EDITORIAL: Err on the side of caution

THE rising cases of COVID-19 in the United States gives us grave cause for concern, since as a tourism destination, we must do all we can to ensure that we reduce the risk of our citizens contracting the virus, which may be brought to our shores by visitors.

Therefore, whilst it has been reported that several Barbadians in the United States have voiced their frustration over the decision to reduce the number of JetBlue flights from four weekly to just one and to postpone the American Airlines flight scheduled for early August, it may be for the best. You see, we must do what we can here to preserve citizens’ health, for indeed health is wealth. Prevention is way better than cure. We have to mitigate the risks. We have to err on the side of caution.

Just recently, it was noted that Head of Global Markets at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), Petra Roach, sought to defend Government’s position on this matter.

“The last thing that we want to do is inconvenience anyone, that certainly is not the case, but at the same time we have to be cognisant of the fact that Barbados is 166 square miles and we’ve heard all of the furore of the importation of the virus and we have to understand and respect also the local population and their voice,” Roach commented, adding that the airline understands our position and is working with us.

Certainly, as one of the countries that has been able to successfully reduce our COVID-19 cases, we cannot be careless in our recovery efforts. As Dr. Calum Macpherson, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Director of Research at St. George’s University, Grenada, said recently, vigilance is a must as countries across the region seek to open up their borders again in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, to facilitate travel and tourism.

He noted that one of the areas the Caribbean should be very proud of, is that of the 30 small island developing states in the region, 20 per cent had no deaths from COVID-19 and this was as a result of the adherence to public health advice issued by experts, early lockdowns and border closures.

He however stressed, “We are immunologically naive and as we open our borders for tourism, which is the lifeblood of many of our countries economically, we are going to have to be even more vigilant as people with this virus may come into the region.”

So indeed, we need to err on the side of caution in how we reopen our borders and open back up our doors for business. Yes, we want to see our economy back up. Yes, we want persons to earn a living and preserve their livelihoods. Yes, we would love to see greater activity in our tourism sector, which has been hard hit by the pandemic. But we also do not want to go back into a period of lockdown. We do not want to see a second wave of COVID-19 here in Barbados, that puts our health sector under further pressure.

So, we may have to get a bit more creative and think outside the box on how we can generate more business activity and even more business on the travel and tourism end. But we can never become careless with the lives of our citizens, simply for profit. Let us consider that in this instance, health certainly is wealth and let us err on the side of caution.