COVAX VACCINES ARRIVE

ON the eve of World Health Day, Barbados was given yet another lifeline in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as the first tranche of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Barbados via the COVAX facility. With the Northern Air Cargo flight landing at the Grantley Adams International Airport at 7:00 a.m. yesterday, the shipment of 33,600 doses were met by a delegation which included high-ranking government officials, representatives from the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) and heads of mission from the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada and the United Nations.

To date, 700 million persons in the Americas have been vaccinated in what is one of the most significant undertakings in public health in the history of the region, with Barbados accounting for just over 60,000. Speaking during the short ceremony held in the departures lounge at the airport, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Dr. Yitades Gebre, noted that access to vaccines should not be a privilege for a few, but a right that we share regardless of who we are, where we are and where we come from. Going on to reveal that PAHO would be supporting countries in the distribution of vaccines, Dr. Gebre reiterated that the vaccines are safe.

“The prequalification of vaccines to be used through COVAX allows PAHO to offer vaccines with the highest effectiveness and safety standards. Vaccine supply continues to be a great challenge and a large part of this is due to the delay in production as manufacturers scale up capacity. The goal of COVAX facility is to provide up to 20% of the population in each participating country globally with the aim of protecting those most at risk and to save lives. COVAX remains the best option to offer vaccines with equity,” he said.

With a second tranche expected in a few months, Minister of Health and Wellness Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic said that it was a long journey, but reflected on the latest development in what has been an undeniably long journey.

“Thirty-three thousand-plus vaccines really represent 33,000 small jabs in the arms of Barbadians and residents of this country. But it represents also, a significant step forward in our fight against COVID. As we pursue the path towards a destin-ation which will include seeing Barbadians being able to return as close as possible to the quality of life that we are accustomed to living and for the livelihoods of persons residing here as well. And these vaccines will help us in the Ministry to be able to manage COVID, to be able to live with COVID so that people can enjoy what they normally enjoy,” he said.

Expressing her gratitude to the countries that made the early determination to contribute to the establishment of the COVAX facility, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said that it was still a sad situation that the world had found itself in. “It is a sad indictment of the global community in which we live that still today in the third decade of the 21st century that there are countries – in spite of having been independent for a long time, in spite of participating in a multilateral world, in spite of having the SDGs established as the goal to which we want to reach by 2030, in spite of all of these things – that we can be brought to our knees in a way that is so evidently unfair and inequitable.”

Going on to note that the pandemic had succeeded in bringing out the best and worst of everyone as large countries clamoured for supplies, therapeutics and ultimately, vaccines, leaving smaller countries to fend for themselves, Prime Minister Mottley took several of the world’s organisations to task.

“We saw the world brought to its knees at a time when no one knew where and how to go. And rather than resort to the global co-operation that we thought was going to be possible when United Nations and Bretton Woods Institutions were formed after the last major global calamity – World War II – regrettably the institutions that were formed then have not proven to be totally fit for purpose, largely because of the fact that it has allowed the system to fail smaller nations whose access to the market has been compromised simply because we don’t have enough orders to command attention. And if you don’t have enough orders to command attention, who are you going to buy from?” she said.

Going on to say that the COVAX facility was indeed the right move, she did note that the scale and pace of implementation leaves much to be desired.

“To that extent, the global community must ask itself whether we ought not to have scaled it up more or we ought not to have premised it as the first line of defence for global security because in the absence of this kind of equitable distri-bution – country by country by country by country – what we will get is a race with mutations and double mutations and variants that threaten to put each and every one of us at risk again,” she said. (MP)