EIGHTY million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines would be donated by the United States to the rest of the world and our prime minister has directly been following up to access some of these vaccines.
We are told this time, he is actively pursuing this so that he does not miss this bus. The minister of foreign affairs stated that the prime minister has been following up consistently with high-level contacts to access some of these vaccines that would be made available.
This is finally good news for Trinidad and Tobago since we will reap the benefits of these vaccines from the United States as well as the 100,000 of Sinopharm ones from the Republic of China as a gift to T&T. There is now hope on the horizon.
The opposition leader urged the prime minister to ask for these vaccines for the benefit of our citizens and for him to forget his pride. She made that call in her virtual meeting on May 17 where she said “pride cometh before the fall” and implored him to ensure that he accesses some of the 80 million vaccines promised by US President Joe Biden.
The Government and especially the prime minister have been insisting they have done everything so far to ensure they acquire vaccines however, it’s just not available on the global market, as larger more influential countries made earlier orders and secured these vaccines. So it’s just not available although other CARICOM countries were able to access vaccines, by their negotiations and beseeching.
Guyana was able to acquire the Sputnik vaccine which although doesn’t yet have World Health Organization (WHO) approval, has shown in its test results so far that it has a 91.6 % efficacy rate.
The Sputnik V as developed in Russia where specialists claimed it’s also effective against new Covid-19 strains. The immune system reacts quickly and is able to fight off the Covid-19 virus only after 18 days of administering the first dose.
So the Government of Guyana has gone after these vaccines to ensure the safety of their citizens where T&T may have dropped the ball in this race.
We seem to be way behind other CARICOM countries although our prime minister is the head of the CARICOM and have responsibilities under this post, his first priority must be the lives of our people. Just as other leaders of CARICOM recognised the need to reach herd immunity in their population.
President of Guyana Irfaan Ali, has already stated that they have enough vaccines to ensure herd immunity of their population.
We seem be running last in that race.
On May 18, that reality hit us hard, when we recorded 23 deaths due to Covid-19, the most for any day since the pandemic started.
This shows that the horse has bolted and we now want to close the gate. The figures are out of control.
We need to proactively pursue vaccines with as much intensity as the rest of the CARICOM countries.
The Government and their Covid-19 response team have not impacted the population and their daily media briefings are not doing the job to curb the spread in the population.
A different approach is needed now to ensure we secure vaccines like other countries such as Guyana and to ensure the population follows the protocols of the pandemic restrictions enforced by the Government.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessary those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.
Different Approach Needed to Secure Covid-19 Vaccines
EIGHTY million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines would be donated by the United States to the rest of the world and our prime minister has directly been following up to access some of these vaccines.
We are told this time, he is actively pursuing this so that he does not miss this bus. The minister of foreign affairs stated that the prime minister has been following up consistently with high-level contacts to access some of these vaccines that would be made available.
This is finally good news for Trinidad and Tobago since we will reap the benefits of these vaccines from the United States as well as the 100,000 of Sinopharm ones from the Republic of China as a gift to T&T. There is now hope on the horizon.
The opposition leader urged the prime minister to ask for these vaccines for the benefit of our citizens and for him to forget his pride. She made that call in her virtual meeting on May 17 where she said “pride cometh before the fall” and implored him to ensure that he accesses some of the 80 million vaccines promised by US President Joe Biden.
The Government and especially the prime minister have been insisting they have done everything so far to ensure they acquire vaccines however, it’s just not available on the global market, as larger more influential countries made earlier orders and secured these vaccines. So it’s just not available although other CARICOM countries were able to access vaccines, by their negotiations and beseeching.
Guyana was able to acquire the Sputnik vaccine which although doesn’t yet have World Health Organization (WHO) approval, has shown in its test results so far that it has a 91.6 % efficacy rate.
The Sputnik V as developed in Russia where specialists claimed it’s also effective against new Covid-19 strains. The immune system reacts quickly and is able to fight off the Covid-19 virus only after 18 days of administering the first dose.
So the Government of Guyana has gone after these vaccines to ensure the safety of their citizens where T&T may have dropped the ball in this race.
We seem to be way behind other CARICOM countries although our prime minister is the head of the CARICOM and have responsibilities under this post, his first priority must be the lives of our people. Just as other leaders of CARICOM recognised the need to reach herd immunity in their population.
President of Guyana Irfaan Ali, has already stated that they have enough vaccines to ensure herd immunity of their population.
We seem be running last in that race.
On May 18, that reality hit us hard, when we recorded 23 deaths due to Covid-19, the most for any day since the pandemic started.
This shows that the horse has bolted and we now want to close the gate. The figures are out of control.
We need to proactively pursue vaccines with as much intensity as the rest of the CARICOM countries.
The Government and their Covid-19 response team have not impacted the population and their daily media briefings are not doing the job to curb the spread in the population.
A different approach is needed now to ensure we secure vaccines like other countries such as Guyana and to ensure the population follows the protocols of the pandemic restrictions enforced by the Government.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessary those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.