Audrey Hinchcliffe | COVID-19: We make the choice who lives and who dies

My thoughts go back to economics concept, applied to health and medical care when I studied health economics way back then at University of York, UK, 1987. Who Shall Live? Health, economics, and Social Choice by Victor R. Fuchs, First Edition 1974. Fuchs is often called “the Dean of health economists”. I have added “Who Shall Die”, taken from the title of an analysis of prisoners on death row in the United Stated, issued February 2003.

I am using the combined title for this article to highlight the choices we are making while COVID-19 is running rampant among the population. For example, among the recorded statistics re rates of infections as high as 879 for one reporting period and related fluctuating high death rates. Hospital services are stretched beyond capacity, supplies including oxygen and PPEs are in short supplies, hospital workers are succumbing to the virus. In all of this, vaccines are available with blitzes under way.

Jamaica’s COVID-19 update from Sunday, August 22 revealed 871 new cases; 14 deaths, 66 new recoveries, 13,140 active cases. The report further set out that there are total cases: 62,712, total deaths: 1,402, total recoveries 47,787, hospitalised: 607, moderately ill: 125; severely ill: 83, critically ill: 60.

Yet with the daily statistics of suffering, death, and dying we continue to flaunt infection control measures, and sound against vaccines. It is against this background that I seek to make my point of who shall live and who shall die in addition to a report from University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) (author unknown) that of the COVID-19-positive patients in hospital there are 96.1 per cent unvaccinated, 3.9 per cent have taken one shot of AstraZeneca. In this regard, UHWI is urging the public to get fully vaccinated.

Protection against sickness and death should not have to be coerced or mandated, incentivised nor rewarded. Just as how we reward ourselves for achievements of successes, what if similarly, we reward ourselves for not catching and spreading COVID-19 by simply taking the vaccine.

TAKE THE VACCINE

The key is the choice we make. We have options. We need not spend our time wallowing in ignorance and grief. The answer is obvious – “Take the damn vaccine.”

We can’t say we are not participating in who shall live and who shall die from COVID-19 when the key to the choice of suffering, death and sorrow versus masking, sanitising, spacing, and taking a vaccine is in our hands. In taking on the virus together, there are clear explanations and memorable examples of fighting diseases via vaccinations. Prominent among these were the dreaded smallpox, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, and rubella, among others. And there are now vaccines for shingles, PPV for children to prevent cancer in adulthood, pneumonia, whooping cough. The difference now with vaccines for the coronavirus is the proliferation of social media and the unchecked sources of rumours, conspiracy theories, myths and outright lies. We have also become hardened to suffering and death. We have become selfish and more self-centred. We do not believe we have a role in public safety, of which the spread of diseases is a part. We have let our minds become corrupted by misinformation coming from sources which ought to know better. Sometimes it is a power play between politics, or more like politricks versus public health and safety.

CALL ON OURSELVES

We call on the Government for common-sense policies, which may come in forms we do not like, or do not trust. But we also need to call on ourselves – we the people – to do our part. We have to get a handle on misinformation about vaccines, how they are researched, developed, efficacy and applicability for different age groups. Who wants to be the incubator for the mutation of viruses? The choice we make must include emotional detachment from misinformation and realising that the new Delta variant has now changed the ball game and others are emerging even at this time, including Mu. By making a bad choice, or a wrong choice, serves to undermine public health and safety. Mixed messages, hesitancy and reluctance towards the vaccines and mitigation guidelines and protocols are unhelpful.

Who shall live and who shall die from COVID-19 is not from taking the vaccine, it is from failure to take the vaccine and observing the simple protocols? Consequently, we must fight the virus with a layered approach which includes slavishly wearing masks, washing, and sanitising hands, maintaining physical distance, avoiding crowds and get vaccinated.

The key to the choice of who shall live and who shall die are the options available. Therefore, choose wisely, for if we don’t, we will be placing the burden on healthcare providers to ration care. This is not a stigma to be imposed on them and the country as a whole.

Audrey Hinchcliffe is the CEO and founder of Manpower and Maintenance Services Ltd Group. Send feedback to ceo@manpowerja.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.