There is still need for COVID updates

Since the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions, the updates from the health ministry have been close to non-existent. We are made to wonder if it is the case where the official think the pandemic is over or is there no longer a need to educate the masses.

Abandoning mask mandate bad policy

20 Apr 2022

IN RECENT weeks, Dr Christopher Tufton and his advisers at the health ministry have gone strangely quiet. Neither the minister nor Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, the chief medical officer (CMO), is in the media providing data and analyses of the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Melody Ennis, the ministry’s director of family health services, seems to have abandoned the mission of providing updates on the island’s vaccination programme, including informing Jamaicans about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines and where and how they can get the jab.

Two possible reasons have been posited for this retreat, which appeared to coincide with Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ announcement, in mid-March, of the abandonment of most of the COVID-19 risk-mitigation measures, including the end of the mask mandate last Friday.

One is that the health professionals concluded that the pandemic has essentially run its course and is nearly at its end. In other words, there is no longer any need for inordinate attention on the coronavirus.

The other, and, we believe, more logical explanation, is that the health professionals lost the battle for keeping mandates in place, especially with respect to the requirement of the wearing of masks inside public buildings and on public transportation. In that regard, silence is the equivalent to the proverbial throwing of the hands in the air. In which event, Dr Tufton and his team have our commiserations and support.

This newspaper appreciates, and fully sympathises with, the Government’s wish to fully reopen the economy and push for its full recovery after the recession during the first year of the pandemic that caused a decline in real output of 11 per cent. But we also know, despite the significant fall in the COVID-19 infection rate – to an average of a bit over five per cent for the week ending April 18 – that the pandemic isn’t over.

INFECTION RATES INCREASING

Indeed, in many parts of the world, infection rates are increasing, even if people are not dying as much from the coronavirus. For instance, between early January and earlier this month, the global case count moved from around 300 million to over half a billion. And the World Health Organization (WHO) believes that a decline in testing has led to an undercounting of the numbers.

In China, the city of Shanghai has been under lockdown for weeks as Beijing attempts to contain an outbreak of the disease. This surge is driven largely by the latest offshoot Omicron variant, BA2 – a more virulent, but perhaps less deadly strain of the virus than its earlier cousins. Several European countries, and some US states, are also seeing an uptick in their COVID-19 numbers.

Notably, too, the WHO, it has been reported, is about to release a new report updating COVID-19 deaths, up to the end of 2021, to 15 million, which is more than double the six million hitherto used. WHO arrived at the number based on official death counts, household surveys and a statistical model that takes into account unreported and indirect deaths, including instances where people died from other diseases, but couldn’t be attended to because COVID19 commandeered medical and other resources.

The latter factor is important. It compounds another danger of COVID-19: the harm it poses to people who suffer from comorbidities. Even a mild form of the virus can be destructive. A virulent strain, even if not particularly deadly, may cause vast numbers of people to be infected. Even a low percentage from a large number can be a lot.

Which brings us back to Jamaica and our abandonment of mandates. This newspaper was never enthusiastic about lockdowns, as we often stated in these columns. We were, and remain emphatic in our support of masks when people gather indoors, and especially if it is supported by appropriate sanitisation and physical distancing.

Unfortunately, while Jamaicans have access to vaccines, the take-up rate is low. A mere 23 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, and up to 27 per cent when the partially vaccinated are taken into account.

GOOD SCIENCE

Yet, with our low vaccination rate, the Government dropped the requirement that people travelling to Jamaica test negative for COVID-19 and for the wearing of masks indoors. The former position is tolerable. The latter is decidedly bad policy.

Prime Minister Holness has argued that this move is about people taking personal responsibility for their health. He, however, missed the part about the obligation of governments to sometimes assert leadership for the advantage of the majority of citizens. COVID-19 is primarily transmitted via airborne droplets when people speak, cough or sneeze. It is good science that masks help to significantly reduce transmission.

Mr Holness regularly complains of the weakness of discipline in Jamaican society and that a sense of individualism too often causes people to do what they wish without regard for the wider community. That’s why, in this circumstance, the maintenance of the mask mandate would make sense. Indeed, faced with the BA2 strain, the Americans have delayed their plan to end the mask mandate on public transportation.

We remind the Government of a point previously made i n these columns: what i s worse than formulating a bad policy is implementing it.

 

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