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Coronavirus Back Story – Why Barbados is NOT Banning Travel from Affected Areas

The Editor

Barbados Underground

Barbados, W.I

Dear Sir/Madam

There was an article in your newspaper of 3 .February 2020 entitled: “Barbados not rushing to ban travellers from China.” The same message was also aired on radio. Mention was made about the statistical likelihood of an outbreak locally being under two percent. There was even mention of the fact that since 1967 there was no real impact on Barbados of the outbreak of contagious diseases. According to the aired news the local authorities were following the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. As the holder of a doctorate in microbiology and some one who has done post doctoral studies in the discipline, I have a few questions, which I want answered in the public interest.

According to the Center for Disease control and Prevention (CDC). the virus has an incubation period of two weeks. Infected person maybe asymptomatic during the two-week period. It was for this reason the USA instituted a ban on persons who had been exposed for less than two weeks entering its domain. The reason given for doing so was the logistics involved in screening for potential carriers. Let me explain.

Let us assume there is an asymptomatic carrier who has entered the Barbadian domain and is interacting with the locals. After realizing that there is an active carrier in Barbados, it is incumbent on the authorities to track down and screen all persons who have interacted with the carrier. If the carrier has interacted with one hundred persons, each person has to be screened. This only allows for interaction of the carrier with one hundred persons. Allowance also has to be made for the interaction of each member of the one-hundred with other people. As can be envisaged, the number of persons required to screen, dramatically increases to such an extent, that the screening process breaks down. It is for this reason that countries have introduced a ban on persons who come from infected areas. In the case illustrated above where would Barbados get the required trained persons to actively carry out screening?

There has been mention of the fact that Barbados is following the WHO guidelines. Is this the same WHO that was shown to be totally incompetent its handling of Ebola? What about the Haitian cholera outbreak? The latter was under the aegis of the United Nation of which WHO is a part. The best scientists in the field do not work for WHO; they are found in research institutions. The WHO like all other United Nations bodies are constrained by political realities of member states who push political objectives ahead of what the correct scientific should be. As far as I can make out, there seems to be a pecuniary method behind Barbados’s stance on this matter: namely an effort not to affect the tourist industry.

 

Sincerely

 

Robert D. Lucas, PH.D.

734 responses to “Coronavirus Back Story – Why Barbados is NOT Banning Travel from Affected Areas”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    It is being reported by local press a few people with travel that originated in China has triggered the monitoring protocol.

  2. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    This govt seems to have lost all common sense of reality
    It seems like the objective of putting cart before the horse is there way of finding a solution
    Govt also may have made up their mind that China financial input in the future of Barbadod out weighed the risk of the virus to the country than saving people lives through precautionary methods

  3. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Also Dr. Lucas i would like to see you write an article on land fills
    Yesterday eruption is another cautionary reminder of health related issues resulting from these fires which lays dormant and which will affect the health of barbadians in the immediate future
    This is a subject which seems hushed and silent by the power’s that be including well known environmentalist groups in barbados

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Dr. Lucas

    Before the discussion is hijacked by those who are rabidly political tell us what you would have the local authorities do in the current situation. Ban travel to Barbados from certain countries (what about transiting)? Improve due diligence? What.

    It should be noted that Bynoe from B’s Recycling imported a piece of equipment many years ago with the capability to shred tyres but it has been rotting somewhere. Ask Sinkler and someone in the current administration. The blogmaster is happy to be proved wrong or right for that matter.

  5. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    David why your rabid response on an ongoing health crisis in the making with the constant eruption of fires at land fills
    I simply asked Dr. Lucas to write an article sometime in the future on land fills and the negative impact on people health
    Fuh Christ Sake yuh need to stay in yuh own lane sometimes
    Most certainly peoples attention is focused on the Corona Virus and one comment should not distract on such an important issue
    Nevertheless landfill fires should also be caused of concern as they are high risk negatively to peoples health and govt ought to fast forward and implement measures for correction
    The pictures of burning tyres in closely populated areas is not a welcomed sight for any one including animals

  6. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Mariposa

    Stay your course. The predators who jump on everything you say are showing their tails. Rather than debate your views they want to condemn you as ‘political’ out of hand. This in a nation that is so one-dimensional that it is irritating. Land fill is part of the climate change debate, so is the issue of pandemics.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Spot on!

  8. David Avatar
    David

    Why not share a view if you have strong feelings? Ask your groupthink sidekick Spot On partner to assist. He is a retired journalist who always have slot to share about the Bajan condition.

    #spoton

  9. R.G Avatar
    R.G

    @ David BU

    Hal Austin is a hypocrite that remains silent when Mariposa posts shiite. Yet, he jumps on everything other people say, especially you, the blogmaster,

    So, he must be a PREDATOR too and showing his tail.

    When he attacks and insult people, his fan club remains silent, especially the “like” man. But when those people respond to him, his fan club comes out to attack them.

    Stay the course, @ David BU, obviously you are doing something right.

  10. Bajan Free Party 2023 0r sooner Avatar
    Bajan Free Party 2023 0r sooner

    Crime Minister wants all dead to hide her crimes, Make Fake Wills with her name on it, take over you Bank accounts, take your land, It’s just pure greed If We have a Virus Problem the IMF agreement may kick into a hold on payments and to get aid, Unemployment goes down with each death, the main traveler can drop dead to feed her 2020 scam, Mia never cared 2023 or FBI she got to go!

  11. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Btw David i think this is the third article posted on BU about the Corona Virus
    So cant understand your attack against my comments when i speak about the land fills fires and much needed concern for the effect on people lives
    If you are all concerned about people safety and health matters
    After seeing the bellows of smoke gushing from the landfill your first interest would have been outrage and not a political attack on my comments
    My comments needless to say are not in your line of having self-serving political agenda of opening peoples eyes to the harm and danger caused by land fills to their health

  12. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David February 4, 2020 6:23 AM
    “It should be noted that Bynoe from B’s Recycling imported a piece of equipment many years ago with the capability to shred tyres but it has been rotting somewhere. Ask Sinkler and someone in the current administration. The blogmaster is happy to be proved wrong or right for that matter.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    What are the Bajan policy ‘makers and executors’ waiting on?

    Palm greasing of the hello Hyatt handshake variety or a pandemic outbreak of a cocktail of viral infections?

    Only goes to show that all that ‘talk’ about protecting the environment and planting trees to mitigate the effects of global warming is nothing more than political hot air and electioneering poppycock to bamboozle the voters.

    Aren’t you ‘tired’ hearing all the NATO propaganda spewing forth only the froth of malarkey?

    How could the government be serious about this climate change bandwagon hopping but still continues to ‘actively encourage and facilitate’ the importation of used vehicles -many of them rejects and of suspect roadworthiness- powered by fossil-fuel burning ‘ICE’ which many ‘enlightened countries are in the process of removing from their motoring highways and byways?

    Aren’t the roads of Barbado(e)s already highways of mass confusion and productivity dead ends going no where to the further development of the Bajan economy?

    Many Bajans already have compromised immune systems as a result of the high incidence of NCDs in the genetically close knit population.

    One can only ‘pray’ that no easily-transmitted virus is imported to add fuel to the already burning fires of both the carelessly disposed tyres and the current economic paralysis.

    But Karma is a ‘preying’ bitch and might just show the folly of putting all your economic sustainability eggs in one ‘(w)holey tourism dependent basket.

  13. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Mariposa

    It appears as if some people on BU begrudge the fact you have a voice, and expresses it in a pro-party way. Good on you. Some of them express their views in a pro-Barbados way which some may find repulsive. They (these intolerant predators) want to shut you up. Keep firing your shots, you are hitting some targets.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    What a nonsense statement. Explain why you lot are allowed to post every day without fail? Logged on to BU 24/7 to comment about an island that is a failed state? Go piss in yuh pocket do.

  15. GP Avatar
    GP

    re Many Bajans already have compromised immune systems as a result of the high incidence of NCDs in the genetically close knit population.

    CAN YOU PLEASE KINDLY EXPLAIN HOW THE ABOVE IS TRUE? ENLIGHTEN AND EDIFY US

  16. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @GP February 4, 2020 8:38 AM

    Just a ‘commonsense’ view given the large number of doctor (like you) in Bim.

    Why so many needed if the medical environment were one of preventative rather than curative?

    Why not see that claim in the same ‘scientific light as you see the birth of Jesus from a virgin girl?

    Everything is possible once you don’t believe in science, right Doc?

    Maybe your adopted ‘Greek’ father of medicine can explain to you.

    “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

    “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”

  17. GP Avatar
    GP

    A LOAD OF RUBBISH AS USUAL

    RE Many Bajans already have compromised immune systems as a result of the high incidence of NCDs in the genetically close knit population.
    ARE YOU SAYING THAT BAJANS HAVE compromised immune systems AND THIS CAUSES the high incidence of NCDs?

    OR ARE YOU SAYING THAT BAJANS HAVE compromised immune systems BECAUSE OF the high incidence of NCDs?
    OR ARE YOU JUST BULLSHITTING AS USUAL?

    ENLIGHTEN AND EDIFY US

  18. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ GP February 4, 2020 9:33 AM

    When you can tell us how Noah was able to house 2 polar bears and 2 hopping kangaroos in his Lilliputian cruise ship then we might just be able to establish a ‘scientific’ link between the high incidence of NCDs among Bajans and their compromised immune systems.

    Did the polar bears and kangaroos travel by foot to the ark outside the garden of Eden or did Noah make a roundtrip to save their sorry far-flung pagan asses from Yahweh’s wrath?

    BTW since you are no longer in practice don’t you think you might just be a few decades behind the curing game being seen on the ground?

    PS: You forgot to mention the curse of AIDS which you Christian fundamentalist claim is the devil’s reward to promiscuous sinners.

  19. GP Avatar
    GP

    SINCE YOU CAN NEITHER ENLIGHTEN AND EDIFY US, I SEE THAT YOU SEEK TO ENTERTAIN

  20. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Seriously though
    If land fills not a serious concern
    Then what is

    The most common cause of underground landfill fires is an increase in the oxygen content of the landfill, which increases bacterial activity and raises temperatures (aerobic decomposition). These so-called “hot spots” can come into contact with pockets of methane gas and result in a fire.Aug 15, 201

  21. GP Avatar
    GP

    RE The most common cause of underground landfill fires is an increase in the oxygen content of the landfill,
    HOW CAN AN UNDERGROUND LANDFILL HAVE AN increase in the oxygen content
    FROM WHENCE DOES THE OXYGEN COME?

  22. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ GP February 4, 2020 9:59 AM

    But you yourself do it daily with your ‘rocking’ mockery and bull(y)ing of others who don’t share your perspectives on life.

    As soon as you are corned, intellectually, like a dirty rat you resort to either ad hominem or remain silently asleep in your bed of childlike ignorance.

    Just ask your opposite number GP 2 and see what he thinks of your daily attendance at Comedy Central aka the BU rum shop of bible brimmlers and cyber bullies.

    If you Bible thumping fundamentalist can get your facts ‘right’ and be on all fours in your multidimensional interpretations of the perfect Word of Yahweh, what should you expect a pagan like the miller to think of you lot?

    Doesn’t your characterization of the former Pres. Obama reflect more of your Christian hypocrisy than the success of that man of colour who went to the mountaintop of the American dream?

  23. GP Avatar
    GP

    MILLER

    QUAE CUM ESSENT

    NOW PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT YOU MEAN BY

    Many Bajans already have compromised immune systems as a result of the high incidence of NCDs in the genetically close knit population.
    ARE YOU SAYING THAT BAJANS HAVE compromised immune systems AND THIS CAUSES the high incidence of NCDs?

    OR ARE YOU SAYING THAT BAJANS HAVE compromised immune systems BECAUSE OF the high incidence of NCDs?
    OR ARE YOU JUST BULLSHITTING AS USUAL?

    ENLIGHTEN AND EDIFY US PLEASE
    AS MY ONLINE STUDENTS SAY :WE WANT TO LEARN”

  24. GP Avatar
    GP

    RE or remain silently asleep in your bed of childlike ignorance.
    I REMAIN SILENT WHEN I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY OR WHEN I WISH TO SAY NOTHING

  25. GP Avatar
    GP

    QUAE CUM ITA ESSENT it should be

  26. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ GP February 4, 2020 11:16 AM

    You, Dr. GP, have lectured us ad nauseam- with your dated Power Point presentations- about the overt dangers which diabetes poses to the human body and to people’s health (intact immune system).

    Same thing applies to the covert (silent killer) of hypertension.

    Isn’t it a well-researched and established fact that there are relatively high rates of diabetes and her silent sister killer hypertension ravaging the ‘highly-inbred’ population of Barbados?

    Why do you think Barbados is one of the biggest profit centres (just like the fast food outlets) for overseas pharmaceutical manufacturers and local distributors including the licensed drug pushers called GPs?

  27. GP Avatar
    GP

    re Isn’t it a well-researched and established fact that there are relatively high rates of diabetes and her silent sister killer hypertension ravaging the ‘highly-inbred’ population of Barbados?

    q. what does diabetes and hypertension have to do with immunity?

    re You, Dr. GP, have lectured us ad nauseam- with your dated Power Point presentations- about the overt dangers which diabetes poses to the human body and to people’s health (intact immune system).

    i shared a powerpoint on diabetes ketoacidosis : information that is neither dated nor had’have anything to do with the “intact immune system

    your response here reveals your ignorance and lack of understanding and that I was casting my pearls before the swine

    your response here reveals that I am right in refraining from “lecturing ad nauseam- with dated Power Point presentations- on BU ON HEALTH MATTERS

    I HAVE OVER THE TEN PLUS YEARS WONDERED WHY NONE OF THE OVER 400 DOCTORS O THE ISLAND NEVER COMMENT ON HEALTH MATTERS ON BU

    back to cricket

  28. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    But seriously David dont u think that the impending doom and gloom calamity coming from the fiery outburst and smoke filled pollutants resulting from the land fill is worth an article on BU
    David you ought to goggle the number of cancers and respiratory illness that are attributed to land fills
    Barbados has big big fish to fry in the near future because of land fills
    But again as u wont tell me i am clueless

  29. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Here is something of interest to those who worry about the Corona Virus

    From contamination of the air with harmful gases to water pollution, the outcome is adverse human health effects. Landfill toxic gas releases and water pollution are as well associated with lung and heart diseases respectively

  30. d Avatar
    d

    @ David February 4, 2020 6:23 AM

    Since 9/11,most countries in world have an idea of who and where visitors entering their domain originate. So it should be relatively simple to obtain the passengers’ manifest and ascertain their point of origin; even if they are transiting through a third country ( the latter point is being made since Peter Wickham on the call-in program was doing a number, claiming that it would be futile for Barbados to ban, since there were no direct flights from China). Any ban should be restricted to the viral incubation time. There is not much that can be done apart from isolation, until there is a vaccine. The onus therefore is on the exclusion of the virus from entering in the first place and that is going to be difficult. One needs to bear in mind that the fortnight incubation period is only a guide line: in some persons the incubation may be shorter or longer. One therefore has to rely on the robust nature of one’s immune system and its ability to shrug off the virus. As I said previously I wouldn’t be surprised if the virus was present in Barbados. The authorities have now admitted that persons have been placed under home quarantine. So much for open government.

  31. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Does Peter Wickham think that infections can only come through direct flights? Is this a new theory of epidemiology? Home quarantine? Are they in contact with friends and relatives?

  32. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Britain has told all Brits in China to leave.

  33. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Now that word is spreading that Barbados has open door policy for Chinese
    The possibility of infected chinese coming barbados is a high risks and increased chances
    Only a brainless govt would put their people in disaster
    Fuh Christ sake barbados outdated hospital is in need of help also

  34. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Hal February 4, 2020 1:54 PM

    Wickham seems to think (he/she) is an authority on most topic Anyhow money is the name of the Barbados is playing

  35. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    Correction “Name of the game”

  36. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Robert

    He seems very popular. Why?

  37. David Avatar
    David

    Is was reported the Barbados Defence Force will assist with detection of the virus at port of entry.

  38. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Are soldiers doctors? Gross incompetence. We are world class, punching above our weight. Where is the president?

    All Britons in China should leave the country if they can to minimise the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, the Foreign Office has said.
    The Foreign Office said it continued to work to evacuate Britons from Hubei province where the outbreak began.
    Commercial flights are available from other parts of China.
    The new advice comes as a Belgian woman, who was on board a flight which brought UK citizens back to Europe on Sunday, tested positive for the virus.
    Eleven UK citizens and family members were on the woman’s flight, which carried passengers from 30 other countries to France, before Britons flew on to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.(Quote)

  39. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ David February 4, 2020 5:38 PM

    There seems all of a sudden to a lot of movement on the matter by government. Representatives of the health section and tourism, were busy on the radio trying to assert that every thing is okay. I wonder why?

    @ Hal February 4, 2020 3:40 PM

    I do not know why. All I would say as a caller mentioned on the program, Barbadians are tolerant and do not kill people over religion. I wonder if he understood the import of that statement. He has always disparage Christianity on the program. I wonder if he will venture to places like Jamaica or Muslim countries.

  40. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Robert

    We celebrate mediocrity. It is cultural.

  41. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Hal February 4, 2020 5:49 PM

    The authorities here were playing the ass. The army medical staff will be used and the ordinary enlisted man as well. The import of the number of people required to do the screening seems to have dawn suddenly on them. Of course there has been no mention of my article (also carried by the Nation) but I expected that. Nothing would have been said about the article: it cannot be said that I do not know what I am talking about. The Chief medical officer is not a trained microbiologist. Locally, with these outbreaks, a rush is always made to get the view of medical doctors. In the US and UK, microbiologists would be interviewed about the matter.

  42. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Hal

    I see Boris is taking a tough line. I want him to get rid of the EU human rights laws and put away some of those fifth columnists for long periods.

  43. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    22mins. ago

    Persons with respiratory illnesses living in the vicinity of the Mangrove Landfill, in St. Thomas, are being advised to leave the area until conditions caused by a second fire, which broke out in the tyre section at the landfill, improves.

    The Ministry of Health and Wellness has advised persons with asthma and other respiratory illnesses that if they are feeling unwell, they should also seek immediate medical attention at the nearest polyclinic or their private doctor.

    The Sanitation Service Authority and the Barbados Fire Service are currently on site at the Mangrove landfill dealing with a fire, which has re-ignited in the tyre section

  44. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    All flights from Manchester Airport to mainland China suspended amid Coronavirus outbreak

  45. David Avatar
    David

    @Dr. Lucas

    Keep up the good work. Not many are aware the BDF has a decent medical outfit.

  46. GP Avatar
    GP

    actually the BDF has THE VERY BEST medical outfit in the island
    very well organized and run .

  47. David Avatar
    David

    Let hope “Spot on” read your comment.

  48. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @Hal Austin February 4, 2020 7:03 AM @ Mariposa Stay your course. The predators who jump on everything you say are showing their tails.”

    Since David is the only one who had responded to mariposa, what is your evidence that David is a predator? And where i is you evidence that David is sub-human and posesses a tail?

    Did the English frequently ask you for your tail when you first moved to the U.K? And yu now using the same insult on David?

    Why, oh why?

  49. R.G Avatar
    R.G

    Are soldiers doctors? Gross incompetence. We are world class, punching above our weight. Where is the president? (quote)

    GP February 4, 2020 7:06 PM – actually the BDF has THE VERY BEST medical outfit in the island, very well organized and run. (quote)

    @ GP

    Thanks for proving Hal Austin is also suffering from the Bajan Condition. He is a jackass that would go to any length to criticise, even if means talking crap about things he knows nothing about.

  50. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Hope Mia wherever she is reading these stories
    If she wants to open Barbados borders to Chinese people i hope barbados has the economic wherewithal to fight the spread of this disease

    CNN news

    Hong Kong(CNN)The spread of the Wuhan coronavirus shows no signs of slowing, as China reported another major spike in both confirmed cases and deaths in the region at the heart of the epidemic.

    The total number of confirmed cases in China stands at 20,438 as of Tuesday morning, including a 1-month-old baby in southwestern Guizhou province, an increase of 3,235 on the previous day — an over 18% jump. The death toll is now at 425 in China, an increase of around 65 from Sunday.

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