Submitted by Steven Kaszab
When logic, emotions and reality checks hit the mark.
IS YOUR MIND LIKE A TORTURE CHAMBER DURING THIS PANDEMIC, ZAPPING YOUR CREATIVITY AND TAKING YOU DOWN?
I have been a manufacturer for 30 +years. And in that time have been in many stressful situations.
We all have.
But since the pandemic hit, I have experienced a whole new level of stress, anxiety and emotions. And I know I am not alone. This pandemic has robbed both life and quality of life.
I can tell you personally that my emotional state has been like a roller coaster. One day I am hopeful, then the next could be gloom and doom…although really nothing has specifically changed to sway me either way!
Then I had an epiphany about something… I asked myself:
What scene was my own mind playing out?
What was my internal dialogue?
When was I most prone to going down that dark path?
What triggered the dark thoughts?
I was, at times, turning my mind into a torture chamber…ALLOWING MY THOUGHTS TO OVER TAKE MY EMOTIONS…not realizing that I alone had the power to escape.
I remembered something I read years ago by a prominent author,
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as WE are.” -Anaïs Nin
So we see things through our own filter, be it negative or positive. (hence, the half full or half empty glass)
SO I AM NOW FOCUSING ON MY MIND, what it sees, what it thinks, what it eats…as a means of emotional survival.
“I have known a great many troubles, most of which never happened.” – Mark Twain
Ugh…the places we allow our thinking to go, worrying about things that mostly won’t ever happen.
David I was going to ask you if barbados has ordered any but you seem to be paving the way for reasons why they havent.Dont be looking at the US or the UK you have made your bed with china, you will have to wait till they steal the recipe
Barbados and other islands are working with international agencies to receive an advance supply. There is an arrangement that developing countries are allocated vaccine.
Interesting lead article . Heightened stress is a factor that was endemic for a while and must have lead to the increase in criminal offenses. This is a good opportunity for GOB to shift focus to solving irritating problems such as inadequate supply of water, numerous pot holes,and the rescue of the young from domestic situations that are deleterious to their physical and mental health.
@Vincent
You agree a good strategy must be holistic?
COVID-19
Our neighbors in the region seeing large increases in covid.
Martinique has 4,732 reported cases. That number is under scrutiny. Its alleged to be much higher.
St. Lucia reported 156 cases as a result of some Martinique natives fleeing the Island in fishing boats to St. Lucia causing a rise in numbers there to date.
Early September Castries reported 7 cases.
60 percent of Martinique people don’t speak english and probably won’t venture the 142 approximate miles in open Atlantic waters to our lovely Barbados.
St. Lucia is a stone throw away @ 50 miles approximately.
Coast Guard keep your vigilance Bearing 136.72° (SE). Good hunting.
It is alleged that Pile-Bay passenger & freight terminal is under scrutiny by BDF ????
We never really know..
@ Lawson
“Dont be looking at the US or the UK you have made your bed with china, you will have to wait till they steal the recipe“.
You’re the funniest to date😂😂😂
@ David BU at 10:06 AM
It is not clear to me what is an holistic strategy. What I do know is that a Strategic Plan has to start with a Comprehensive Situation Analysis. The strategists need to be clear about their objectives and remain focused. In this turbulent era the strategists always revisit their analyses on a regular basis. The assumptions may be wrong. There may have been a sea change. You think um easy?
@Vincent
We are moving in the same direction. There is a sense by this blogmaster of a disproportionate focus on economic issues. One can look at the composition of the cabinet and support team as a single example.
I really wish these people would start properly reporting cases broken down by minor and serious.
Scaring people with these raw numbers that are probably reached at through contact tracing that symptomatic people requiring medical attention. Most of these people most likely didn’t even know they had it.
All they want to do is give people a vaccine so the pharmaceutical companies can get even richer with a rushed vaccine produced in a fifth the normal time before the virus burns itself out naturally and people stop wanting to take it.
Has our country been one of the countries so stupid to indemnified the vaccine makers from prosecution if these new mRNA vaccines turn out to do more harmful than good and cause vaccine injury?
@Critical Analyzer
Do you deny what the Americans refer to as the positivity ratio and the positive correlation with rising infections and available beds and healthcare resources?
Vaccine
$10 vs $39 per unit..
Johnson & Johnson confident in 1B dose goal for COVID vaccine next year, looking ahead to 2022.
efebvre said.
RELATED: Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine looks impressive, but Sanofi, J&J and Novavax shots eye a logistics edge
Back in April, J&J signed on New Jersey-based CDMO Catalent to lock down manufacturing capacity at its Bloomington, Indiana plant, where the manufacturer has set the goal to hit a 24/7 manufacturing schedule by January. And in July, Maryland’s Emergent Biosolutions joined the fold, inking a five-year pact to churn out drug substance.
Those manufacturing pacts, alongside a deal with Michigan’s Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM), should help J&J meet its 100 million dose supply order with the U.S., penned in August for $1 billion, or $10 per dose. At this stage, contracts with Emergent, Catalent and PCI Pharma Services—on the hook for packaging work—are “full bore up and going” and “operational in terms of activities to achieve the tech transfers and start manufacturing according to our timeline,” Lefebvre said.
Elsewhere, J&J is relying on its own sites in Europe to make drug substance, while Catalent tackles fill-finish duties at its Anagni, Italy, plant. J&J just this week finalized a deal to provide up to 200 million doses to Europe, with the option to sell another 200 million shots at a later date should the vaccine pass muster in clinical trials. Separately, J&J is shipping 30 million doses to the U.K.
The drugmaker also recently teamed up with Aspen Pharmacare to manufacture J&J’s vaccine at its facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Biological E in August agreed to manufacture the shot in India. A week after that deal was announced, Biological E snapped up a 39,000-square-foot facility from Akorn India—potentially adding more than 165 million doses to the drugmaker’s annual capacity.
With those partnerships in place, J&J feels confident it can meet its lofty supply goals.
“The sheer speed of execution is challenging, and also the sheer volume that we need to produce. I think every manufacturer is facing the same challenges,” Lefebvre said. “We have aggressive timelines—we’d say, challenging timelines—but at the same time, they’re realistic. We try to make sure that we can meet our commitments.”
RELATED: CDC’s distribution road map, safety monitoring plans plus other takeaways from FDA’s big COVID-19 vaccine meeting
Meanwhile, J&J’s shot could have a storage and distribution edge over the likes of those from Pfizer and BioNTech, Lefebvre thinks.
“In our plans, we will bring our product at -20° C into the J&J warehouses around the world,” he said.
J&J’s shot is expected to remain stable for up to two years at that temperature, about -4° Fahrenheit. Once it goes out to distributors and customers, it can be kept stable at 2 to 8° Celcius (a range of about 35.6° to 46.4° Fahrenheit) for up to three months, not much colder than your average refrigerator, Lefebvre said.
The company has strong cold-chain experience, Lefebvre added, based on its long history with vaccines and biologics. Because its shot doesn’t require the stringent, ultra-cold temperatures of other candidates—like Pfizer’s mRNA-based vaccine, which requires storage at -94 degrees Fahrenheit—J&J argues it can provide its product safely and effectively and make it accessible in regions that may not be equipped to handle the cold-chain requirements of other shot hopefuls, he added.
To that end, J&J has pledged 500 million doses to low-income markets starting in mid-2021, Lefebvre said. The drugmaker is also engaged with COVAX, the World Health Organization’s equitable vaccine distribution scheme, plus Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Lefebvre said.
Meanwhile, once a regulatory approval comes through, all focus will switch to supply chain, Lefebvre figures. The company, along with others vying for the same single-use materials like glass vials, will need to ensure it has enough material supply on hand—something J&J also sought to lock down from the start by signing contracts with suppliers to safeguard capacity, Lefebvre said.
“It will be challenging for sure once we start production,” he said. “It will be hard to make sure you’re meeting your plans on a day-to-day basis. And in the event that you don’t meet those plans, you need to be able to change your plans to manage how you’ll still execute your deliveries to governments.”
It does not need to get any hotter!
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
@ Critical Analyzer at 10 :35 AM
I agree with your position on the vaccine issue. If COVID is a virus and a special unusual virus, how really effective is a vaccine? I am no medical expert but I am led to believe that viruses run their natural courses until they disappear or mutate. Every year people in USA take a flu vaccine, does it give immunity against the flu virus?. I think Dr. Lucas raised this issue months ago. Is anybody paying attention?
@David
The ratio between positivity and who requires hospitalization is directly based solely on the age groups and the comorbidities of the infected since America has no official early treatment.
The FDA and CDC has blocked all viable early treatments in favour of a nonsense stay at home, take nothing and wait it out while you spread it to your family strategy. This has never been done for any disease in the past.
You also can’t really look at available beds either and hospital resources since most hospitals in America normally operate at near capacity since their motive is profit above all else and usually operate at or near capacity in a normal flu season.
@Critical Analyzer
Where is the data?
@ David
“It does not need to get any hotter!“
Aye, aye Sir..
@David
This is the official standard of care in US after 8 months of effort. Tell me they heads of those agencies don’t want firing.
https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapeutic-management/
@Critical Analyzer
Not following your reasoning from the link posted. All it confirms is that the process of evaluating therapeutics is ongoing which is understandable in the prevailing COVID-19 climate.
@David
Mortality Data by age group and comorbidities info. This data is hard
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm
@David November 14, 2020 12:09 PM
This is supposed to be a pandemic and 8 months into this thing and they can’t even recommend a single therapeutic for early treatment. Studies take money and they had a duty to take what doctors on the frontline are doing.
All they had to do is look at which primary care doctors are beating the statistics, see what they are doing and put together a large study or two to test those treatments.
The problem is no can profit from the therapeutics that work early since they are off patent drugs and vitamins which can’t be profited from. A totally or partially successful early therapeutic cuts into profit from potential vaccine sales.
Look at stupid Barbados rushing to buy a new rush-tested vaccine we know nothing about. The minute an early therapeutic gets some level of support, this pandemic is over.
A read of the links you posted explains that therapeutics are recommended to support certain diagnoses but the blogmaster will refer to those in the know.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/11/13/nothing-to-fear-says-barbados-govt-as-it-assists-cruise-ship-with-covid-patients/
Let’s give Jack his jacket.
Health and Wellness Minister Lt Col. Jeffrey Bostic and all those who are engaged in managing COVID-19 in Barbados are performing an excellent job in keeping Barbadians safe. On this matter, every Barbadian should have a sense of pride in the level of competency and expertise being displayed for the whole world to see. I believe that we are second to none.
There is an expression “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” and whilst some may ask for models and documents, the superior outcome of their management policies is all the proof that men of reason need.
I think Mia is way ahead of her rivals when it comes to political strategy and futuristic planning. I have seen some criticize her management style and they may be right in some instances. But when it really mattered, when it was life or death, she was able to put together an impressive and successful team.
Some of her efforts seem like rearranging the chairs of the deck of the Titanic, but to assemble such a high performance team in the midst of the pandemic is/was a stroke of good luck or of superb managerial skills. To me, it does not matter which one it is. If it is managerial skills then Hip-hip hooray and if it isj ust pure luck then remember one of my favorite expressions “I would rather be lucky than good”. Hell yeah.
Indeed, if she put together a string of lucky wins (when it really matters), or if she continues to bungles her way to impressive victories this woman will be unbeatable in 2023,
Three cheers for the Colonel Bostic and the other unnamed heroes behind our brilliant and successful COVID-19 policy.
Dear Lt Col. Jeffrey Bostic,
You have convinced me that you and your team are the real deal. I am hoping that one day you will take the time to show us how our dependence on tourism aligns or conflicts with your attempts to keep the nation safe.
I realize that life/business must go on, but it must be frustrating to fight an opponent and when it looks as if you are gaining an upper hand, someone throws a few more opponents into the ring. For you, it is a protracted war; you are winning the skirmishes but you can never completely declare victory until the war is ended. The sad truth is that the end of the war is not something that you have control over.
I fear that at some stage your ring skills will fail and the opponent will get the upper hand and then all those victories and the excellence of your planning and execution will be seen as important. You are the student who is acing all the exams, but the one big test which that really matters lies ahead. I wish fortune smiles upon you.
Hoping that the nation realizes the important contribution made by you and your team. I wish you and your team continued success.
Stay safe.
TheOGazerts (Overseas Bajan)
@ TheOGazerts November 14, 2020 1:42 PM
“Indeed, if she put together a string of lucky wins (when it really matters), or if she continues to bungles her way to impressive victories this woman will be unbeatable in 2023”.
Definitely not fiction…👌
@ critical Analyzer at 12: 56 PM
Your data relates to mainland China. It does confirm that age and co -morbidity correlate with a higher probability of death from COVID 19 . Of course it does not corroborate that COVID -19 rather than the co- morbidity is the cause of death. I have no doubt that a similar finding would be suggested by the local data. Do you know what kind of therapeutics was given to our high level of recovering patients?
As the resident shop keeper and bush doctor I hereby state my view. Lol
I have heard the CEO of Pfizer say while the vaccine APPEARS to be ROUGHLY 90% effective he does not know the period it is effective for. I also heard others on CNN say the storage conditions for this product will be a challenge due to the extreme cold it is required to be stored in.
Now as a person who has had several as we say here ” colds” it was evident that many had different symptoms. If you rememeber they even had different names for them each year like the Kung Fu cold etc. So my concern is this, will the vaccine work on covid 20 if it raises its head? If covid 19 mutates into a covid 19B strain will this vaccine be effective?
My 10 cent view is that we will have to live with covid in either this form or a mutated form as we do the flu virus every year. Will vaccines always be playing catch up to the virus who knows. Then unless their is compulsory vaccination by law how effective will a vaccine be? They are many religions who do not believe in vaccination and blood transfusion for instance.
In closing I don’t want to throw cold water on the vaccine, but I believe this will not be the global saviour many are hoping for. Yesterday the USA had 180,000 new cases in one day. With a vaccine are we saying 18,000 new cases would have been the norm? What is 10% percent of the population in the USA, are we saying that those millions of people will continue to catch and spread the virus should they travel?
Forget the fan fare and look at the facts and you will see why doctors like Fauci say the vaccine alone can not be the answer. In the meantime I going here and take 2 panadol cause up to now dem ain’t find no vaccine for headaches neither and the Covid thing giving me one thinking bout it!
The fallacy of pedigree
I have often seen the word pedigree used as if was a desirable trait/status to have.
When Mia entered parliament with a 30-0 win, she was presented with a blank check and could have written in any number that she wanted to. The sky was hers, but she seem unable to escape the atmosphere and of the two paths seem to have chosen the one that was more traveled.
Why was there this failure? Let me torture a phrase from Shakespeare “Mia’s failing, dear Blogmaster, is not in her stars. But is in her pedigree”.
The path less traveled, integrity legislation, sunshine laws, ….. would have probably meant severing some ties and relationships that were well established. It might have meant turning her back on those of similar pedigree and so she chose the safe way out.
It takes no great imagination to see that another person of pedigree (POP) would choose the same course of action as MIa. We must soundly reject this notion of pedigree and of high color.
Here is what the non-POP would say.
FROST
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
John A at 2:30 PM
Super !!. I always say it is very necessary to understand how things work in order to repair or improve upon them. These days there are too many attempts at quick fixes that can go terribly wrong. We need to be very careful about the unnecessary risks we subject our people to.
@ Vincent.
Thank you. Covid has been the politcal football for many but especially in the USA. I keep saying our leaders are not seriously looking at the post covid economy and it’s challenges. Many think it’s going to be like popping a pill and life will go back to normal, but I beg to differ. There will be the pre covid economy and the post covid economy and they will be vastly different.
@Vincent Codrington November 14, 2020 2:24 PM
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ has both New York and China data from earlier in the pandemic.
Looking at the New York numbers in the first table, 73.6% deaths are in the over 65 age groups
The with underlying conditions (comorbidities/NCDs) group accounted for 75% of the deaths
This means the chances of a person with COVID having a worse outcome is much more dependent on the ages and number of NCDs the person has than number of cases.
@Critical Analyzer
What about the staff strength of healthcare facilities that are being compromised because of Covid-19? Forgot to add this consideration in an earlier comment.
@Critical Analyzer at 3:10 PM
Thamks for additional data on New York. Again the common factors are old-age and underlying morbidities.
@Tony November 14, 2020 10:08 AM “Martinique has 4,732 reported cases. That number is under scrutiny. Its alleged to be much higher. St. Lucia reported 156 cases as a result of some Martinique natives fleeing the Island in fishing boats to St. Lucia causing a rise in numbers there to date.”
Martinique and Guadaloupe are politically parts of France, but the mother cuntry is more than 4,000 miles away. France 29,920 cases per million population, and i would bet anything that since there is much travel between the parts of the same country, that Martiniwue’s high rate of 12,613 cases per million, and Guadaloupe’s rate of 20,237 per million is directed related to related to France’s; as compared to St. Lucia’s rate of 870 cases per million and Barbados’ rate of 866 per million.
So French colonialism has come back to bite the people of Martinique and Guadaloupe in the lungs.
I was talking to a St.Lucian friend yesterday and friend believes that people are entering St. Lucia from Martinique and Guadaloupe through informal ports.
@ Cuhdear Bajan November 14, 2020 4: 28 PM.
You’re spot on..
Pfizer is not the only drug company working on a vaccine, it is the first one to announce that it has reached a significant milestone and its drug may be on the market sooner than others. When the dust settles there may be four or five different drugs combating the virus and some with different intake requirements e.g. Pfizer requires two shots of the vaccine 21 days apart and requires low storage temperatures, others may be completely different.
@Vincent Codrington November 14, 2020 11:03 AM “I agree with your position on the vaccine issue. If COVID is a virus and a special unusual virus, how really effective is a vaccine? I am no medical expert but I am led to believe that viruses run their natural courses until they disappear or mutate. Every year people in USA take a flu vaccine, does it give immunity against the flu virus?. I think Dr. Lucas raised this issue months ago. Is anybody paying attention?”
I would bet anything that the boys of BU were/are not the one who took/take their children to be immunised. If they had done so, if they do so they would know that highly effective vaccines have been developed for many, many viral diseases, and that some of these diseases have been effectively eliminated worldwide.
The following are viral illnesses: that can all be prevented by vaccination/immunization Measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, small pox, polio, human papiloma, hepatitis, A, B, and E.
Tetanus is a bacterial illness.
So “no” it is not correct to say that viruses run their natural courses until they disappear or mutate. If we in Barbados had practiced this natural course thingy in the last 60 years almost all of us would have a dead or disabled child. We ourselves may have died in childhood.
I am a big believer, a big advocate for vaccination. I saw people in my rural 1950’s village left disabled by polio. I know at least one woman only in her 30’s left profoundly deaf because her un-immunised mother caught rubella while she was pregnant. I know a young man left deaf by roseola, his illness and subsequent disability threw his mother out of work. So I am not talking ancient history.
And I would rather spend my money with the pharmaceutical giants than with the undertaker, even though I have a very nice cousin who is an undertaker. Whenever he sees me he asks “you don’t have any work for me?” and most of the time I am happy to tell him “nope no work for you” although from time to time, sadly iIhave had to say “yes” I have some work for you today.
@ Sargeant
Please reference my posting @ 10:51 AM. It competitive.
@Critical Analyzer November 14, 2020 10:35 AM “All they want to do is give people a vaccine so the pharmaceutical companies can get even richer.”
Not true.Covid19 has already killed 1,315,429, if we do nothing as it lasts as long as the 1918 pandemic it has the capacity to kill 2% or more of the world’s population. 2% of 8 bullion peiple is
The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Lasting from February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a third of the world’s population at the time – in four successive waves. The death toll is typically estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history
Covid19 has already killed 1,315,429, if we do nothing and it lasts as long as the 1918 flu and if it continues for as long and the kill rate remains the same as it is now 160 million people will die. This worries the epidemiologists. It should worry all of us.
I
Thank you, Cuhdear Bajan. Seems like some people forget their ABCs from time to time and yet want to argue with the experts.
@ Sergeant November 14, 2020 4:47 PM
“Pfizer is not the only drug company working on a vaccine, it is the first one to announce that it has reached a significant milestone and its drug may be on the market sooner than others”.
Other vaccine-makers could soon follow with data of their own?
BioNTech, Moderna Inc. is working on a vaccine that uses so-called messenger RNA. That it uses the same technology bodes well for Moderna, which is only slightly behind its peers. A recent explosion of cases in the U.S. is helping speed along the biotech’s late-stage clinical trial. It has accumulated more than 53 infections, which means that an independent monitoring committee will conduct a preliminary analysis of the shot’s effectiveness within days. Top infectious-disease specialists, including Anthony Fauci, expect it to be as successful as Pfizer’s shot in preventing symptomatic infections.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford are expected to report preliminary data from their advanced trials in the coming weeks. Their vaccine is already under accelerated review in the U.K. and European Union, with hope that it could be available for large-scale deployment by year-end.
Johnson & Johnson is further behind. So far, it has enrolled only a few thousand participants in its 60,000-person trial. That’s in part because it lost two weeks when recruitment was paused over a safety concern. Though the trial resumed in late October, J&J now expects to have an initial readout of results from the trial early next year, rather than by the end of 2020. It is turning to data experts at UnitedHealth Group Inc. to accelerate the recruitment
Read More: Encouraging breakthroughs offer hope for controlling virus
Novavax Inc. is preparing to launch a large, late-stage U.S. trial before the end of the month, while Sanofi and partner GlaxoSmithKline Plc, two of the world’s biggest vaccine makers, and German drugmaker CureVac NV, are all looking to start advanced trials of their candidates by year-end.
What’s next for antibody therapies like Eli Lilly’s?
Lilly’s emergency-use authorization widens access to a new tool for tackling the virus in high-risk patients before they’re sick enough to require hospitalization. This class of monoclonal antibody therapies, as well as antivirals, are needed so that people can get treated early on, thus sparing health-systems from overcrowding, Fauci said on Thursday.
Lilly Chief Executive Officer David Ricks told Bloomberg the greatest challenge ahead is going to be meeting a surge in demand with limited supply. “We’re going to run out,” he said.
Another drugmaker, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., is nearing the finish line—and could bolster supply. The Tarrytown, New York-based drug company was thrust into the spotlight when President Donald Trump received its experimental antibody cocktail in early October when he was sick with the virus. Within days, Regeneron could learn from U.S. regulators whether its therapy has been granted an authorization.
Note: The biotech pharmaceutical companies in the race.
I went out shopping today. I visited 4 stores, including hardware, clothing, and pharmacy/grocery I saw a universal rate of mask wearing and hand sanitising, but i did not see the thermometers today.
It seems to me that most Bajans, all ages, all races, all genders, all religions, all social classes are being largely compliant with the covid protocols. And people were getting about their normal Saturday morning business. Nobody appeared to be scared. People appeared to be sensible.
@ Tony,
You have made an excellent observation concerning the high covid-19 levels of France’s Caribbean islands and how they mirror mainland France.
You may have noted the disproportionate numbers of blacks from the USA and the UK who have faired badly compared to other racial groups.
The figures do not lie: blacks in Barbados have avoided the covid-19 bullet unlike members of the diaspora who reside in the USA and the UK.
I believe that Mia and the major stakeholders of Barbados tourist industry will be unable to restore cruise ship tourism to the island.
Why would Mia facilitate the demands of a racist domestic Bajan holiday industry that craves for the reintroduction of the covid-19 super spreading cruise line industry. An industry that will bring imminent death and destruction to Barbados majority black population.
Should such an event occur than Mia would be fully exposed. It would be a risk not worth taking.
It was forecasted that the tourist industry would be curtailed for a number of years with the introduction of covid-19. Yet, I read in yesterday’s Nation that the agricultural industry remains in dire straits, with no strategy in place for the regrowth of this vital industry.
The one-egg -in-the-basket tourist industry remains the focal point for Mia and the minority led tourist stakeholders. The optics will open the eyes of the public. Imagine this scenario: white cruiseship travellers debark from their ship at the port of Bridgetown and infect and bring death to Barbados black majority population in order to satisfy their lust for adventure and some sunshine.
@ TheOgazerts,
I was surprised that Mia brought Lt Col. Jeffrey Bostic into her cabinet. I cannot recall a public figure residing in Barbados who has brought such a high level of gravity and competency to a public position.
The public will be able to compare and contrast both figures. I hope that Mia will seek counsel from the lieutenant. Should she screw up the solid Bostic would be an exceptional replacement figure.
@David November 14, 2020 3:15 PM
We are already burning through our staff, healthcare and economic resources with the attempts to maintain our total COVID isolation policy. I am willing to bet the hospital being full is further unforeseen fallout from our COVID strategy, whether it is delayed treatment or financial difficulties.
If somebody has the flu or bronchitis, we don’t tell them do nothing and go to A&E when they get worse. Until more emphasis is put on finding existing drugs that are effective in outpatient treatments for those persons at risk from complications, we are delaying the inevitable spread while destroying our economy and putting unnecessary stress on our hospital system.
@Critical Analyzer,
An economy should be constructed on more than one industry. Covid-19 should encourage our captains of industry and our politicians to diversify our economy.
The government of China does not believe that the spread of covid-19 is inevitable. To date our government’s approach has been fairly good. Let’s as not put further strain on the QEH by reopening our tourist industry.
We in the UK are living in fear of contracting covid-19. Please sir, count your blessings.
@Cuhdear Bajan November 14, 2020 5:36 PM
You were wrong about a few things.
1) Epidemiologists models were all dead wrong. The Sweden no lockdown strategy proved that, their two biggest mistakes were not adequately protecting nursing homes and not putting more emphasis on therapeutic research.
2) Most people that died from the 1918 Flu died from secondary bacterial infections and antibiotics had not yet been developed. If the 1918 flu was to happen now, the death rate would be much lower.
3) Vaccine or new wonder drug are not the only two options like the drug companies would have us believe.
There is a third much safer way, using known existing drugs and vitamin combinations to treat symptomatic people in the early before they progress to the pneumonia stage.
The vaccine they rushed through in six months is a completely new vaccine technology that is unproven and the long term side effects are unknown but we are still going to risk giving it to our people. The vaccine developers have said take it at your own risk because they are no long term impact studies and they are not going to go bankrupt from the lawsuits if it goes wrong.
Critical Analyzer November 14, 2020 7:08 PM “If somebody has the flu or bronchitis, we don’t tell them do nothing and go to A&E when they get worse.”
I don’t know where you are writing from, but certainly in Barbados we have NOT been doing as you suggest above. In Barbados ALL positive people have been taken into treatment. In Barbados nobody has been told to wiat until they are very sick than go to A & E, so I don’t know where you are getting your mis-information about the Barbados situation. One of the treating physicians is my neighbor. An excellent physician, honest, hard working, trustworthy.
My financial adviser was spot on the money three years
I took his advice
One can bet that BEST was the worst of advice given to the novist investor
Govt would find a way out and not the best way to fulfill promises it made to the small.investor
Covid calls the shot
@Cuhdear Bajan November 14, 2020 7:55 PM
What I am saying is our focus needs to be on achieving outpatient treatment as the standard, not putting everyone that tests positive in an isolation facility that is not free to operate and further reduces our already limited health resources.
The only people in our isolation facility should be serious cases needing more invasive medical intervention.
The 8 persons that tested positive from the cruise ship.
Who is footing the bill for their care?
What would have happened if the positive numbers had been 40 out of the 83?
As I keep saying, we depending too much on luck.
Our definition of luck is different. I think allowing new cases to enter has to be a deviation from the protocols and introduces an element of luck.
However, if they were 40 out of 83, they would have treated the same way (quarantined) and we would have the same outcome as we have right now. Only if the system gets overwhelmed or if we have free movement of covid-19 case does the protocols fail.
These guys in Barbados are way ahead of their critics.
@Tony
Applaud you for bringing up to date info on the status of vaccines in the pipeline
I find that you are mixing apples and oranges and coming up with lemonade.
But the hard question must be asked
Why is govt still letting people from hot spots enter barbados shores
Who are paying these medical bills
Is this not a policy of a penny wise and pound foolish after months of govt spending millions of medical expense on COVID patients and the economy receiving nothing beneficial in return
Most of the time i stuspee when people cheer about no community spread when the purpose of opening borders was for the tourist industry and govt to benefit from the tourist spend
Presently what is happening is govt rolling out millions to stop community spread when COVID tourist reaches our shores
However nothing being asked of govt about what the medical cost is
No community spread seems to be the mantra govt has decided to use to take the peoples attention away from the real problem of cost attached to these patients
Why doesnt the king of barbuda when he is not wanting to fight trump ask mia.
@ Mariposa
Plse make it clear I was not your financial adviser. Some cyber bullies will claim I gave you financial and legal advice. The peeping tom is always on the lookout.
Steuspe
In the pharmaceutical industry, being the first to market often gives the company a significant advantage and allows it to dominate the market.
However, this pfizer vaccine appears to be too complicated to maintain this advantage or domination.
——-XXX—–
Financial advice
Boys and girls, I have been buying $x.00 shares of pfizer, every month for the past 10 years. I also reinvest the dividends. Look up DRIP
Hal that happen about three years ago
Medical marijuana and other stock options some of which were in Pharmaceutical
These past months were not easy
However i took his advice with a view of change coming from USA election which would accelerate the stock market
Patience seems has its benefits
It is times like these where BU can be of better service educating readers on things financial and benefits
Instead of using political rabbit holes to cover govt failures
Govt spent millions importing COVID
Presently spending millions to stop community spread which govt imported
Then we have a bunch of dunderheads clapping about no community spread when had not for govt importing COVID barbados would have zero cases and zero deaths
So far what are the financial benefits from this great govt policy
Zero as in Nada
God bless us and protected barbados from the virus setting us apart in safety from the international countries who have suffered economically along with huge death rate
But what does govt do defy the goodness of God open up its borders let the virus in then spends millions to control the virus
Meanwhile back to a reality that is attacking our social environment is our health system in need of help
QEH is on life support
Crime and violence at runaway speed and the people suffering in hushed silence
Just imagine what those millions spent on COVId could have done with an interest to be of benefit to barbados
Here i am eyeballing bridgetown suffering from a dreaded disease of economic and social neglect
So sad.
I hear you Mariposa. This government was the last in the Caribbean to refuse egress to cruise ships. The Barbados government was determined to retain this trade; that it gave permission to the cruise industry to use its waters as a holding port.
It is a pity that our government invested so much time and energy in this risky adventure. One of the large UK corporate accountancy firms stated, yesterday, that the tourist industry would take four years to restore itself; if they reinvented themselves.
It is a crying shame that this Mia has clung to a declining industry since March, instead of looking at a host of other areas of our economy which may have had an immediate and positive impact on our economy.
The elephant in the room is Covid-19. Should we remain loyal to the industry and accept that it will bring certain death to the masses.
TlSN
I can bet that the millions behind COVID to save the tourist industry could have spent rebuilding baxter Rd and Nelson St and surrounding environs of bridgetown from downtown and along baystreet
Investing money which would have put locals back to work with a vision in mind that when Covid is under control world wide the finishing projects would incorporate to be a mixture of tourism and local business helping to rebuild the economy as well as socially along with generating more jobs on sustainable level long term
But No. Where there is no vision the people fail.
@ Mariposa
Your infrastructural plan is better economics than anything proposed by Persaud and his gang or the overpaid ones at Cave Hill. This is the reason why you are constantly attacked.
Tell your opponents to discuss the economic proposals instead of waffle; you are on a winner. Great stuff.
Hal can u imagine how many unemployed would be working presently
Not to mention the end result of a beautiful welcoming bridgetown having a healthy economical theme which saves local business and place barbados. social enviroment amongst one of the worlds best
A picture to die for
@ Mariposa
I am afraid I can. It is macroeconomics 101. What is more, government would not have to borrow to carry out that work. They can print the money; the only risk will be asset price inflation. That can be avoided by removing that liquidity from the system.
Even Persaud should know that. What about the post office/credit union bank we were told about in the 52-page, near-three hour Queen’s Speech On September 15? Bds$100m of the $300m given to bail out the badly managed, family-owned hotels would have been better spent funding the balance sheet bank. But, black Bajans may benefit from any such development. That cannot work in Mottley’s narrow world.
Where is the White Paper? When are they going to start public discussions? Or are they, as usual, just going to publish a Bill?
@ Hal,
I see that St Lucia received 3 flights today from North America.
By the way did you see Steve McQueen’s small axe production on the BBC: The Mangrove Nine. It was explosive. The acting was superb. Let’s hope that we will finally see more of these productions that concentrates on the Caribbean presence in the UK from the fifthties to the eighties. There are so many stories to tell.
https://www.nationnews.com/2020/11/10/air-canada-returns-st-lucia/
These Cartibbean govts are now being exposed as useless tin horn dictators
Not one of them have an alternative to Tourism during this time if COVID
Not one
Reason why i laugh out loud when i hear them patting self on the back about numbers and comparing their countries low numbers to USA big numbers
Now pray in countries the size of shoe boxes where is the numerical comparison to a country like the USA whose population is over 337 million
Furthermore had not for international countries giving COVID assistance these small island would be caught like a deer staring into headlights
Not one can even produce a button fartherless paper to help themselves in a medical crisis
Yet gloat and pat self on the back about smallCOVID numbers
Wuhloss imagine a mouse sitting on a lions tail and thinking he can eat the lion
That is the way these small island leaders think
TheOGazerts
November 15, 2020 12:54 PM
“Financial advice
Boys and girls, I have been buying $x.00 shares of pfizer, every month for the past 10 years. I also reinvest the dividends. Look up DRIP”
TheOGazerts,
The highest point reached by Pfizer stock was $48.00 about 20 years ago.
It is currently trading at $38.62
When the latest news of the vaccine came out, I said to myself that the Pfizer stock is sure to rise. Indeed, the stock price did soar.
However Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, sold $5.6 million worth of his stock on Monday and this has caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised.
@Mariposa November 15, 2020 1:28 PM “…when had not for govt importing COVID barbados would have zero cases and zero deaths.”
It is a Pan-demic.
Have any countries escaped covid19?
Chuh dear did Mia not say that the cases in barbados came from vistors
Then if what she says is true with our borders closed to visitors the answer would be zero
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/11/15/one-new-covid-19-case-two-recoveries/
Going to wish everyone of you a peaceful and restful night. We all manifest our love in different ways.
HAGN
A word of caution.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8951825/Normal-Christmas-Real-impact-Covid-19-vaccine-seen-summer-creator-says.html
@TLSN
I saw Small Axe. The best thing about it was Toots and the Maytals. It is also a reminder that in the early 1960s the most popular Bob Marley song was Small Axe, it was the anthem of the black power movement in the UK.
It sent me back to our shebeen parties. I have said before if you have lived an event, which later becomes the subject of a book or television programme, you begin to beat up yourself, since it is not exactly what you remember.
I will give an example of what I mean. Black History Month has just finished and Scotland Yard was busy promoting the idea that Norwell Roberts was the first black police officer.
I remember the Mangrove Nine and Roberts joining the police because they were both big events in the black community, and featured prominently in West Indian World, the leading black paper of the time.
The problem with this is it is wrong. The first black police officer in Scotland Yard was a woman, a Jamaican, who spent three years in the force before returning home to join the Jamaican police. The Roberts myth is still on Google.
How do I know that? Sky News did a big programme on the woman, sent crews out to Jamaica to interview her, and Scotland Yard even allowed its senior black officer, a woman commander, to be interviewed for the programme.
So, you have Scotland Yard promoting the myth about Roberts, and this is not a reflection on him, while admitting to the historical fact, as we know it.
The real story there was not about the nonsense of being first black police officer in Scotland Yard, but the racism she faced, both from fellow officers and the general public, including black people. She was at the sharp end, she had to face it.
Similarly, those of us who remember the Mangrove Nine and the atmosphere around it, do not recall it as it was shown. Where were the black lawyers and support groups? Where were the black customers who crowded in to the Mangrove restaurant?
But that is the freedom of showbiz. Shortly before Frank Critchlow died, my wife and I were talking to him at the Carnival and I suggested to him he should write a book. He said he had thought about it, but his children were not keen.
What was not mentioned in the film was the resurrection of old laws with which to prosecute black people – riot and affray – it also ended the custom of challenging jurors on racial grounds (ie to be tried by a jury of your peers).
Modern legal history in England and Wales has black people at the very centre. To dilute that for entertainment purposes is a wrong to future generations.
At least it did feature a prominent racist officer who was later certified as insane. History is a funny thing. The current commissioner was 12 yrs old at the time.
https://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/covid_chart.png
“The two tablets worked by triggering a period if the woman was not pregnant, replacing urine sample testing which took up to a fortnight to give results. But campaigners claim it caused birth defects in their children, such as blindness, deafness, spina bifida, and heart and limb defects, or even killed their babies.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-46347049#:~:text=The%20two%20tablets%20worked%20by,or%20even%20killed%20their%20babies.
….early 1970s…….
Am I the only person suspicious that every CoVid victim discovered in Barbados happens to be a visitor? Are Barbadians immune to CoVid? What is our epidemiological model? Why are we so successful in stopping spread?
Or, are our health officials cooking the books?
When are they going to publish the 2019 mortality figures and those for 2020? Something smells.
Another CoVid victim, and don’t tell anyone, but it is another visitor. Boy, the president is really on top of this global pandemic. She must be a genius.
I still want to know what is our epidemiological model? Where is the Czar? Have we ordered any of the leading vaccines, not just the waffle about doing a deal for 56000 vaccines with PAHO?
Since each patient must receive two injections, 56000 will only treat 28000. Who are we prioritising? Will any of the vaccines be available through private doctors and clinics?
Barbadians do not give a shit what a person living in UK covid 19 infested wants. Off to the beach today.
Two more CoVid victims, one a male visitor, the other a Barbadian woman flying in from the US. The report does not say if she lives there or was visiting.
Still want to see the epidemiological model.