Politics and the pandemic

On June 21 when Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis declared in Parliament that all vaccinated individuals should “party on!”, the Ministry of Health had confirmed 515 cases of COVID-19 for the month. 

For some context, that was five times the number of cases we recorded during the entire first wave of the pandemic (between March 2020 and June 2020) when the competent authority, Minnis, put in place sweeping restrictions to curb the spread.

It was more than double the number of cases we recorded in January 2021 and more than double the number of cases we recorded in February 2021.

Up to June 21, when Minnis announced the relaxation of restrictions, the country had recorded 14 COVID deaths for the month.

The Delta variant was already wreaking havoc in the United States and elsewhere.

On June 18, South Florida Sun Sentinel reported, “The highly aggressive Delta variant, first detected in India, has surfaced in Florida, just as national leaders warn it could soon become the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S.”

But around that time, the focus of the nation’s leader did not seem to be squarely on beating back the deadly third wave, but really on winning back the government.

The narrative was that the pandemic was under control.

On June 11, the prime minister told reporters he would soon announce “vaccination day” when fully vaccinated individuals could enjoy certain perks.

Weeks earlier, on May 1, the competent authority put in place a new policy, permitting fully vaccinated visitors to enter the country without COVID testing, notwithstanding the already widely reported science that showed vaccinated individuals could still catch and spread COVID.

While travelers were permitted to come into The Bahamas untested, those traveling to the United States had to test prior to travel, precisely for that reason. 

With the government unable to ignore the recent explosion in COVID-19 cases, it has since reversed that ill-considered policy.

That policy was put in place even though COVID cases were on a significant increase month to month this year: There were 336 cases in January, 613 in March and 1,262 in April.

In May, 1,343 cases were recorded.

 By July, there was a phenomenal surge in cases, with Minister of Health Renward Wells claiming without any data that it was connected to the independence holiday weekend.

In July, The Bahamas recorded 2,185 cases – the most cases in any month this year and second only to the number of cases recorded last October.

CAMPAIGN, AND VACCINE EFFORTS

In early July, plans for re-election were fully in motion.

On July 4, the prime minister urged people eligible to vote to register in the “shortest possible time”, a clear signal that he was eyeing an early election.

Days later, the Free National Movement (FNM) completed ratifying its candidates for the next election and Minnis met with the candidates and advised them to hit the ground aggressively as his hand was on the handle of the election bell.

Instead of a public relations campaign educating people on the COVID-19 vaccine and encouraging the following of the health protocols, we were flooded with Cable television advertisements by the FNM seeking to convince us that Minnis’ stellar leadership was leading us to the other side of this crisis, while attacking the reputation of Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Philip Brave Davis.

As the government criticized the PLP’s politicization of the pandemic, the FNM was running social media ads declaring “Good leadership brought COVID numbers down” and secured vaccines for Bahamians.

As he made the rounds at various public events, clearly still in campaign mode, Minnis repeatedly declared that the economy was “roaring” back to life.

Legislators, meanwhile, went on an extended vacation.

The House of Assembly had been suspended to September 22 with no expectation that it would meet again this term, and there was widespread expectation in and out of FNM circles that an election would be held in August.

Health officials had long gone quiet. 

By the end of July when they finally called a press conference in the face of public criticisms and with an unrelenting surge, it had been three months since they had met with the media to entertain questions.

Even when they held their press conference, they failed to present important data on clusters, contact tracing and travel history connected with COVID cases.

The herd immunity that Wells had foolishly predicted for summer reflected more than anything else just how lost he is in the critical role.

In June, the minister declared that The Bahamas will be in a position to vaccinate 30 percent of the population by September. To date, the government has been able to bring in 126,296 doses of AstraZeneca.

If we subtract the 5,000 doses we owed Antigua and Barbuda, that’s enough for roughly 60,000 people to be fully vaccinated.

In a national address on Monday night, the prime minister advised that the government had completed negotiations for a “substantial” number of additional vaccine doses, though he provided no further information.

Wells told reporters yesterday, The Bahamas is expected to receive roughly 40,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of the month, and is also expecting “a large donation” of the Pfizer vaccine.

Minnis said in his national address “over the next few months the government will have the capacity to vaccinate all Bahamians and residents who wish to receive the vaccine.”

But unlike the strong stance he previously took – declaring on July 19 that the pandemic was over for the vaccinated – the prime minister on Monday had a more cautious tone, telling viewers, “Let me be clear: COVID-19 will not just disappear”.

On July 19, there were 81 new cases and 83 people in hospital with COVID.

UPREDICTABILITY

We know the point the prime minister was seeking to make – that hospitalizations and deaths are not being seen among the fully vaccinated.

This was confirmed by Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme Dr. Nikkiah Forbes, who told us again on Monday that no fully vaccinated individual has been hospitalized or died from COVID-19 at Princess Margaret Hospital since the vaccine program was rolled out in March.

Still, the prime minister’s message was reckless as it encouraged the fully vaccinated to let their guard down.

Health officials say the availability of the vaccine will reduce the pressure on the health system. That is important.

One thing we do not talk about enough and which there are no available statistics on, is the number of people being denied care for other ailments and dying.

On Monday, Consultant General Surgeon Dr. Locksley Munroe warned that people are dying unnecessarily because of difficulty accessing healthcare.

Last October, Dr. Marcus Cooper, the then president of The Bahamas Medical Association, made the same statement.

On Monday, the prime minister reported that the 18 beds promised by the Samaritan’s Purse aid organization have been added at Princess Margaret Hospital and two PMH renovation projects are nearing completion, which will add another 33 beds.

As of yesterday, 56 of the 134 people hospitalized with COVID were at PMH.

Even with the additional beds, the hospital is overwhelmed as space is limited and healthcare workers are burnt out.

News that additional vaccines are coming soon is promising, but the prime minister should also explain why the government prevented reputable private sector individuals with access to additional vaccines from bringing those in months ago.

Minnis also did not outline any new measures on Monday to arrest the third wave. An extra hour of curfew will not likely do much.

While the prime minister has had no choice but to place more of his attention on fighting the pandemic, he is clearly still thinking about an election although a likely date is now even less certain.

On Monday night, he said without any evidence to support his prediction, “If we take the vaccines quickly and fully open our economy, I believe that The Bahamas could have the biggest growth in its economy in a generation.”

The unpredictability of COVID has repeatedly shown across the world that taking the focus off the fight against the pandemic, and moving back to business as usual too fast, will only make a bad situation that much worse.

In our own experience, we see a very clear example of that.

The post Politics and the pandemic appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/politics-and-the-pandemic/