A GUY'S VIEW: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

IT was reported that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has expended nine million dollars in preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic. In straitened economic times, this is a significant sum for a country with Barbados’ budget.

The monies spent is an indication of the seriousness with which this health issue was approached. This was necessary, as the health of the nation is the bedrock of everything else.

The Government sought to recruit the human resources it deemed necessary to properly equip us with the know-how to deal with worst-case scenarios. A rallying call was also made for all hands to be on deck in the event that those hands were needed to help in the fight. Fortunately, it seems that we did not have to deal with what was originally feared. But it is always wise to be prepared for the worst, while hoping for the best.

There is still some distance to go before we can say that we are out of the woods. One development that is of concern, although it seems to have flown under the radar thus far, is the selection of Barbados, among other Caribbean states, for vaccine testing.

For a long time, many persons have been blowing the whistle on the possible harm that may result from vaccination. In relation to the COVID-19 vaccine, alarm bells rang loudly when French scientists revealed that they were about to test a vaccine in Africa, although Europe was then the epicenter of the pandemic. It was not safe enough to be tested on Europeans, so they were prepared to test it on what they obviously considered to be their lab monkeys.

If you cannot test a dangerous drug on Africans in Africa, what would be the next best thing? It seems that the African diaspora has been selected. That means us.
While other places have been reeling under the weight of coronavirus infections and deaths, the Caribbean has fared much better. So why would there be a need to test a vaccine in the Caribbean, where there has been little impact, and not among the affected populations?

Vaccines introduce the very disease they are designed to prevent into the body of a healthy person, in the hope that the immune system of the previously healthy body would develop antibodies to fight off a later infection. The plan, therefore, is to give the virus to Caribbean people who do not now have it.

Vaccines contain substances that are not revealed to those who take them and have been used to make black women sterile. The people proposing and delivering them do not know what is in them. The coronavirus will continue to mutate and, therefore, a vaccine that may address it in 2020, may be of no use in 2021.

Further, as is the case with the common flu, it seems that healthy people can be infected and survive. For example, we were told that our Ambassador to the United Nations was infected with the virus and did not even know it.

Although our reported cases have been modest, there is a general belief among Barbadians that there are more people walking among us with the virus, some probably knowing or suspecting and others having no idea of their status. But we march on towards the reopening of the country.

The economy depends on an open country. However, it would be a terrible error not to recognise that economic well-being depends on a healthy population, so economic considerations should not go ahead of the health of the people. A decent balance may be struck, but our authorities must look at what is necessary for Barbados instead of copying what they see on international television.

For example, all the unbiased medical information speaks to the importance of sunshine, exercise and the therapeutic value of the beach. But we shut down our beaches because Florida did so. The issues that informed that decision in Florida had to do with spring break crowds. That is not how we use our beaches and is not relevant to us. A caution to keep safe distances would have been sufficient.

A lot of terrible things are being done under the cloak of coronavirus. We have seen it in our legislature and in other lawlessness, but this is not peculiar to Barbados. We must be careful not to let our long-term health and social well-being be compromised by the sinister agenda of people with their own interests which do not coincide with ours.
 

Barbados Advocate

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Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
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Phone: (246) 467-2000
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