Letters & Opinion

Africa’s Omicron Experience Part 4

After Caribbean’s first Omicron death, where and what next?

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Chronicles Of A Chronic Caribbean Chronicler By Earl Bousquet

Like every new variant, Omicron is varying in its early signs – good, bad and in-between – and at all times interpreted prematurely.

But the big news yesterday was that while nothing worse had been detected or recorded in South Africa where its presence was first honestly reported, the first reported Omicron death was in Britain; and the second reported was in Trinidad & Tobago.

I stress on the word ‘reported’ because this Omicron situation has got to where it is because of what was reported and not reported about it, countries very unwilling to accept the overburden that goes with honest declaration of every new COVID variant discovered anywhere.

Given the permanent stain on China after the virus’s presence was confirmed in Wuhan, the association of the ‘Kent’ variant with the UK and the early christening of the ‘India’ variant that was later officially named ‘Delta’ after Delhi strenuously objected, most countries duck admitting anything new seen, for not wanting the new variant to be named after it.

So that, while the whole of Africa was punished for South Africa reporting Omicron, it turns out that it was indeed known by health authorities in at least five other countries to exist, but consciously decided not to report.

As it turns out now, two weeks later, Omicron, the fastest-moving variant of all, is already in sixty (60) nations – and still counting fast.

The World Health Organization (WHO) that’s supposed to be the main advisor to all of the world’s nations, has said from Day One that it’s too early to come to any early conclusions, even to conclude that early findings won’t change with time.

But the vaccine manufacturers, as per usual, are going heads over heels to leverage the  monetization possibilities with the new variant, tweaking old COVID vaccines and working hard on creating new ones, on the basis of the early findings that WHO says ought not to be treated as conclusive.

The vaccine manufacturers have gone on a global offensive advocating their products can or will be helpful and even life-saving for Omicron – but without mentioning the name.

In the meantime, as with before Omicron, the world’s scientists are again wondering and pondering over how come no one has died in South Africa – where it was first reported — and the spread and hospitalization rates there haven’t increased as in other countries, like the UK.

It’s so bad in the UK that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appealed to Britons to forget the fact that it’s claimed the Omicron is less effective than Delta and instead treat it just as serious as both are COVID-19 infections.

So, the UK and the USA, which have seen no stop to the rising numbers of new registered cases per day – at over 100,000 per day in each case – are doubling-up on reintroduction of earlier tough restrictions relaxed under public pressure or for politics.

Indeed, while the dangers of politicization of COVID have been underlined and repeatedly reminded to politicians, the reality is that governments are run by politicians and every decision taken is political in that respect, as the considerations that precede decisions are not always more scientific than political.

That also stands with the Public Service, including the health authorities, where decisions can also be colored by other than just medical or scientific considerations, like the issue of mandatory vaccination, which is easily the most effective practical solution, but which most governments and Health Ministers will weigh on the balance scale or how it will affect popularity and electoral survival.

Take the issue of vaccines… No vaccine can yet be recommended for Omicron, but Pfizer was busy Monday and Wednesday indicating two of its vaccines ‘will help reduce hospitalizations, while Johnson & Johnson says the same test results also strengthen its resolve to create a new vaccine to treat Omicron – early next year.

In the meantime, with Omicron already traced and reported in several CARICOM states and the region’s first death already reported in Trinidad & Tobago, it would be for governments and people to return to the drawing board and revisit decisions taken pre-Omicron with regard to relaxation of protocols.

It’s easy for the political directorate to go with the public flow and respond to complaints of COVID fatigue by accelerating relaxation of the stiffest protocols, rearranging clockwork for curfews and lockdowns, even dangling carrots by way of special treatment for vaccinated people while reserving the big ticks for the unvaccinated.

The WHO has insisted that mandatory vaccination should only be the last choice of governments, given the global experiences of the effects of the confusion sewn and sown by the anti-vax and conspiracy theory propagandists on the minds of ;people genuinely seeking to process and assess the endless volumes of information flowing from the internet social media platforms, particularly Facebook.

The Saint Lucia government has assured that it has no intent to enforce mandatory vaccination and will continue to rely on persuasion fed by arguments based on science and numbers instead of knee-jerk responses suggested by many.

But just like with Delta that landed here before July the 26 General Elections and was only reported after that date and especially as the health authorities remind us that the current Fourth Wave started on July 25, it is imperative that the government and health authorities – but particularly the political directorate (if they haven’t) — to start revisiting and reviewing Delta-related COVID decisions, especially from the standpoint of how they relate to Omicron.

There’s still time for the scientific conclusions the WHO need on this new variant, just as there’s still much more to be learned about the likelihood of Ivermectin being as good against COVID-19 as it is against the other positive pre-COVID human and animal uses it’s long been known for.

Meanwhile, as Ivermectin advocates continue to reject what the laws say on the basis of how they feel and what they claim to know more and better than the WHO, those patiently awaiting the arrival of Cuba’s Abdala vaccine and other Soberania brand-types continue to wonder why the WHO is taking so long to approve the only Caribbean-made vaccine, which scored 92% effectiveness in clinical trials.

Be all that as it may, with Omicron even more invisible than Delta and the island already having experiences Four COVID Waves, whether this second COVID Christmas will give birth to the dreaded and most-feared Fifth Wave will depend on the extent to which individual and CARICOM leaders and governments ensure health authorities offer the best scientific and medical advice in all circumstances.

And vice versa, health authorities and doctors on the COVID call need not be reminded their sacred duty and Hippocratic Oath pledges require that they always offer the best professional advice and not engage in or collude with those multinational vaccine manufacturers who normally pay their way into national health services worldwide.

They’ve always done it and Omicron has only given BIG Pharma another reason to plan for more profits in keeping with treating sickness as a market and medicine as a commodity.

Except where governments decide to not shirk from their responsibilities to always put ‘Put People First’ and ‘Put People Before Profits’.

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