribution was really meant for doctors and not the general public. Information regarding individuals over 60 should be supplied to their respective general practitioners so that the MAJ can collate and share it with the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

I understand that the sequence for the administering of vaccinations is, first, health and front line workers; second, the security forces; and, third, the elderly, defined as people over 60.

A US poll has revealed an encouraging high-acceptance level of the vaccine and we are hoping that this will be the same for Jamaica. There is a lot of anti-vaccine nonsense circulating on WhatsApp. Meanwhile, those of us with elderly relatives in countries where the vaccine is being administered are reassured by their messages that there may be discomfort for one or two days, but they are well and very relieved to have the protection of the vaccine.

There are now three vaccines approved by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and the single-shot Johnson & Johnson. We have been assured by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that, while they may not have 100 per cent effectiveness in preventing COVID-19, they have 100 per cent effectiveness in keeping those affected from becoming seriously ill and in need of hospital care. Well, if that is not enough assurance, I do not know what is.