Submitted by Petko
I wish to preface this by stating in no way am I affiliated with or have any financial interest in the tourism or travel industry, as I know what I write below will have people stating I have only written to push a personal financial agenda.
The time for Barbados to open her borders completely is now. By this I mean in particular the 2nd test and hotel quarantine policy of tourists and returning Barbadians has to be terminated. As well the mandatory Harrison Point isolation of any person testing positive for Sars-Cov2 virus should also be scrapped.
The coronavirus is endemic in Barbados, no wordsmithing such as clusters or West Coast or North Coast spread can deny this fact. In addition, I put forth that it has been endemic since March. Only a naïve person can believe that the virus has not been constantly circulating since it was first tested for in March. Barbados opened her borders in mid June and did not institute the second test of incoming persons until mid-October. If people have been found positive on the second test since October, it is only logical to surmise the same percentage of people were positive from June to October that were landing here. Hence the virus has always been here and circulating. The only thing that happened during this Christmas season is that a local Bajan was tested with the virus being detected. This was followed by the mass testing to find the 500+ positives we have now. It is common knowledge that from May to now the local population has barely been tested, there were days in June with 15 tests reported – from a population of 285,000 people. Testing only reached 60-120 per day when the testing of incoming passengers began.
Based on the above we can extrapolate that with a circulating virus the health care system at no time was over-whelmed. The fact is when you don’t test for the coronavirus you don’t find the coronavirus as 98% of people who “catch” it suffer at most a common cold and thus you wouldn’t even know it existed. Currently we see that from the 560+ current cases not a single person is in serious condition. From 200 positive prisoners we see that 95% are asymptomatic. We have 1 year of data, we know that people over the age of 80 are vulnerable to this as they are to a flu – these people need protection and caution, but the 30 year old Sea-doo operator is at zero risk to Sars-Cov2.
The argument some have of shutting the borders is to be polite, pure nonsense. I find it quite hypocritical when people accuse incoming persons of bringing and spreading the “dreaded” virus. Consequently, these same people are quite happy to receive the hard currency these people bring, the pharmaceutical supplies, the TV’s and laptops and the Toyota Hilux’s that a modern society requires. We have always lived in a globalized world which trades in goods, knowledge and disease – this is the human condition.
There is no finger pointing here, the fact is with all the protocols on incoming passengers, the coronavirus is here and has been here. Even if 100% of humanity was vaccinated for this virus it will still exist as the vaccines are not eliminating the virus but making its care manageable. Manageable is the key word here. Barbados needs to manage the situation in a rational way that considers the positives and negatives of every action.
Tourism is the lifeblood of the nation; it will be the lifeblood in 100 years. Barbados nor any country in the Caribbean is going to start manufacturing pickup trucks or OLED TV’s – the core competency is the tourism product which arose from the glorious weather that this region is blessed with. We should be championing it rather than disparaging it, as some do. Currently Barbados is the only country in the region which requires the 2nd test in-country with the threat of going into isolation. What has this resulted in?
Well, the coronavirus is here and is not going anywhere, even post-vaccine. Thus, a ZERO Covid policy is sheer folly and unscientific. Next it has resulted in a drop of 95% to the tourism product resulting in up to 40% unemployment as well as a government stressed to its financial borrowing limits. Currently Barbados is receiving 350 incoming passengers per day on 4 major international flights. A quick look at our neighbours shows a different picture.
Montego Bay is handling 33 flights per day, Aruba has 19 flights daily, Cancun has 100 and Nassau 16. These locations require either no test of any kind or a negative PCR test 3-5 days old and nothing else. Yes, these countries have “cases” but so does Barbados. The difference is these countries are managing the situation and keeping their economy and tourism lifeblood functional. Travellers will put up with bringing a negative PCR test (for now – in 2 months when the entire USA has immunity do not expect Americans choosing destinations requiring tests) and they are showing it with their travel to these destinations. There is also the threat that once a long-time visitor to Barbados has tried out another destination such as Aruba, they may never come back here.
The BLP unfortunately painted itself into a corner with an unrealistic goal and message of Zero Covid. They now have the opportunity to exit this strategy and embrace that of managing the disease as well as the tourism product. I have no doubt that both can be done at an exceptional level in Barbados. Time is of the essence and the 2021 Winter tourist season is not done yet. February and March provide the traditional breaks in the source markets of the UK, USA and Canada. Literally tens of thousands of people are ready to travel to the Caribbean and if Barbados keeps its onerous and unproductive 2nd test none of these people will grace our shores. Thousands could be put back into employment, the economy would begin its rebound and we would be moving forward.
Pursuing the 2nd test strategy will only result in Barbados staying in its current sclerotic state. PM Mottley has been adamant in Barbadians should embrace change, well the BLP and herself needs to now do the same. The old policy did not and could not work, pivot and manage and let Barbados get back on her feet in 2021.
“How is chickenpox spread? Chickenpox is transmitted from person to person by directly touching the blisters, saliva or mucus of an infected person. The virus can also be transmitted through the air by coughing and sneezing.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All you had to do was touch the child and your ass was grass!!
https://youtu.be/xduyI13_0m4
Just pray you don’t get shingles in your old age.
“Complications. For those adults who didn’t catch chickenpox in childhood, or who haven’t been vaccinated, an attack of chickenpox can produce serious, sometimes lethal, complications. Adults are at risk of pneumonia and, less commonly, meningitis or encephalitis (infection of the brain).”
That’s why your boss kicked you off the premises because you could have spelt doom for those who worked with you.
I’ve always heard it is good to have chickenpox when you are a child, the younger the better.
https://youtu.be/eVZIVA8q5to
@John January 17, 2021 8:23 PM “Just pray you don’t get shingles in your old age.”
My mother had shingles in her middle years and survived to old, old age. Surprisingly I did not get chicken pox in my teens from my mother’s very bad bout with shingles, painful blisters all across her shoulders, even though we shared the same small one-bathroom house.
A niece got covid in the spring, and my 70+ sister who shares the same smallish apartment [about 1,000 square feet] but each lady has her own bedroom and bathroom, surprisingly did not catch covid. But that sister spent decades administering DOT, Directly Observed Treatment to TB patients, including homeless and marginalized people and never caught TB either.
Hope that I am not talking too fast. But we seem to be tough.
I understand that covid could be waiting for me just around the corner so I continue to keep my distance, wash my hands and wear my masks in the presence of others, as I have been doing since February March of last year.
And I always spend a lot of time in the sun. I don’t mind at all being as black as midnight.
@John January 17, 2021 8:07 PM “COVID is not spread by the same means as Chicken Pox.”
I did not suggest that the two viral illnesses are spread the same way.
I was 26 when I got chicken pox. Did not become very sick. Was feverish and lethargic for a day or two. Took 3 days off and went back to work. I had only been on a job for 4 days when I realized I had to pox. I had been working Mondays to Thursdays only. Realized that I had the pox Thursday evening. Felt foolish asking for sick leave when I had only just started. Returned to work Monday morning and as it was deep in the winter and I was covered in multiple layers of clothing, to the best of my knowledge nobody else at work became infected. Either they had already had the pox or I did not go close to anybody. I am not a huggy, kissy, touchy, feely person. At least not on the job.
By the way regarding vaccines. With some diplomacy and 6 million USD I am sure Barbados could have 100k doses of either Sputnik V, Astra Zeneca,Pfizer or the Chinese vaccine. Forget waiting on the WHO all of the above have been or will be approved. Vaccines are only way the politicians who have created the covid panic can get themselves out of the corner. Barbados should be acting on its own and rapidly.
Argentina receives second batch of Russia’s Sputnik vaccine
The second batch of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Argentina, allowing the South American country to apply the second part of the two-dose program aimed at inoculating front-line health workers.
Some 300,000 doses of the vaccine arrived from Moscow on a special flight of flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas.
They will be used to complete the Sputnik treatment program that began in late December. More doses are expected to arrive in Argentina later this month and in February.
Paraguay this week became the eighth country outside Russia to approve the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute.
Brazil requests emergency use approval for Sputnik V
Brazilian pharmaceutical company Uniao Quimica said that, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), it has requested regulatory approval for the emergency use of the Sputnik V vaccine.
The request, filed with Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, seeks approval for the use of 10 million doses of Sputnik V in Brazil in the first quarter of 2021, the company said in a statement issued in Moscow.
Pakistan approves AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use
AstraZeneca’s virus vaccine has been approved for emergency use in Pakistan, the health minister said, making it the first coronavirus vaccine to get the green light for use in the South Asian country.
Pakistan, which is seeing rising numbers of coronavirus infections, said its vaccines would be procured from multiple sources.
“DRAP granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine,” the health minister, Faisal Sultan, told Reuters.
Approval has been given to get more than a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine from China, he said
Steupse!
RICHARD PETKOJanuary 17, 2021 10:14 PM
Vaccines are only way the politicians who have created the covid panic can get themselves out of the corner.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When people begin to realise just what went on here, the politicians of this world are toast!!
I am glad to hear your brain was unaffected.
Barbados tourism often in the international news these days.
Headline:
The tourists who believe travel restrictions don’t apply to them
By CNN staff –
…The past month has seen a slew of high-profile cases of tourists getting in trouble for breaking the rules while on a sun-and-sand vacation.
….. In January, former British beauty queen and model Zara Holland and her boyfriend Elliott Love quarantined at her four-star hotel in Barbados for the required five days, before taking a second PCR test, as is required for travellers from high-risk countries. So far, so good — except that when Love’s second test came back positive, rather than face further quarantine, the couple made a dash to the airport to try and catch a flight home.
Then there was the British couple, again in Barbados, who tried to spice up self-isolation by inviting a local resident over for sex (she was caught climbing over the hotel fence), and the Jamaican tourist who popped out of his hotel quarantine for a soft drink — and has ended up doing jail time….
@Richard Petko,
You have made three comments that I see as totally incorrect. One, that cases should only be counted with clinical manifestation, not just positive PCR and that case reporting is thus way overblown (paraphrased).
This is incorrect for two reasons. Firstly, as Cuhdear B pointed out, we do not know how many cases have clinical manifestation and further, there appear to be grades of illness with this coronavirus. Yes, some are milder while some are more serious. But to make that generalisation for Barbados, we need to know what clinical presentation the local hospitalised have shown. The government has not released such data. I think that they should, to educate the populace.
My suspicion, based on the comparative that I posted prior, between Barbados and Jamaica, is that the Barbadian medical teams have saved a lot of lives, even if we are not directly aware. I would like that confirmed and this would also give Barbadians an idea of the true capacity of this virus. I do not believe in withholding data, for fear of panicking people, that is an old world, witchhunt mentality. Data and explanation should be the norm.
Secondly, if case reporting is way overblown, speaking globally, why are the hospitals in the USA, EU, UK, overwhelmed with coronavirus patients? To the extent, that elective surgeries have been cancelled and / or limited, ICU’s have been expanded and are still full and oxygen is being rationed in some hospitals? This is direct from hospitals and ICU doctors, not some mumbo jumbo Youtube posting.
Now, on to the ‘vaccines are the only way that politicians can get themselves out of the panic they have created’.
You cannot be serious. As mentioned, hospitals are overwhelmed with cases caused by the virus, yet the politicans have created panic? The only panic the politicians have created is the poor management and inaction by leaders such as Trump, Johnson and Bolsanero. Inaction that has caused the spread of the virus and delay in resourcing the solutions.
The USA and UK lost control of the pandemic. UK never shut its borders, not just to the ‘good’ corridor countries, but to any. That was the issue. The repetitive opening up with crowds shopping etc, against the best health advice, also added to the problem. Bosses in the UK are making Covid positive workers attend work, this is the current news. The UK government has not put proper measures in place to ensure adherence to protocols.
That idiot girl who flouted rules in Barbados, is now in the UK news, for just flouting mask rules at work in the UK. But then, so did Johnson’s own advisor Dominic Cummings, before separation from government.
Now the UK is doing with testing what Barbados did a year ago,
On the subject of opening up, where you mentioned that Jamaica et al have done fine, I did address that already, yet you stick to your narrative.
Are you willing to accept more deaths, as per the population adjusted comparison with Jamaica? Are the additional deaths worth the economic comparison? YES OR NO.
That Barbados has managed to keep deaths to seven up to now (though from reports, that number may rise), speaks more to the excellent medical care by the team of doctors and nurses assigned to the Covid unit than anything else.
But again as mentioned, open up and that resource will also be stretched.
I do agree, we cannot go on like this forever, so the two solutions should be acquiring vaccinations for the populace and expanded testing capacity, such that faster turnaround time is achievable.
Agree Barbados has to keep its boundaries opened. Reality is that pandemic will be a health issue for the world for a while. Onus is on Government to introduce protocols including adequate testing measures that afford quick turnaround from testing to posting of results. Hotels need to introduce measures for those in quarantine that allow those awaiting 2nd tests to (while they wait) enjoy themselves. In fact the whole tourists package needs to be repurposed to support a future of our living with the pandemic.
There’s a lot of information on the internet about COVID-19. I am aware that there was an increased in COVID cases in the IK from late December 2020 and the talk of a new strain that’s more contagious but not fatal. Several of my family members who had avoided contacting COVID caught it in late 2020. Let me speak for my sister who died from it. She stopped going outside her home & relied on her son who lives at home for groceries etc. He like her is asthmatic so they knew they had to be very careful. They both caught it He survived but her lungs were compromised & she died within 8 days. I offer this to say we cannot speak with any assurance about COVID. Therefore safeguards that already exists need to remain & where required enhanced and improved to ensure the facilitation of tourism and support of Bajans health.
Lastly Government needs to get rid of the non technical talking heads as well as those who do not respect Bajans and communicate facts without the need to focus on a context. This approach inclusive of listening to key stakeholders might reverse its lost of goodwill.
CrusoeJanuary 18, 2021 2:49 AM
@Richard Petko,
You have made three comments that I see as totally incorrect. One, that cases should only be counted with clinical manifestation, not just positive PCR and that case reporting is thus way overblown (paraphrased).
This is incorrect for two reasons. Firstly, as Cuhdear B pointed out, we do not know how many cases have clinical manifestation and further, there appear to be grades of illness with this coronavirus
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How many cases of flu did we have in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020?
Aaaaah, finally.
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/01/17/bostic-death-possibly-related-covid-19/
THIS IS THE REAL 2 x 3 ISLAND THAT MANY OF YOU TRY TO COVER UP WHILST PRETENDING EVERYONE ELSE ARE IDIOTS.
WHAT A CESSPOOL OF AN ISLAND TO ITS MAJORITY BLACK RESIDENTS AND VOTERS.
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First inmate released from Dodds after outbreak
The first inmate to come out of HMP Dodds since COVID-19 struck the prison three weeks ago has described the situation there as “bare sufferation”.
The woman, who served five years and 41 days for financial crimes, was due to be released on January 12. However, like the other 842 inmates, she was placed under lockdown from December 31 as Government instituted a “no one in, no one out” policy.
Last week, Superintendent of Prisons Lieutenant Colonel John Nurse said there were 20 inmates due to be released by the end of this month.
Yesterday morning, much to the woman’s surprise, she was told by a prison officer to pack her clothes and say goodbye to her fellow inmates.
Speaking to the DAILY NATION from her St Philip home via telephone, the woman said she had retained Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley because she believed she was treated inhumanely.
She charged that prison authorities refused to tell them what was going on and how many inmates had contracted the virus.
“They did not tell us nothing. We looked outside and we see the men in black standing guard so we thought someone had dropped off a parcel with an illegal substance, or we thought one of the inmates or officers had dropped down dead.
“But then they tell we they have three admissions and we on lockdown. Then later in the night they wake us up and say, ‘Everybody put on wunna clothes and put something to cover wunna face and come’. When they say so, I knew they had corona in the jail.”
She said they were immediately taken to a room for a COVID-19 test, then put back under lockdown.
She described the past three weeks as a horrible experience even though the virus did not infect the female prison.
The woman revealed that they found out how rapidly the virus was spreading among the inmates through prisoners calling their families or going on social media.
“They got everybody believing the prison running good but up there is ‘sufferation’. I gine tell people who got family in there to go and check fuh wunna family and don’t believe everything [they hear] when they call up there.”
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/01/19/first-inmate-released-dodds-outbreak/
And life is wonderful in prisons over in away??????
Our prison system is not good. Prisons in most places are not good. Prisons were never designed to be good. I do not agree with that but that is the reality in most countries.
Prisoners everywhere complain about prisons.
Steupse!
Dodds Hotel is where she stayed.
Did you know that Quakers were also influential in Prison Reform?
Yesterday there were 4,363 deaths due to COVID in America and 193758 new cases of COVID.
Biden has instituted a mask mandate.
First day on the job looks to be historic!!!!!
@ Quaker John
Last time we discussed this issue we (you?) resorted to playing little games. The Society of Friends is now carrying out an inquiry in to the involvement of some members (ie Penn) in the slave trade. There is even talk of re-naming Pennsylvania.
Facetious… lol
Hal
Why would they even waste time with Penn when most Quakers in Barbados, Jamaica, Tortola, Antigua had slaves?
At emancipation there were about 800K slaves in the entire British Empire and about 450K in the US.
Britain did not depend on slave labour or trade in slaves, it depended on trade in multiple commodities.
It had firstly America, then Canada, India and finally Australia as markets for and supply of goods.
Check the link below to see ship voyages to and from Britain in 18th century.
You will see it was the Dutch who mostly went to Africa for slaves to be shipped to Surinam and even they traded far more regularly with other destinations.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/apr/13/shipping-routes-history-map
Supposedly about 12 million slaves escaped being sold into slavery in the horrors of the trans Saharan slave trade and made it to the New World.
The majority went to Brazil, Surinam and the Spanish colonies.
Most of the slaves in the US came after 1795 and the invention of the cotton gin, 77 years after he had died.
It was perfectly legal and moral in Penn’s day to own and trade in slave and while it may have escaped you, the Quakers are the ones who ended slavery.
You would have expected the Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch to have ended the slave trade and slavery.
It eventually was the Quakers from England who did.
It took Africa more than a century to end the practice.
Besides Hal
Kings of England were routinely involved in the slave trade through the Royal African Company 1660’s to 1752.
It’s primary commodity was gold from Africa but pretty sure it also traded in slaves as it got a royal charter to do so after it started.
Gold was more important as a commodity for trade out of Africa than were slaves.
Penn was a loyal subject, best buddies with the king of the time who gave him Sylvania which was eventually renamed Pennsylvania in honour of him.
His father before him had lent the King money, he inherited the debt and converted it into a land grant.
You will find Quakers were connected well, right to the top, so their influence was far larger than you might imagine.
Oh oh
Another 164,124 new COVID cases in America on day 2. and so far 3,338 deaths.
@Donna January 19, 2021 8:07 PM “And life is wonderful in prisons over in away??????
Our prison system is not good. Prisons in most places are not good. Prisons were never designed to be good. I do not agree with that but that is the reality in most countries.”
I’ve gone to Dodds twice and actually it ain’t that bad, especially as the women’s section is not over crowded at all, and the women are kept busy learning trades etc. Of course all of your “room mates” are certified bad girls so as expected things can be a little uncomfortable.
Looks like yesterday ended at 192,065 new cases and 3,886 deaths from COVID on Day 2.
At this rate, Biden should surpass Trump in his first 100 days.
Faucci better look at reclassifying how deaths are allocated and how cases are determined to be cases.
I mean, it is slightly better than day 1 but somebody better change how the stats are collected or Biden will look like crap if he lasts the first 100 days!!
Anyway, on the positive side, he starts off with an distinct advantage, vaccines.
Hal
Another way of looking at slavery in the US is to consider the 65 year period where it actually did create wealth, that is to say 1795 to 1860.
The number of slaves at the end of the civil war was of the order of 450,000.
Immigration from Ireland and the rest of the Europe was several orders of magnitude higher.
“It is estimated that as many as 4.5 million Irish arrived in America between 1820 and 1930. Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one third of all immigrants to the United States. In the 1840s, they comprised nearly half of all immigrants to this nation.”
Most of that immigration was to the North which did not depend on slavery for its economy and was more technologically inclined.
That huge immigration fueled the Union armies and allowed them to overcome the challenge from the south.
It is true that cotton had made the South more wealthy than the North in that period, 1795 to 1860 so slavery did contribute to the overall wealth of the US.
However, if you compare the progress of South America which depended on slavery with North America which did not you would have to accept that any claim that slavery was the determining factor in economic development is grossly overstated.
In fact, I would say slavery in the new world was a deterrent to economic development.
https://www.wkrg.com/honoring-hammerin-hank/baseball-legend-hank-aaron-got-virus-vaccine-earlier-in-january/
Oh oh
https://apnews.com/article/mlb-baseball-atlanta-braves-hank-aaron-coronavirus-pandemic-0fa32aff826d18bbeb9efedd42cd81a2
Apologies Hal,
I got the slave population in the US in 1860 wrong.
Memory not as good as it used to be.
Still, the comparison between north and South America is valid.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/maps-reveal-slavery-expanded-across-united-states-180951452/
@ John
Ireland was always a production line for indentured servants. After the potato famine those who were still alive rushed off to the US, UK and in the main, Australia. The to and fro has never stopped.
Interestingly, in the US the Scots-Irish formed the backbone of the KKK and in Australia they terrorised the Aborigines; evidence, if any were needed, that an oppressed people do not become angels when they are liberated.
In contemporary Britain, the Scots and Irish are over-represented in the police, immigration and customs; in conventional trades, such as road repairs, very few black people get jobs.
In terms of religion, the Irish, Poles and some Caribbean blacks are all Catholics, yet they cannot even worship at the same time. In London we have one service for the Poles, one for the Irish and one for the Caribbeans. I understand the same thing takes place in Chicago.
Ethnic rivalry is real. I remember in Australia white Australians trying to stop me from speaking to Aborigines and Japanese.
WHO changes criteria one hour after US rejoins WHO!!
https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/01/22/who-changes-covid-criteria-as-biden-announces-plan/
Hal
Tell me what you think of this book.
https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Noel-Ignatiev-How-the-Irish-Became-White-1995.pdf
@ Quaker John
I will read it from front to back page. The Irish occupy a strange place in the hierarchy of whiteness. A lot of British journalists who tell us how English they are, suddenly became Irish at the time of the Falklands war when it was necessary for British journalist to get foreign passports to enter Argentina.
The same thing has happened with Brexit. Suddenly a lot of them discovered they had Irish and German roots and rushed to get their EU passports.
What I can tell you is that a lot of the mathematicians and economists in the UK are of Irish descent.
Hal
I am due an EU passport too through reparations!!
As I understand it the Spanish and Portuguese government agreed to give passports to the descendants of the Sephardic Jews they expelled back in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella.
I am descended from Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal … nice to have already done my genealogy as far as I can.
However, I am not rushing to get it!!
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09739572.2020.1827666
@Quaker John
You are now a European.
@ Baje
It takes all kinds. If you look around the world at the nationalists many of them have one thing in common. Boris, was born in New York; the biggest Brexiteer is a former MEP born in Lima, South America; just look at the African MPs in the UK parliament, and follow their speeches.
Trump, with a Scottish immigrant mother and a Germany heritage father; his children all with foreign mothers; also look at the Bajan politicians who profess their Barbadian-ness.
Look at the Jihadists, the converts are always the ones who think they have to prove themselves. It is all about identity.
@ John January 23, 2021 3:23 PM
“I am descended from Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal … nice to have already done my genealogy as far as I can.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are surprised that you were aware of the genocide of the Jews carried out under the junta of Ferdinand and Isabella to rival that of the Nazi regime and the enslavement of black Africans under the Arabic slave traders and Moors.
There is nothing new under the Sun as far as ‘persecution’ of those so-called European Jews is concerned.
Maybe it’s the punishment of collective guilt for their role in the crucifixion of your sweet baby Jesus and their failure to recognize him as the only Salvador del Mundo.
Since you are so eager to recognize and promote your “Jewish’ heritage we would not be taken aback if you claim lineage back to King David and Yeshua aka Jesus Bar Abbas.
When are you going to recognize the tar brush side of your ‘mixed-up’ ancestry which was ‘fomented’ on the plantation behind the sugar-mill wall?
How about starting with your ‘blackened’ royal blood out of upper Benin or from the old Kingdom of Dagbon or, like the eponymous Moses, abandoned as a ‘slave baby’ on the banks of the White Volta in what is now modern-day Ghana?
It’s a crying shame that Jews can always change their ‘religion’ and can convert to Catholicism -or even Quakerism as in your ancestral situation- but the poor black Johnnies in Barbadoes can never change the colour of their ‘brown’ skins even though descended from the same loins and genetic sacks of the same slave trading Sephardic Jews.
The word in the Saturday January 23, 2021 COVID Update Press Conference is CONTEXT. It also feels happy as if the islanders have an opportunity to win something. But Minister of Health is bringing analysis which is much appreciated. Sadly for me prior to late December I used to keep my distance from white tourists. Based on the Minister’s analysis I must now keep my guard up from all. Logically the COVID source was a tourist(s) who’ve long left the island. Sorry it took so long to accept the fact there’s community spread but our culture would have always facilitate the spread of COVID and the strain that exploded in the UK from late December is very contagious. Minister you remain credible. Have had enough so closing down. Reported as happened.
Hal AustinJanuary 23, 2021 4:17 PM
@Quaker John
You are now a European.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Always was.
Now waiting for reparations from my African origins for selling my ancestors down the river.
All the same, they actually did them a favour and put them in the consignment going west instead of east.
MTA
… works every time.
You are a sucker for punishment!!
Cases of COVID falling it would appear!! 172,913 yesterday, about 20K fewer.
Deaths at 3,427 yesterday.
Biden still on track to surpass Trump in just his first 100 days!!
Got to look at how these COVID deaths are classified.
4369 Deaths, Day 1
3917 Deaths, Day 2
3427 Deaths, Day 3
11,713 deaths in 3 days.
In a 100 days at this rate Biden could be just shy of 400K, about 390,433, almost Double the deaths up to the time of his inauguration.
Encouraging sign is 1000 fewer deaths … just need to get the deaths reclassified and he could be down to zero.
Could be that rejoining WHO is more effective than any vaccine!!
More fraud in the making.
But John. I thought that you said there was no pandemic, but only something called a casedemic.
Where has your casedemic disappeared to?
WHO altered the definition of a case!!
PCR test been finding dead virus!!
You can figure that out, can’t you?
So far for today, new cases in the USA at 31,821 and deaths at 451!!!
Go figger!!
The only thing tat has so far happened is America is back in the WHO!!
Hal, you’ll soon see the results up your side.
I kid you not!!
I suspect the numbers are going to be taken down soon as they will be viewed as creating the possibility for the incitement of violence!!
So Simpleton, go and get your last looks and see for yourself.
I suspect all hell is soon going to let loose as people get to realise their livelihoods have been compromised by what may have been a deliberate attempt to destroy them.
The numbers will not lie!!
@ Quaker John
We have groups of people who refuse to obey the protocols, mainly young people and some from religious and ethnic groups.
WHO has changed the requirements. If you are asymptomatic doesn’t matter which nostril tests positive, you are not a case.
Mia will probably have to let out all the folks at Harrison Point!!
Hal
The protocols are going to change!!
In two twos!!
Braptist, Oh just shut up.
For those who disagree with banning, most internet forums ban trolls.
Shiite, don’t tell me that ‘nut case’ is attempting to change the focus of yet another blog into some nonsense about Donald Trump?
It seems as though only things on that guy’s mind are Quakers and Trump.
@ Quaker John
The protocol were devised in March last year. They only serve to delay the onset of the virus, they do not eradicate it. With the new and more transmissable variants there will be a need for new protocols. You are right.
CoVid will become like the common cold, no cure but controllable. The scientists have done their job by coming up with vaccines. Humanity will survive.
Are you old enough to remember when polio hit Barbados and the fear was it will wipe out our youths? I can’t remember if it was before or after Hurricane Janet, but we survived.
The CMO s a poor communicator and appears to be easily flustered when the bright lights are turned on. His junior in rank Dr. Anton Best is more comfortable in the role and is better at organizing and presenting the date/information….(Quote)
Presentation is part of communicating.
I knew a youth when I was a youth who had polio and lost the use of her legs.
… then it was no more!!
The biggest scare I had was when strep throat was going around … or was it diptheria.
Probably late 60’s.
I remember Whooping Cough was talked of in hushed tones by my elders way back when.
We had typhoid inoculations as children and polio and diphtheria and probably others like tetanus.
Boosters followed.
@ Quaker John
Polio terrified Barbados. It is only recently that they got rid of it in Northern Nigeria and India. The reason I raise this is that the immunisation was spectacular.
They went out in to the community and administered the vaccine – on your tongue. I remember mine. Then again, the people then had a purpose and vision and there was no ‘free’ Barrow education in those days..
ArtaxJanuary 24, 2021 2:42 PM
Shiite, don’t tell me that ‘nut case’ is attempting to change the focus of yet another blog into some nonsense about Donald Trump?
It seems as though only things on that guy’s mind are Quakers and Trump.
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I’ve tried very hard to limit the vast array of subjects on which I normally propound as it seemed to me my knowledge seemed to threaten the fragile folk on here.
I see you have noticed but won’t give me any credit for being so considerate towards your fragility.
pro·pound
/prəˈpound/
verb
put forward (an idea, theory, or point of view) for consideration by others.
@ Quaker John
Whooping cough I also remember. But childhood diseases are common. Children do not have the immunity to fight off most of them therefore the vaccinations..
The challenge is how the medical authorities deal with them. You may remember sometime ago I mentioned the cholera epidemic we had in the 1850s and how we dealt with it; it was spectacular.
From that we then had public toilets and baths; now we have grown men urinating in back streets off Broad Street because there are no public toilets. We are going backward, armed with our PhDs.
Trying not to go down the new rabbit hole.
But to give credit/blame after just two days and over a weekend is stretching the truth too far.
Be jeeze! There is a time lag wrt reporting on COVID numbers on weekends. EVERY WEEKEND the numbers drop. This has been explained ad bloody nauseum.
Please, John Knox, the show is over! Let there be peace!
Just checked the figures for Friday and Saturday. Only marginally lower than the week days. Today’s numbers are up to nearly 80,000 cases with hours to go. Then there is the weekend of lax reporting to make up for the disparity.
John Knox is a sick, obsessed creature. Maybe David should open another psychiatric Trump blog where he can go play with himself.
Your knowledge seems to threaten the fragile folk on here?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Perhaps YOU should give “the folks on here credit for being so considerate towards your fragility.”
Let’s examine your pet “subjects”…….. the Quakers and Donald Trump.
You put forward your “points of view,” giving the impression you’re knowledgeable about Quaker history, which seems to attract the consideration of only one ‘BU regular.’
Unfortunately, however, you’re often unable to answer pertinent questions he asks, thereby indicating your knowledge of that “subject” is VERY LIMITED.
As it relates to Trump…….. well…….. the ‘ideas,’ ‘theories,’ predictions, assumptions, countdowns etc, you’ve presented, have consistently been proven to be WRONG, time and time again.
Hence, your thoughts on that “subject” revealed the “fragility” of your mind.
Surely one would have thought that from “the vast array of subjects,” you would’ve chosen two you should be reasonably au fait with. That’s not the case.
Hal AustinJanuary 24, 2021 3:41 PM
@ Quaker John
Whooping cough I also remember. But childhood diseases are common. Children do not have the immunity to fight off most of them therefore the vaccinations..
The challenge is how the medical authorities deal with them. You may remember sometime ago I mentioned the cholera epidemic we had in the 1850s and how we dealt with it; it was spectacular.
From that we then had public toilets and baths; now we have grown men urinating in back streets off Broad Street because there are no public toilets. We are going backward, armed with our PhDs.
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In 1854 20,000 Bajans died from Cholera.
You took in with it say at 5:30am and by afternoon you were dead.
If you were rich enough to get a doctor early you died quicker because the Doctors did not have a clue!!
Burying the dead was a problem so there are Cholera Grounds all over the island.
We did not solve it, it just did its business till it finished doing its business and then stopped.
No different to the outbreak in London in 1832.
Safe drinking water was the key so one of the springs in New Castle Woods at ~800 feet elevation called Benn Spring was used as a source of water to be piped along the Valley to Bridgetown.
That spring would have been exploited already to supply the steam factory at Newcastle so there would have been water works there already compliments of the Haynes family..
That’s the purpose of the fountain outside Parliament, to remind the politicians of their abject failure where public safety was concerned and to make the more intelligent Bajans realise just how tenuous our existence is..
The public toilets and baths came into being in the early 1960’s almost a century after Cholera.
I know that for a fact because the Executive Committee at the time purchased two lots of lands from my family to build one in Vauxhall and another in South District.
I’ve got the conveyances somewhere.
Two private companies were initially started to distribute water through Barbados.
One served Bridgetown, the other in the 1890’s undertook to place mains and standpipes in the country.
Both failed and in the 1890’s the Government bought them out and formed the Water Works Department which took over the functions of the two companies.
Belle Pumping station came into operation in the 1920’s and the wells on the western flank after 1946 and Senn.
By the time Tullstrom’s work on zoning was applied in the early 1960’s numerous Bajans had died from various water borne diseases.
The public toilets and baths are a consequence of this work in the 1950’s and 60’s.
I think the Cholera lasted for 3 months!!!
20,000 dead in three months.
Entire families wiped out.
I had an ancestor whose wife died, his children died and he died.
In Barbados, Small Pox, Yellow Fever, Typhoid though deadly, were nothing compared to Cholera.
DonnaJanuary 24, 2021 4:08 PM
Just checked the figures for Friday and Saturday. Only marginally lower than the week days. Today’s numbers are up to nearly 80,000 cases with hours to go. Then there is the weekend of lax reporting to make up for the disparity.
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Excuses, excuses excuses.
Biden has to match the pre COVID economy and COVID is no longer an excuse.
It has to disappear, and miraculously so!!
https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/01/22/who-changes-covid-criteria-as-biden-announces-plan/
Steupse! Who the hell is Valley News???
Up to 126 000.
@Hal Austin January 24, 2021 2:10 PM “We have groups of people who refuse to obey the protocols, mainly young people and some from religious and ethnic groups.”
Th ethnic group which refused to obey Barbados’ protocols were white British Christians just like you.
I suspect this will happen to the cases in the casedemic, assuming 10%
It will be swift if all they have done is change criteria.
https://imgur.com/QGYPluZ
Deaths are interesting.
How do you make them fall?
By going back to classifying them as they were being classified prior to COVID.
I’ll hold off upsetting the fragile folks on here for the moment and watch as it unfolds.
Hal
Up your side the cases may look like this.
Once they have changed criteria as reported and assuming 10%
https://imgur.com/dyKCS20
@ Quaker John
In the UK, whatever the cause of death, if the dead had CoVid and died within 28 days of contracting it, then the death goes down as CoVid related.
I suspect in Barbados such a death would go down as pneumonia or heart attack or whatever the principal reason, that is why it is important that government publishes the monthly mortality figures for 2019 and 2020 along with causes so we can compare the numbers.
Did we bankrupt ourselves so pharmaceuticals can sell vaccines and collapse world economies. When are we going to wake up and realize we have all been played for fools.
Nobody has to die or get seriously ill if treated early. Where are our early treatment protocols? Are our taxpayer funded doctors going to wait on the WHO, CDC and other corrupt agencies to tell them what to treat people with or start using their brains and paper degrees to get in front of this COVID thing.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/who-changes-ccp-virus-test-criteria-in-attempt-to-reduce-false-positives_3668064.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/vaccinated-people-may-still-spread-ccp-virus-uk-medical-officer_3668880.html
@CA
The majority of our Covid deaths are old individuals who presented late.
@David
They always were and if the others were treated early when they presented with the known symptoms. We knew within the first 2 months the at risk people and what was needed to treat them.
Food for Thought:
Would our last 3 deaths of the 80 somethings and 91 year old still have happened later this year or maybe next year at best if COVID had not been around?
Is the cure worse than the disease. We are conducting the largest global sociological experiment every undertaken and our future children and grandchildren will be asking how stupid were we to have allowed it to happen in the first place.
How do we get old people with underlying conditions to present early?
How do we get old people with underlying conditions to present early?…(Quote)
What does this mean?
@David
It is very easy
1) Start showing the number of active serious cases on the dashboard so people can see this is not a deadly disease.
2) Get a proper list of the COVID symptoms to look out for out there for the entire public knows what to look for. Flu like symptoms is not enough.
3) Mandate anyone with flu-like symptoms must not go to work.
4) Stop putting everybody who tests positive in isolation. Leave isolation for the serious cases and at-risk persons requiring close monitoring. Isolating everyone only drives the cases underground and will lead to more cases presenting late. Do you really expect someone to come forward to be voluntarily tested knowing it means isolation unless they have problems breathing.
5) Our public health officials, specialists at primary isolation treatment center, BAMP and maybe even some doctors from the wider Caribbean should have a two or three day conference to come up with a complete set of protocol to be circulated to all medical practitioners covering.
– Clinical symptoms of COVID,
– Risk Stratification to identify at risk persons for complications,
– Early prophylaxis for at Risk persons
– Early treatment and monitoring procedures for at risk persons
6) Get the primary school children fully back into school. Every single study shows normal flu or a car accident is more deadly to them than this COVID. More children have killed themselves or died as a result of not being in school than have died form COVID.
The way to beat this is with our GP and polyclinics. Unlike most countries like the US where hospital ERs and pharmacies are used as GPs because of their lack of GPs, we have more than enough doctors to prevent cases from becoming serious if our public health officials and BAMP work to circulate proper protocols to get all our doctors into this fight.
It is not rocket science and it pains me that I can see that when I hardly did biology at school but our medical experts with the degrees can’t seem to see that.
@CA
Understand some of what you have proposed BUT it does not address the issue of individuals in the 80s and 90s who are sheltered from traditional communication channels from presenting early. Appreciate your deep thinking on the nettlesome matter of Covid pandemic.
Critical AnalyzerJanuary 25, 2021 6:31 AM
Did we bankrupt ourselves so pharmaceuticals can sell vaccines and collapse world economies. When are we going to wake up and realize we have all been played for fools.
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Whatever happened to Hydroxycholoroquine or whatever its name was … or is?
It was not the older folk who caused the panic!!
It was the asymptomatic younger folk terrified of death and dying, a fear played on by the press.
There was also the financial gain of treating COVID.
It was more financially attractive for hospitals to treat COVID cases.
… but control of the media is the major issue!!
Here is the problem and it doesn’t rest with the older folk.
It is the younger folk who are terrified of dying, the most natural thing to happen in life.
So COVID is not going away now, don’t care how low the cases fall.
No amount of legislation will do that.
Older folk have mostly come to terms with their own mortality and found ways to accept they too will die.
No one wants to die, but they will whether they like it or not and whether they happen to be young or old.
Fear is the enemy and the media stoked it up as high as it could.
The media is the enemy of the people, not COVID.
Hal AustinJanuary 25, 2021 7:49 AM
How do we get old people with underlying conditions to present early?…(Quote)
What does this mean?
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Hal boy,
Pointless asking this question!!
There is now the UK variant to explain the rise in cases, the South African variant and the deadly variant expected to affect the US in the coming months.
The media needs to realise it is time to put this COVID mess to sleep and start asking for answers to the harder questions.
But it won’t because it has blood on its hands.
@Quaker John
I notice that you have called me ‘boy’. I am a pensioner. Nevertheless, plse do not suggest the media have blood on their hands. Incompetence is not a capital offence.
I am sure the president has a very dim view of journalists; she has of accountants.
Press latest on COVID in America.
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/northamerica/northamerica-top-stories/us-passes-25-million-covid-19-cases-johns-hopkins/ar-BB1d3cvA?OCID=newswrap
Suppose it was 2.5 million or 10%, would there be all this hoo haa?
Instead of telling lies that are dangerous to Barbadians on BU, it would be nice if the half ah lawyer, John Knoxious fly to the US to join the team needed to defend Rudy Giuliani in his lawsuit filed by Dominion, in which he is being sued for over a billion dollars.
I am certain he could use a Shittical Analyzer as well to wade through the shit. These three would make a terrible tootie trio of Trumpeters capable of providing us with “much mirth”. Gone Potty and Dung Beetle would also fit in well and should consider joining the cast of crazy characters in a skit I would love to see on Saturday Night Live.
Do go!
@David
Don’t worry about the 80 and 90 year olds. They good.
They already know they might not see tomorrow or they might slip and fall and that might be the end of them. The regular flu or cold caught from their great grans visit can kill them the same as COVID. The ones I know able to move around and do things for themselves have not stopped spending their remaining time doing what they like to do, not worrying about some virus.
I know some old people that never stopped leaving the house during the strict lockdown period last year and nobody could tell them anything and it is their right to enjoy the rest of their lives, not spend it in a prison of your own making.
Are you going to tell someone who most likely has anywhere between a few months to a few years from enjoying life and seeing their latest great great grandchild and spending time with their remaining family to quarantine for the next 1 or 2 so they can just die alone and believe you me nothing kills active old people faster than quarantining them.
@CA
The blogmaster is sympathetic to a more robust moral view than you are. We have a duty to do everything to priory our elders.
@Donna January 25, 2021 9:12 AM
Had Trump taken advice from people like me instead of the bureaucratic corrupt political yardfowls around him, he would never have had the election stolen from him and he would not had nowhere near those number of COVID deaths and he would have shown the corrupt media house and pharmaceuticals for the greedy bastards most of them are. He had all the cards in his hand but he played them wrong.
Too bad you can’t see it is all about money and power. Do you realize how many proper studies on effective COVID virus treatments were torpedoes because the treatments were too cheap and effective.
Body counts is just a means to play on people’s hearts and minds to get the unwitting masses to go along with their profit making goals.
The ultimate goal of this pandemic was to get widespread acceptance of the new form of vaccine, mRNA vaccine which is a huge money earner like flu vaccines. They are easier to mass produce than the normal vaccines using dead or weakened version of the virus.
Critical AnalyzerJanuary 25, 2021 9:30 AM
@David
Don’t worry about the 80 and 90 year olds. They good.
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It’s as simple as that.
It is young people who have the fear and dread of death and at whom the media targets is doom and gloom.
Marketing techniques are wasted on people over 50.
They have already made their choices, know what they like and are unlikely to change.
Steuspe
See what I mean Hal?
Strictly unidimensional and myopic!!!