Dear Editor,
The letter submitted to your newspaper by Dr. Jhingree and published in the letters column, was comprehensive and timely in relation to COVID – 19 and its variants. It should remove vaccination – hesitancy from any rational Guyanese and citizens further afield. People should quickly get vaccinated as variants develop more quickly when large groups are left unvaccinated. The Delta variant is claiming lives at an even more alarming rate than the original COVID – 19. With each new variant, it could be expected that it will be exponentially severe. It is a race against time and we need to win before our present vaccines become useless against a more severe strain of COVID -19. There will be no more variants if we can vaccinate enough people around the world. There is no use expounding on Dr. Jhingree’s expert analysis and it is not my intention to do so. As I have said, her views are germane to COVID – 19. The emphasis must remain on vaccinations, masking pre and post vaccinations, adhering to defense mechanisms and applying those rules to all who are entering other countries. As it has not been determined whether booster doses are required, wealthy countries with doses in excess of what is presently required per person, should move swiftly to export these to countries in need of vaccines. The threat of mutations of COVID -19 remains until we are all vaccinated or at least until all countries achieve herd immunity. The present statistics showing that two percent of populations in undeveloped countries are unvaccinated due mainly to the unavailability of a sufficient quantity of vaccines, is appalling.
Our biggest threat now is faced by those who are not willing to vaccinate. Among those people are the uneducated, those who don’t believe in science and those unwilling to do or unaccustomed to doing research. All vaccines developed to date have halted and eradicated those illnesses for which they have been created. The law must be applied in every case where others pose a threat to members of society. Countries around the world were able to stem the tide of COVID -19 along its destructive path but they dropped their vigilance and adopted a less rigorous response. We are now experiencing the result of that lack of conviction about the relentless and insidious nature of a pandemic. In Guyana, we witness some of the sloppiest defenses against COVID -19. It can be noticed that citizens here feel that they are fully protected against the disease if they are masked or vaccinated so they move easily within the recommended six feet distance of each other. This is a wrong practice. It is understandable that COVID -19 fatigue has set in among populations worldwide. However, we have the tools to defeat this disease so let us persevere for a while longer and aggressively act towards the achievement of herd immunity. Without that fortitude, life as we have come to know it, may never return to normalcy.
Sincerely,
Conrad Barrow