With the death toll from COVID-19 at 207 and most likely understated, the urgency of ensuring herd immunity through vaccination remains a pressing issue. The government has set the ambitious target of inoculating the entire population by the end of this year and in his address to the nation on March 13th President Ali outlined the various initiatives that have been undertaken to secure vaccines.
Unsurprisingly, two key and in-demand vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna have stated that no supply is possible until 2022. There has been no communication for a month from the under-pressure COVAX mechanism about the 108,000 vaccine doses that had been committed to Guyana. Russia is to provide 5,000 doses of its ground-breaking Sputnik 5 vaccine this week and negotiations with a business group in the United Arab Emirates should see the supply of 200,000 doses of said vaccine. Should the latter materialise it would be a significant boost to vaccination efforts.
As it stands at the moment, Guyana has had access to 103,000 doses of two COVID vaccines, enough to inoculate 51,500 persons with both of the required doses. These vaccines comprise the kind donation by Barbados of 3,000 doses, 20,000 from China and 80,000 from India. Notably these donations have been made despite pressing domestic needs and in a climate where Western countries have neither donated nor sold a single shot to this country.
While the supply chains have been tight and Guyana has been banking heavily on the World Health Organisation’s COVAX mechanism, it is disappointing that Georgetown had not earlier sought other options. The plaintive plea by the proactive Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley yielded 100,000 doses from India from which she generously donated 3,000 shots on February 10th to Guyana thereby allowing the vaccinating of frontline health care workers from as early as February 11th. This was the type of visionary effort needed and a matter that had been raised repeatedly with the Ministry of Health here.
Efforts must continue unremittingly to access enough vaccines to enable herd immunity by the end of the year. At the same time the Ministry of Health and the Government must show fastidious accountability in relation to the vaccines and the associated cost. Thus far the ministry has fallen far below expectations in relation to accountability for vaccines and this must be immediately remedied.
There are standard data sets that should be provided on a daily basis by the ministry considering that it now has a substantial flow of vaccines. Out of the initial donation from Barbados how many were utilised on health workers, in which categories and in which regions? There has been no such disaggregation since the Ministry of Health began vaccinating despite an entire month having elapsed. Vaccinations have begun with China’s Sinopharm and India’s Covishield but there has been no daily information on the doses utilised, the ages of the persons vaccinated and in which regions. This information is also important for correlation with those who might become infected in the future and hospitalisations.
We are meant to be an evolving data-based nation so all figures matter. Moreover, the provision of information in granular form builds people’s confidence in the rollout of the vaccines, the evenness of distribution and lessons the room for corrupt behaviour and laxity. Surely it is within the ability of the Ministry of Health and its many advisors/partners to provide on a daily basis, subject to final verification, the number of inoculations.
The ministry must also provide information on whether there were any adverse reactions to vaccinations and the remediation steps taken. It must also speak about the storage of vaccines and whether there has been any spoilage given the geographical spread of vaccination sites and the inherent logistical challenges. To date the Minister of Health, Dr Anthony has not provided a definitive answer on the apparently corrupt administration of a vaccine to a businessman. Whether it was one or a hundred doses any such transgression warrants stern action. Was this matter fully investigated and has action been taken against the culpable? Have 5,000 doses of our vaccines been donated to Barbados as stated by Prime Minister Mottley on March 11th and if so why was this not announced here? Can the ministry provide the transportation and other costs associated with the vaccine donations?
Finally, the ministry has sent mixed messages on the targets for vaccination which is why data is so important and useful. Have all frontline healthcare workers desirous of taking the vaccine been inoculated? If not, they should continue to be given preference. Following the receipt of the 100,000 vaccine doses, the ministry announced that persons over 60 would be vaccinated. Yet, some persons under 60 years have been vaccinated in what appears to be a programme to inspire confidence in the vaccines and apparently Members of Parliament are also to receive jabs. The messaging by the ministry has to be much clearer. If a certain portion of the vaccines has been set aside for confidence building that needs to be stated otherwise people over 60 and those with comorbidities should have absolute priority. Roughly, how many people fall into this category? One would have thought that all elderly care homes would have been immediately catered for under the current vaccine supply. Though there has been some mention of this, no figures have been supplied. There has also been talk about the vaccination of teachers and member of the Joint Services but again no clarity or overarching policy. Is there room for shut-ins to book a vaccination visit?
Much more data and information must be supplied by the Ministry of Health from this point onwards to assure members of the public that judicious decisions are being taken.
