We learnt late last week through a Ministry of Health media release that a COVID-19 Vaccines Task Force had been established in preparation for the rollout of the inoculation campaign against the pandemic. The Task Force numbers, so we are told, nineteen persons, that it is being headed by Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony and that it includes representatives from Departments within the Ministry of Health, the National COVID Task Force, other government departments and the private sector.
Whether this is the first indication that the arrival of an allocation of COVID-19 vaccinations here is imminent is hard to say since we had not, previously, been afforded any specific delivery time line, in that regard. If it is that the announcement of the setting up of a Task Force is an early indication that arrangements are in train for us to receive the vaccine then that is a good thing since the state authorities are known, frequently, to strike a dilatory posture in relation to matters of an urgent nature and to effect procedures in a rush and not infrequently with undesirable consequences.
The government, of course, has some more work to do here, first, in the matter of ensuring that the vaccinations are properly received and secured, secondly, in providing clear and coherent procedural and logistics-related briefings with regard to the administering of the vaccination and thirdly in providing us with such information as is necessary about the vaccination itself. Here again, one makes this point since it is not uncommon for the state’s public information machinery to become convoluted and confused, a circumstance that frequently undermines the effectiveness of the messages that it seeks to disseminate. In a matter such as the administering of the COVID-19 vaccination such slipups in the communication process would be unacceptable. Accordingly, and quite apart from those functionaries who are, in one way or another, qualified in the matter of administering the vaccination, it is the responsibility of the Minister of Health to ensure that their efforts are supported by persons with some knowledge of how to ensure a sustained efficient two-way flow of information between the recipients of the vaccination and the ‘system’ responsible for administering it.
One makes these points, mind you, because official slipups in the dissemination of information and needless attendant fuss are commonplace. There have been times when the effectiveness of official ‘messages’ has been undermined either by needless clutter or in deficiencies that have to do with a patent lack of clarity.
Presumably, too, there will be information forthcoming as to the nature of the vaccination and the way it works. This is information to which the recipients of the vaccination are entitled and it ought to be forthcoming well in advance of the start of the administering process. The last thing we need is to have the process choked by a great deal of public ignorance and attendant angst and it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health to go to the lengths necessary to ensure that this does not occur. Ineptitude or slipups here can give rise confusion and worry which, of course, is the last thing that we would want in this kind of situation.
If there is a system, a schedule for the countrywide administering of the vaccine then the full weight of the state’s resources should be thrown behind ensuring that that system is universally understood and scrupulously applied and that it is not overtaken by unanticipated diversions and shortcuts and intervening political directives. Where there are such occurrences issues of ‘hidden agendas’ and manipulation of the process are bound to arise. We may as well not delude ourselves about what – for want of a better phrase – is the prevailing toxic nature of our prevailing political culture and the likelihood that depending on the manner in which the administering of the vaccine is rolled out, the whole process could run into a vigorous political blowback.
The whole thing has to be planned down to the smallest detail. We do not want, as appears to be the case with the current distribution of the countrywide COVID-19 state grant, to have a situation in which pockets of people are beginning to wonder aloud as to why they have not yet been recipients of the grant. That is why, in the instance of the administering of the vaccine, the team should comprise not just functionaries possessed of skills sets that have to do with the administering of the vaccination but also persons with communication and logistics-related skills since this is where, frequently, systems tend to break down.
As for the Minister of Health heading the Task Force – and here we are very much bearing in mind that he is also a medical doctor – his, one feels, should be an oversight-type role. Responsibility for the step by step rolling out of the countrywide administering of the vaccine should be assigned to a suitable full-time health professional on the ground. There are persons who would argue that in a circumstance such as this it is probably unwise for a politician to be ‘calling the shots’ on the ground and that it is in the interest of ensuring that the process goes as smoothly as possible that we find an experienced medical professional to play that role. His or her involvement in the on-the-ground decision-making must not, at any stage, become the subject of query or controversy. One is dealing here with the political realities of our Guyana.
Unfortunately, government has an unfortunate history of frequently fluffing our lines whenever an assignment that has to do with engaging the nation is put before us. As was mentioned earlier, one does not get the impression, for example, that the exercise of distributing that state-allocated COVID-19 grant is going altogether smoothly. This circumstance has given rise, inevitably, to complaints – that may well not be possessed of any verifiable justification – of prejudice associated with the distribution of the cash. Here it has to be said that the truth or otherwise that often lies at the root of these kinds of controversies is entirely beside the point.
Every Guyanese is painfully aware that the slightest anomaly in whatever system is designed to effect the administering of the vaccination could face vigorous, even toxic public comment rooted in our toxic political culture. We must therefore hope that whatever the system employed to administer the COVID-19 vaccine, the authorities will go to such lengths as are necessary to avoid any kind of political ruckus.