Following the blocking of the Mackenzie-Wismar bridge on Wednesday the matter of Covid vaccinations has the potential to acquire an unfortunate political tinge, the last thing one wants in the middle of a pandemic. The Minister of Health has given the assurance that unlike so many other developing countries, Guyana does have enough vaccines to inoculate its population, but despite that, many citizens do not want to take advantage of this good fortune and go to a centre for their jab.
As a consequence the Ministry has made it mandatory for healthcare workers and public transport operators to be vaccinated, while staff in some ministries have been informed they will have to be vaccinated, or if not, provide a negative PCR test before they can work. As for members of the public who seek to visit a ministry or government agency, they too will have to be vaccinated, and if not, will have to make an appointment. These requirements have been designated by the health authorities as ‘protocols’, but of course that is really just a euphemism since sanctions are involved.
One can understand the frustration of Minister Frank Anthony who would like to protect the population as far as is humanly possible, but is not getting the full cooperation of the citizenry. He has therefore taken the short-cut route of effectively making vaccination compulsory for workers who are in frequent contact with the public. Certain other countries such as the UK are mulling going down this road, at least in respect of health and social care employees.
Where medical staff and allied workers are concerned, there have been reports in England that last year a not insignificant proportion of patients who were seriously ill or died from Covid had caught the disease in hospital after being admitted for some other complaint. This mode of infection rejoices in the somewhat recondite name of nosocomial transmission. Aside from the matter of how patients caught the virus in hospital – and there is more than one possible route – there is no doubt that medical staff themselves are at particular risk, as the numbers of them who have died from the disease elsewhere testify.
There are various reasons why people will not take the vaccine. In some cases, particularly where the young are concerned, they may have that feeling of invincibility which accompanies youth, or they may believe that if they contract the virus they will not become seriously ill. It is true that young people in general will have milder symptoms than their elders if they contract the disease, but that does not apply to everyone and some have died of it. But that is not the point. However mildly they have it, they are still infectious and can transmit it to more vulnerable people around them who have little resistance.
Then there are those, perhaps, who don’t really believe they will catch it, and can’t be bothered to travel to a vaccination centre, particularly if it is any distance away and they lack money or energy. Some, too, don’t see the point of inoculation: “So why can’t we continue about our business by wearing a mask and social distancing? From what I see, the vaccine is unnecessary,” one protestor told this newspaper. This is clearly a case of someone who does not have access to accurate information.
Other people, it seems, believe compulsory vaccinations are a civil liberties issue. Even Region Ten Chairman Deron Adams has said that healthcare workers who have worked for more than a year during the pandemic without being vaccinated must be allowed to have control over what is put into their bodies. One of the protestors on the bridge declared, “They are violating our human rights!” and according to our report he was echoed by various other persons nearby.
The problem is, of course, this is not a matter of individual rights but the common good, in the sense that one person’s insistence on their freedom to choose can cause real harm to those around them. They should not have the freedom to cause others harm, and in other areas of life the law does not allow them this indulgence. It might be noted that most Guyanese do not have objection to their children being vaccinated against childhood diseases, while in countries like Britain surgeons and theatre staff have always been required to have vaccinations before they operate on a hepatitis patient.
There are inevitably some who function with the assumptions of a pre-rationalist world and believe the nonsense that is peddled on social media. Unfortunately the government appears to have made little effort to counter the conspiracy drivel that swamps the internet.
The problem for the Minister is that in an ideal Guyanese world his approach would be undeniably right, but in our real world of the here and now, it is generally ill-advised. It is no accident that the region with the highest vaccination rate is Six, and the lowest, Ten. It is a reflection no doubt that the governmental authorities are trusted in the first-named region, and very little trusted in the second.
As it was, protestors wasted little time blocking the bridge in support of the medical staff and patients who were denied access to the Linden Hospital Complex following the institution of the new ‘protocols’. According to Chairman Adams, over 120 healthcare workers were locked out in addition to six pregnant women and eight children, all because they did not meet the new requirements.
Although it should have done, the Ministry clearly did not anticipate the creation of this absurd situation, where health care was denied in a major regional hospital on what the residents perceived as procedural grounds. At the very minimum – and even that might not be enough − the employees should be made aware of the new regulations, and should be given sufficient time to bring themselves into compliance. According to one nurse, however, they did not receive any formal communication from their superiors about the new ‘protocols’ and only became aware of them from social media. As for the alternative of a PCR test as required for ministry officials, another nurse told this newspaper that in Linden this costs around $25,000, and she did not even earn that much in a week.
The Mackenzie-Wismar bridge has a long political history, and by Wednesday evening the Minister mercifully had decided to backtrack a bit, and give a grace period for the ‘protocols’ to be implemented.
Interestingly, several people complained to this newspaper that they were not getting enough information about the virus and the vaccine, and if they could get that they would not be so reluctant about being inoculated. The government should take note. Their campaign in Linden and environs has not been good enough, either because of inefficiency or because they lack political confidence when operating in Region Ten, or both. The problem is that Covid is no respecter of race or politics, and if the inhabitants of this region are exposed, then by extension the whole nation is exposed.
The government, too, has made its own life difficult, because foolishly it will not work with the PNCR, and in an area like Region Ten it needs to do so. At the minimum it requires a viable anti-virus strategy here, which could include mobile units going around explaining the need for vaccination, and offering jabs on the spot. Then people will be faced with the options on their doorstep, can have their questions answered and will not have to take themselves out of their homes to get vaccinated.
In addition, senior Ministry and medical officials should go to the Linden hospital and meet the nurses and other health workers, and request their cooperation in becoming vaccinated and invite them to explain to the patients they encounter why it is so important to get the jab.
Information for the public is critical, and it should be easily accessible and in a form that most people can digest. It will constitute the basis on which the Ministry can persuade the more reluctant among us to get vaccinated. And for practical reasons, persuasion is the key here, not coercion. That is very much a last resort.
