WE need the private sector to be allowed to step in and assist with the drive to vaccinate the population.
Let them be allowed to bring in the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and with assistance from the Government offer to the general public at a reduced or subsidized cost who is willing to pay for it.
This will considerably assist in the rollout to attain the desired herd immunity in Trinidad and Tobago.
There has been serious concerns about the efficacy of the various vaccines available.
However, T&T has only received the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and we have reports that the Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh is rushing to acquire the China-made Sinopharm vaccine.
Deyalsingh recently has had meetings with Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram to finalise a pre-order for the China-made Sinopharm vaccine. Yet in China, a disease control official, said their vaccines have low protection against the coronavirus.
So why the rush to import these vaccines? What’s the rush to import these vaccines in particular? This again seems fishy when reports from a former director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Gao Fu said at a conference in April 2021 that the efficacy rates needed improving.
He even suggested that mixing them with other vaccines that have better efficacy is one of their strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.
With the emergence of this virus in December 2019, the coronavirus has killed more than two million people worldwide, with millions being infected and this recently compelled our government to put some more lockdown measures in place – for the third time in 13 months.
The latest regulations implemented by the Ministry of Health is a ban on in-house dining at restaurants, cinemas and other establishments as well as closure of beaches for the next three weeks, due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.
The hospitality industry is already bawling from the limited dining restrictions and no in-house or drinking of alcohol on site.
So this third lockdown is not being taken easily by them especially when there is not any scientific proof that the restaurants, bars or cinemas are the culprits for spreading the virus during the upsurge of cases.
Many are on the verge of closure already and with this latest lockdown we will see many businesses failing and many people on the breadline.
That is why it’s imperative that we consider allowing entry of other vaccines available through the private sector with stringent importation regulations under government guidelines to ensure they are sourced from the manufacturers.
We need to get the population inoculated in a shorter space of time. The job being done by the administration is a far cry from reaching anywhere close to herd immunity.
To save many of these businesses from imminent closure especially in the hospitality industry across the country we need to be more innovative.
Our citizens have been told for the last 14 months that it’s all up to us and that one fool can be the inconsiderate culprit and become a super spreader.
Yet after all this, the Covid positive cases continue to rise and the latest measures are basically our own fault. We are the ones being forced into lockdown again yet we see senior officials and friends to the ruling party breaking the Covid-19 rules without any repercussions.
We get beat over our heads to follow the rules, it is implied that it’s because of a lack of people’s behavior and ability to conduct ourselves properly that has cause this third lockdown.
Where is the empirical evidence on this? Our prime minister said he did everything possible and followed the guidelines however, the average citizen is wondering if he did really behave himself because obviously he himself got Covid-19.
I myself as well as the whole nation wish him a speedy recovery but one must ask if Minister Deyalsingh is living up to his responsibilities, to deliver an effective vaccine programme for the hundreds of thousands of citizens so that the pandemic will end. The way we are going, we see no end to this disaster and this virus will most likely be with us well into 2025 and beyond.
We cannot survive that long, so please we call on minister Deyalsingh as well as the Government to step up to the plate and do what is required to save our citizens lives and our livelihood and our businesses.
A Call For the Private Sector to Help with Vaccines
WE need the private sector to be allowed to step in and assist with the drive to vaccinate the population.
Let them be allowed to bring in the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and with assistance from the Government offer to the general public at a reduced or subsidized cost who is willing to pay for it.
This will considerably assist in the rollout to attain the desired herd immunity in Trinidad and Tobago.
There has been serious concerns about the efficacy of the various vaccines available.
However, T&T has only received the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and we have reports that the Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh is rushing to acquire the China-made Sinopharm vaccine.
Deyalsingh recently has had meetings with Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram to finalise a pre-order for the China-made Sinopharm vaccine. Yet in China, a disease control official, said their vaccines have low protection against the coronavirus.
So why the rush to import these vaccines? What’s the rush to import these vaccines in particular? This again seems fishy when reports from a former director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Gao Fu said at a conference in April 2021 that the efficacy rates needed improving.
He even suggested that mixing them with other vaccines that have better efficacy is one of their strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.
With the emergence of this virus in December 2019, the coronavirus has killed more than two million people worldwide, with millions being infected and this recently compelled our government to put some more lockdown measures in place – for the third time in 13 months.
The latest regulations implemented by the Ministry of Health is a ban on in-house dining at restaurants, cinemas and other establishments as well as closure of beaches for the next three weeks, due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.
The hospitality industry is already bawling from the limited dining restrictions and no in-house or drinking of alcohol on site.
So this third lockdown is not being taken easily by them especially when there is not any scientific proof that the restaurants, bars or cinemas are the culprits for spreading the virus during the upsurge of cases.
Many are on the verge of closure already and with this latest lockdown we will see many businesses failing and many people on the breadline.
That is why it’s imperative that we consider allowing entry of other vaccines available through the private sector with stringent importation regulations under government guidelines to ensure they are sourced from the manufacturers.
We need to get the population inoculated in a shorter space of time. The job being done by the administration is a far cry from reaching anywhere close to herd immunity.
To save many of these businesses from imminent closure especially in the hospitality industry across the country we need to be more innovative.
Our citizens have been told for the last 14 months that it’s all up to us and that one fool can be the inconsiderate culprit and become a super spreader.
Yet after all this, the Covid positive cases continue to rise and the latest measures are basically our own fault. We are the ones being forced into lockdown again yet we see senior officials and friends to the ruling party breaking the Covid-19 rules without any repercussions.
We get beat over our heads to follow the rules, it is implied that it’s because of a lack of people’s behavior and ability to conduct ourselves properly that has cause this third lockdown.
Where is the empirical evidence on this? Our prime minister said he did everything possible and followed the guidelines however, the average citizen is wondering if he did really behave himself because obviously he himself got Covid-19.
I myself as well as the whole nation wish him a speedy recovery but one must ask if Minister Deyalsingh is living up to his responsibilities, to deliver an effective vaccine programme for the hundreds of thousands of citizens so that the pandemic will end. The way we are going, we see no end to this disaster and this virus will most likely be with us well into 2025 and beyond.
We cannot survive that long, so please we call on minister Deyalsingh as well as the Government to step up to the plate and do what is required to save our citizens lives and our livelihood and our businesses.
Let private sector help where they can.