PAN American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa F. Etienne said the severe shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean is a āwake-up callā for increased regional production of vaccines and announced the start of a new platform to reach that goal.
āThis week, PAHO will launch a platform to boost regional vaccine manufacturing efforts, beginning with the first in a series of meetings to promote greater coordination across countries and to enlist partners from both the public and private sectors to turn this idea into reality,ā Dr. Etienne said at her weekly media briefing.
Explaining the drive for the new platform, Dr. Etienne said that ālimited production and unequal distribution of vaccinesā compromise the regionās pandemic response and āput public health at very high risk.ā Reliance on imports makes Latin America and the Caribbean more vulnerable, she added. āOur region imports 10 times more pharmaceuticals than we produce.ā
āI believe that the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination crisis must be a wake-up call that we must expand regional pharmaceutical production so we can be in the driverās seat of our own pandemic responses,ā she continued.
On August 27, leaders from global financial institutions, governments, and public health agencies will meet to discuss the platform, which will foster research and incentivize development and manufacture of health technologies.
Dr. Etienne noted that āPAHO is already spearheading initiatives to help reduce our dependency on pharmaceutical imports.ā
PAHO is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners to bring the highly effective mRNA vaccine technology into the region. So far, over 30 public and private companies and institutions have expressed desire to take part in the technology transfer, and PAHO is in the āprocess of identifying the most promising proposals,ā she said.
The goal is to take advantage of existing production capacities that could contribute to manufacture mRNA vaccines in the Americas. The principle is that manufacture should benefit the entire region, with regional pharmaceutical production and distribution of the vaccines by PAHOās Revolving Fund to all countries.
Only about 23% of people in the region have been fully vaccinated, and in many countries, coverage is much lower. āJust as manufacturers adapted quickly to produce some of the PPE and ventilators our region needed earlier in the pandemic, we must bring the same spirit of collaboration into vaccine production in the region,ā she said.
Noting that investment is key, Dr. Etienne said the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and other partners have expressed desire to help the region expand its pharmaceutical production.
āThe regionās values of Pan Americanism and solidarity can help us strengthen pharmaceutical production,ā she said. āThe investments we make today will not only help us get through this pandemic faster, but they will also lay the groundwork to deal with future health crises, so we have no time to waste.ā
Turning to the crisis in Haiti following the August 14 earthquake, Dr. Etienne said, āPAHO continues to distribute much-needed medical supplies and is working closely with the ministry and emergency teams on the ground.ā
āWe are also coordinating with the Ministry of Health on the deployment of Emergency Medical Teams,ā she said. āSo far, seven of these teams have been deployed, four more are due to arrive, and others are on standby.ā
Dr. Etienne also covered the pandemicās deadly trajectory, reporting over 1.5 million new cases and nearly 20,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the Americas in the past week.
The U.S., Mexico, and Brazil reported the highest number of cases. Many Central American countries, including Belize, Guatemala and Honduras are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections. Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and smaller Caribbean islands such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica have reported steep increases in new infections and deaths.
āAnd while hospitalizations are continuing to decrease across much of South America, infections remain high, so we urge countries to continue to stay on top of new outbreaks,ā she said.
It seems, indeed, to be a group of myopic global and financial committee that meets to seek solutions for the abatement and healing of this pandemic.
Any conscientious exploration of the cure for contagious diseases will reveal indications for several preventive protocols.
Commonly listed among these are,
isolation,- to separate those infected from others
Nutrition – A dietary regimen to heal systems of the body so affected
Medication- various pharmaceutical ( including herbal remedies) to combat the proliferation of microbial toxins in the body.
It seems, however, that with this pandemic, the medical institutions have ceded their domain to the great financial moguls of vaccine manufacturing. And what ensues from this oddity is confusion that breed the type of anti-vaccine distrust that worps the minds of people today.
When will the medical institute call for an aggressive curtailment of the flow of tourist into the island?
Why are we the Gehazis accepting the infected garments of rich men?
Whilst the tourist dollars may boost the economy of the island, it is equally salient that the tourist dollars are insufficient to heal the contagion it spread to hotel workers, their families and the communities at large.
Remember what our elders taught us – belle parole mone cesāt un veere larceny –
It may be time for St.Lucians to assess our resources and develop innovative ways of weaning ourselves (temporarily) from the infected offerings of tourism.
Neccesity is the mother of invention. It has always been in the time of greatest desolation that man has, in a flash, emblazoned the world with the light of discovery.
The automobile, the radio, x-ray, the cure for polio, television, today, the computer and millions more enlightenments have catapulted the world into the dispensation, as it were, of a new Jerusalem
How have we positioned ourselves to become the generation that breaks the shackles of disease and death and usher in new fortifications for the sustenance of a happy and healthy life?
The foul smelling offerings of deceitful financial corporations (of past centuries) are just that. They stink of greed, inordinate gain, bribery, extortion and human misery.
It is incumbent upon the medical and health care institutions to proceed carefully. Examine the (horns of all dogs who come to this goat party) efficacy of all financial actuaries who attach themselves to initiatives for solutions to this pandemic
.
Measure their objectives against the well-being of the people, and, when inequities are discovered, be brave enough to say like our past leaders –
ST LUCIA IS NOT FOR SALE
With the same fervor that they promote the vaccination initiative, the medical and health care institutions should educate the people in the values of proper nutrition during and after isolation.
Instead of smearing bush medicine with sneers of vanity, a concerted effort should be made to take up what our forebears left us, study them through the advanced lenses of modern technology and elucidate their values for our times..
Right now, it is difficult to find one bush of ti-mate,shading-Bebe, semaine-contwa or most of the herds that healed us.
You cannot find un feille bois -den in the Lapointe hills in Dennery again. This generation ignorantly cut them down to enslave themselves to bank home mortgages.
The situation seems, now to be, that we, this generation of St.Lucians have departed so far from the wisdom of old that we are now entrapped in the snares of junk food, pills and drugs.
It is time for St.Lucians to take ten steps back, pick up the good medical methods of our mothers and fathers, combine and sift them through the sieves of modern technology and move on to a new Jerusalem of good health and well-being.for all St.Lucians.