Dear Editor,
The Covid-19 vaccination system in Guyana needs revamping, because currently, the situation is quite absurd. Picture me, an ambitious 25-year-old female, a bit nervous about receiving the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine but yet still excited that there are steps I can actively take in the fight against a global pandemic. I received the first dose without any problems and looked forward to the date set when I SHOULD HAVE returned to receive my second. Yet to my dismay, there were no second doses available when I returned. This was a bit disappointing but yet still I persevered. I had been told to “check back” in a week, because the health staff at the clinic where I had received my vaccine were not sure on when they would receive the next shipment of vaccines.
I returned the following week bright and early on Monday morning only to be greeted with bad news again; “no vaccines available today, check back next week”. I must have let out an audible sigh because one of the other persons in the clinic decided to yell out “Is Guyana yuh know!” Mind you, this was back in May, and it is now August and I have still not been able to receive my second dose. This last week has prompted me to write this piece because I visited 5 different health centers in my area only to be told that there were no any second doses available. Quite frankly, this should have been addressed before I received my first dose because this is utterly ridiculous. When the government of Guyana said that they were providing free Covid-19 vaccinations for its citizens I did not realize that it had only meant one dose.
At this point my frustration with the situation had reached a point that was making me regret taking the first dose of the vaccine. I expressed my thoughts to one of the nurses at the clinic closest to me and she said to me that the clinics did not have proper storage facilities in which to store the vaccines because they needed to stock dry ice and the vaccines can only be used for one hour after they were received. This was shocking news to me. Was Guyana so limited in its healthcare provision that it could not even prepare these facilities by providing the proper storage materials in order to accommodate the vaccines? The irony of it all was that the media was steadily announcing how many thousands of second dose vaccines were being received, and this made the general public assume that vaccines were going to be provided in excess. When you show up to the individual clinics however, it was an entirely different story. In order to avoid a situation where other Guyanese have to experience the circumstances that mirrors my own, the healthcare division in Guyana needs to fix this.
In conclusion, I do believe that this situation warrants a proper look into in order to improve what is currently happening. So I am imploring, provide the storage units, provide the dry ice, and inform the citizens of the actual situation that is going on behind the scenes so that you can fix what is happening here. Receiving the Covid-19 vaccinations should not have to be such a difficult process. This needs to be remedied as soon as humanely possible because it can discourage persons from wanting to become vaccinated.
Sincerely,
Kendra Ram
