Submitted by Richard Petko
The past two weeks has seen a national pause and a furtherance of the pause. What are the actual goals of the pause? What are the goalposts for re-opening? What are the goals for tourism? These are all valid questions and I think they should be asked and answered. Before answering it is pertinent to see what other Caribbean jurisdictions which are considered as world class as Barbados are doing.
Barbados Population 285,000
- Cases daily 30-60
- Masks – everywhere
- Curfew – 7pm to 6am
- Schools – closed
- Economy – mostly shut down, supermarkets open M-F 8-4
- Activity – Beaches and parks 6-9am
- Tourism – PCR test to enter, antigen test at airport, 5 day hotel room quarantine, test followup
- Airlift International – 3-5 flights per day
- Positive Covid on Island – Residents & Tourists sent to government isolation facility for indefinite period of time no matter what their symptoms
Costa Rica Population 5 million
- Cases daily 300-450
- Masks – indoors
- Curfew – None
- Schools – Open
- Economy – Open – everything open
- Activity – everything open
- Tourism – NO PCR test required of anyone
- Airlift International – 20-23 daily flights
- Positive test In Country – isolate at home, only sick people go to hospital
Aruba Population 105,000
- Cases daily 20-50
- Masks – indoors
- Curfew – 11pm
- Schools – Open
- Economy – Open – everything open
- Activity – Everything open
- Tourism – PCR test required 72 hours old
- Airlift International – 24-30 daily flights
- Positive Test in Island – Tourist and Locals isolate at home, only sick people go to hospital
I think it is quite evident to see that in Costa Rica and Aruba we have governments that are managing Covid and the economy. They are not banning tourism and have come to the realization that Covid is an endemic respiratory virus that you should not be destroying your economy over. The per capita case numbers are the same in all 3 countries. It is the response that is clearly different.
It is probably shocking for many to see that you can fly to Costa Rica without a PCR test, that everything is open and somehow the country has not had a medical or economic collapse.
It is my opinion that this government is acting in an irrational panic rather than managing the issue. The country always praises its robust health care system, which has been bolstered by the arrival of 120 Cuban doctors and nurses. Harrison’s Point offers a large enough facility to house all the truly sick people from infection. I feel one of the biggest mistakes is taking every single sars-cov2 positive person into isolation. The data from studies in China and by the WHO now clearly show asymptomatic transmission of Covid is miniscule (roughly 3%). Needlessly putting an asymptomatic 37-year-old into isolation simply strains the resources of the facility. Not to mention the fact people are being taken away definitely makes them hesitant to go for tests or to share health information with others.
Barbados is better than this peripatetic response seen these past 2 weeks. Sars-Cov2 is here and is going nowhere. Locking up people in their houses until February 28th is not going to change anything.
It is time to do the following.
- Open up the entire economy immediately
- Open up all the schools to in-person teaching – this sacrifice of our children’s education over a respiratory virus will be the shame that will be focused upon in the history books
- Open up tourism – Go with a 72 hour old PCR test on arrival. This is truly not needed as Covid is here and endemic, but for a couple of months it will appease a portion of the population. However, the point is there is no need to worry if 1 of 100 tourists arrives here with Covid when 5-10% of Bajans are testing positive for it.
- Isolate only sick covid patients and focus health on them
- Continue with a rapid rollout of the vaccination program, ensure enough vaccines arrive by the end of March for everyone who wants one to receive one.
- Start a public campaign to truly educate people about the disease and the management plan
- Encourage mask use indoors only – outdoor mask use is nonsense and everyone knows it, by dictating such a policy it discourages people to listen to the valid pronouncements of public health authorities
- Stop this nonsense of stores and businesses testing their entire staff if someone tests positive for sars-cov2. If a supermarket in Florida has a positive test, they don’t shut down the market and test the 200 employees. It makes absolutely no scientific sense and actually has been discouraged by the covid task force. It should be mandated that it should not be done. This would be simple by not allowing the Beth Dos Santos Lab to process any tests from such establishments.
The above are simple and will lead Barbados out of this COVID situation much faster and more robust than any national pause.
CRITICAL WE HAVE A PENCHANT IN BARBADOS FOR LAUGHING AND IGNORING OUR VERY OWN, BUT E O DOUGHLIN WAS TELLING US HERE ON BU WHAT OTHERS STARTED TO DO LATER ON AND THE POST BY THE HATED AND DESPISED FREEDOM POST ON QUININE SENT ME TO REVIEW THE HETEROCYCLIC CHEMISTRY I LEARNED AT CAVE HILL YEARS AGO, AND I APPLIED IT EFFECTIVELY.
SO I CAN SPEAK WITH AUTHORITY AND EMPIRICALLY ABOUT THE MATTER DESPITE THE SCORN POURED ON ME BY TWO STUPID SEMI ILLITERATES ON THIS BLOG.
Watching NO destroy his reputation..
Suggesting he pretends not to know the houses and places Lawson is talking about.
@GP February 23, 2021 7:12 PM
I beg to differ, BAMP needs to be made to feel it came from them and not some over-the-hill doctor like you or non-doctor like me that have been posting about those studies and success stories all the way back in March or April last year.
Be thankful for Mia. Be thankful for what you got.
Called all over NJ today to get the vaccine. My search was a failure….
https://youtu.be/Pvtlt-p7vB4
I don’t believe half of the stuff I read here, but I bought tonic water and take my vitamin D tablets.
@plt – claiming one country handled covid over another and basing it on deaths or cases is the entire problem in this pandemic.
The fact is a vast majority of your “death” data around the world are people who did not die OF Covid but With Covid.. A positive PCR test indicates you have a molecule or two or ten thousand of sars-cov2 in your body. That does not mean you are sick or even have
Covid or even die from it. We see across the Western world deaths from nursing homes ranging from 60% to 85% of “deaths”.
In canada or the usa or the EU when you go into an assisted care nursing facility you have on average 8 months to live. If you have had a stroke and have dementia and your brain is wasting away and have no immune system and catch the sars-cov2 and die 2 weeks later, you will have all of the above listed as well as covid as cause of death. However you did not die of Covid, you died because you were on your way out to put in plain terms.
I can use my own 93 year old grandfather who went into a nursing facility following a heart attack and having late stage dementia. Guess what, he died within 3 months of entry – with the flu. However the flu was his companion on the way out, it was nowhere near his actual cause of death.
Trust me when I say I value life dearly, believe it or not more dearly than others as I am anti-war and anti-violence in any way. That is why this Covid over-reaction fiasco pains me so much. Even if the 2.2 million people who died with Covid actually only died because of Covid, I would still say open society and open the economy because probably 10 times more people have died from starvation, missed vaccinations, missed medical diagnoses because everything was shut down to try and prevent this flu bug. Not to mention 200 million children have suffered a loss of education, as well as our university level cohort who are getting a shitty university level experience as well.
This argument that everything is about a covid death and one covid death is a tragedy is pure hyperbolic rhetoric.
You with your expansive knowledge should know and agree the recipe of life and society is more than one ingredient “no covid”
When it comes to BAMP and a 14 day quarantine, the only place on the world where it has sort of worked is New Zealand and Australia. However, in those economies as well we see recessions (the first in australia in 25 years) and record unemployment rates. Many studies show unemployment is an actual cause of death by the way, so I can imagine that Australia’s unemployment rate going from 4% to 9% actually will cause death as well.
Barbados is a lovely island of 280,000 people. It is dependent on tourism and visitors and always shall be. You can’t diversify an economy with such a small population base and zero natural resources; no matter how many wishes you or anyone on BU may have.
With a 14 day quarantine you may as well say goodbye to the economy and start a massive emigration program to help the people leave and find jobs in functional economies.
To conclude yes, I stick to my point that Costa Rica, Aruba, Jamaica, Colombia have all handled this situation better because they have handled all aspects better; and claiming that deaths as a percentage of population or cases are the one measuring stick that matters is completely wrong.
the way things are going get gin for the tonic and a fishing rod so you dont have to stand in line at massey
@RICHARD PETKO February 23, 2021 7:46 PM
So do you admit that your statement “The per capita case numbers are the same in all 3 countries” was a lie, or was it just a mistake?
CRITICAL ANALYSER
I AM DEFINITELY NOT OVER THE HILL, SIR
PERHAPS THESE YOUNGSTERS DONT READ BU
THE FEW HERE THAT READ IT ARE SO BUSY SEEKING TO PULL YOU AND I DOWN, THAT THEY CAN NOT SEE CLEARLY.
I HAVE SAT QUIETLY AND WATCHED FOR MOST OF THE YEAR. SAYING NOTHING WHILE ALL THE SMART ALECS BARKED AND BRAYED AND BRIMBLED ON.
I THOUGHT SURELY THEY MUST BE SOME WISE PERSON SOME WHERE WITH VISION WHO COULD AND WOULD SEE THINGS CLEARLY
BUT I GUESS SOMETHINGS ARE SPIRITUALLY REVEALED
SUCH CLARITY WONT BE GIVEN TO DEMONS LIKE MR FALSY
AND YET A PIECE OF SCUM ON BU TODAY INSULTED ME BY SUGGESTING THAT I FOLLOWED THAT IDIOT, AS IF THERE IS NOT A GOD IN HEAVEN TO GUIDE AND PROTECT ME, AND SHOW ME HOW TO USE MY TRAINING.
@ Donna.
I can say with absolute certainty ” all saltfish sweet.” Applies to droopy ass white women as well llol
OH BTW CRITICAL I HAVE LONG NOT TAKEN BAMP SERIOUSLY OR EVEN BEEN A MEMBER
Yank yank! Tee hee!
Bare mock sport in de rumshop!
Murdaaaah!
@RICHARD PETKO February 23, 2021 7:46 PM
I never claimed “that deaths as a percentage of population or cases are the one measuring stick that matters…” but they are an important basis of comparison because ALL the countries count deaths with covid as deaths from covid. That is well known and is not the issue here. All of the other countries you mention have suffered deep economic damage just as Barbados has, even the ones who are less dependent on tourism than Barbados. You made no effort to evaluate or compare this economic damage. The only things you compared were “the per capita case numbers” erroneously… and the ability to avoid the inconveniences of testing, quarantine, and reduced air traffic.
The only possible conclusion that I can draw is that you place a greater value on your personal convenience than on other people’s lives, well being, or economic survival.
In any case, because all of your arguments were based on the erroneous premise that “The per capita case numbers are the same in all 3 countries” it is obvious that you reach erroneous conclusions. In any logical argument garbage in results in garbage out.
I leave PLT to argue with Petko. I scroll past.
HANTS
I THOUGHT THAT YOU FISHED FOR PIKE AND SALMON AND BASK
I DID NOT KNOW YOU CAUGHT COD AND HADDOCK TOO
Hants,
For me sex is more than a wuk up and a brek. I know for most men it is different. I have heard the stories about women who were dissed in the day and dicked at night.
@RICHARD PETKO February 23, 2021 7:46 PM
“You can’t diversify an economy with such a small population base and zero natural resources…”
+++++++++++++++++
Absolute Bullshit!! In fact Bajans have done so twice within my own lifetime. Firstly away from sugar cane monoculture to tourism, and then to global financial services in addition to tourism. There is not the slightest doubt that Bajans will do so again and again in coming decades and centuries.
You must really have a terribly low opinion of us to think we could never manage what we have already accomplished.
TheO,
My father and mother have both been vaccinated. My younger brother took our mother and was vaccinated the same time. Line was moving smoothly.
They are on at me to register because of my asthma. Sent me the link this morning. My thinking was that since I seldom venture out I could wait until the next cycle so that others who have to go out daily could be protected first. I’ll register tomorrow..
“I have heard the stories about women who were dissed in the day and dicked at night.”
I remember an old female rum drinker who was being publicly disrespected by a young man. The crowd ‘bawl’ when she looked him in the face and told him “Night has no eye”.
He was the kind of guy that would hide and “do work”.
@plt
I see that my data has to be spot on for you. Let me then drill down. Yes aruba and Barbados currently and for the past 2-3 weeks have the same per capita case numbers. Notwithstanding even this can be changed by the difference in total tests made daily as we see Barbados has 61 positives instead of the 19 yesterday but today we had 850 tests and yesterday 375 or so.
The past 3 weeks Barbados is averaging 45 cases daily. It’s hard to be exact because of the cockup with backlog tests.
Aruba averages 20 cases daily. However Aruba actually has tourists who take a PCR test at the airport. So on Sunday for example Aruba had 19 cases but 8 were arriving tourists leaving us with 11 domestics. So yes more or less the magic metric of case numbers is the same per capita.
I may not be as punctilious as yoiu in my proof reading or statistical roundup as you tend to be, but if you have not seen my point I shall make it simple. Cases don’t matter!
I use cases to point out that be it 20 or 200 the fact is 99.99% of people have no negative medical result from Sars-Cov2 . However lockdown affects everyone in many more detrimental and dangerous and long term ways than covid.
The government lauds the 60,000 care packages sent out, but guess what a kilogram of sweet potatoes doesn’t pay the rent or the flow bill or buys baby food.
If you have found a magic formula that can make a country with 40% unemployment function then I think you should drive up to Illaro court or Sandiford centre or wherever the government is deliberating and tell them what to do. I can with 100% confidence enforcing a 14 day quarantine on all incoming visitors is not even close to the answer
Of course we can diversify this economy and quickly if our leaders would just take off the myopic tourism glasses they have been wearing for the past 30 years.
We could move in 6 months into both alternative energy and agriculture if we stop talking and acted. First we need to accept that a USD saved is a USD earned. Once that is done we can then move forward with the process of diversification.
Regrettable our leaders seem bent on holding on to the embers of tourism with the hope that they will soon bear light again
@PLT I live here and love it here and don’t have a low opinion of bajans. But don’t feed me this crap that the economy is diversified. Before covid the unemployment rate was 10% with another 10% being underemployed.
I would actually argue that not focusing on the core competency which in Barbados case is the natural gift of weather is why Barbados doesn’t have full employment and instead is one of the most in debt nations in the world. Michael Porter proves that countries should develop “clusters” and not every cluster in the world but a cluster. The fact is you can’t compare the hotel product here to Cancun or Aruba or Bahamas or especially Dubai.
Barbados should focus on tourism, short medium and long-term as well as your preferred WS. It should hyper focus on this. Wasting breath and effort on talking about diversifying an economy with 280 thousand people is economically a fairy tale.
I am hibernating. Not as much as the man who was saying one thing on BU and doing another in Florida 😃
@ Donna who wrote ” because of my asthma.”
You and me have that in common. We could use our Advair and Ventolin ( AS ADVISED BY DR.GP )
and try to discover the power of love..
nuh doan mine me . I just dreaming. lol
Another little circumstance brought on by quarantine.
There is a company named Medilex which services 30% of Barbados high tech medical equipment such as a retinal scanner.
Right now due to quarantine they are not sending a technician here. They will not send one or find a willing employee to go through the protocols here.
Thus we have some high tech medical machines currently not in operation in Barbados. Unfortunately zoom or WhatsApp video do not suffice to repair a broken high tech device.
Oh dear me! Just saw a Tiger Woods clip with Oprah where he told her how many golf clubs refused him entry and how many racial slurs he endured from the golf clubbers.
The man is 45 years old. For those who dismiss our constant focus on race and our consideration of race as a factor in every situation, just think about when it was that a 45 year old man was denied entry to golf clubs on account of his race and suffered constant racial abuse when he did manage to get in.
Was it the 70s? Was it the 80s? More likely the 90s!
But that’s all done now, isn’t it?
@plt concerning economic diversity
We have a Canadian buying 400 acres looking to grow traditional and new crops.
Claims he has 15 employees and at full production will have 40! Wow 40!
If that 400 acres was a Las Vegas type hotel it would probably employ 2000!
https://epaper.barbadostoday.bb/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=85239ae5-4aa5-40a3-bba3-b10292a9192b
As you may know I am from Canada. Guess what we don’t grow Bananas or pineapple or okra or watermelon, we could, we could build massive greenhouses on 2000 acres and do it. But instead we have automobile manufacturing on that land and have 4000 people employed instead of the 50 the banana greenhouse might have. Dubai could do the same, they don’t. They get the most value from an acre of desert that they can.
Job per acre is much higher with tourism as opposed to food production.
It is a romantic old notion of this “food independence ” countries speak of. But other than the USA there probably isn’t a single food independent country on the globe. Weather matters
@PK
Perhaps diversification is the wrong word. Our small population makes it possible for us to transition from tourism to other sources of employment.
It is not millions or hundreds of thousands that we need to find employment for. If only we could successfully identify a few new areas of employment.
IT has to be one of those areas.
RICHARD PETKO February 23, 2021 8:26 PM
“… 99.99% of people have no negative medical result from Sars-Cov2.”
+++++++++++++++
This is arrant nonsense again. I will confess that yes indeed “data has to be spot” on for me, otherwise it is not data but lying with statistics. There is a world of difference between 99.99% and 97.78% (which is the statistical ratio of tracked global recoveries to deaths during the pandemic so far. The difference is a factor of over two thousand in the estimate of lethality. You can’t just throw around made up nonsense numbers like 99.99% and expect to be taken seriously.
This does not even take into account that a significant percentage of people who survive covid have medical issues as a result of the infection.
If you are going to propose public policy changes you owe it to yourself to get your basic facts and numbers right, otherwise you just come off as cranky and clueless.
@RICHARD PETKO
February 23, 2021 8:32 PM
You are the voice of reason here on BU. By April at the latest, when enough people in Barbados have been vaccinated, we will have to return fully to tourism. The economic damage is already enormous.
The real reason why many commentators on BU want a long quarantine and the withdrawal from tourism is obvious: they want to establish some kind of tropical nationalist-socialist state, crossbreed of Zimbabwe, Nazi Germany and North Korean Chuch’e ideology. The same people who lament when the black masses without tourists have to work on the plantation again because of poverty.
Anyone who dies of COVID19 despite vaccination must accept this as a general risk of life. COVID19 is not a medical problem, but a psychological problem under tropical conditions like barbados. A comparison: We do not lock up all native men because they tend to be violent compared to Northern Europe, Singapore and Japan, if we believe the murder statistics. Or should we? If we follow our quarantine Taliban, we would have to lock them up until they proved their non-dangerousness. Not that anyone misunderstands me: That is an argumentum ad absurdum. As usual.
@PK
I am beginning to like you.
400 acres is 0.625 square miles. That is a significant amount of land in an island that is 166 square miles. No foreigner should be allowed to buy that quantity of land in Barbados.
I also like your point about employment numbers.
If we have foreigners buying large tracts of land and employing one or two persons to work that land. I would hate to see what the island would like in a few years. We are marching towards that South Africa abandon.
NB: our limestone cannot accommodate high rise buildings. If you continue to sell large tracts of land, you will bypass the South African model as some will have to live in caves.
Fuck your literacy rate; open your eyes.
Four days ago, the authorities stated that no walk-ins will be accommodated yet many people without appointments tell me they went and got the vaccine, after those with appointments, were given the vaccine. This ‘news’ will spread and we will be back to the large crowds outside the Polyclinics!
Meanwhile, I still await the call to inform me of my appointment, after registering over a week ago ….. and I am just a few months from 70 years old….. but how do I check if I am even on the List???
Confused!
@ks
Why wait, go to the nearest clinic tomorrow morning.
That mad woman Wura is right.
“The fact is a vast majority of your “death” data around the world are people who did not die OF Covid but With Covid.. A positive PCR test indicates you have a molecule or two or ten thousand of sars-cov2 in your body. That does not mean you are sick or even have
Covid or even die from it.”
@ Richard Petko This “interpretation” is based on a lack of understanding how this virus kills and is contributing to why this virus is not being taken seriously.
I will use the AIDS analogy (sort of). HIV doesn’t kill you. HIV causes AIDS which causes you to die from other infections. The SARS-Cov2 virus causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this case, the COMORBIDITIES(IN MOST PEOPLE) along with age, is what causes a depressed immune system. Unlike HIV, the Sars virus directly attacks the lungs and other organs. Sars-Cov2 kills you faster with a depressed immune system. With these deaths, it is a case that even with NCDs you would be alive WERE IT NOT for the SARS-Cov2 infection. If you catch Covid-19 it is a race between the virus causing disease and the immune system catching up to stop it. In most people the immune system eventually catches up with varying side effects. A vaccine helps the immune system catch up even faster.
@RICHARD PETKO February 23, 2021 8:44 PM
I am also Canadian, but I know diversifying the Bajan economy does not mean that it will resemble the Canadian one that is 350 times as big. I also know that agriculture will never again employ a large fraction of the Bajan workforce because in order to be efficient agriculture will be mechanised and computerised.
However we are perfectly capable of creating new sectors of the economy that employ 5,000 or more people and earn hundreds of millions of USD. Making such a transition is not nearly as hard as those entrenched defenders of the status quo insist. For example the tourism industry directly employed about 15,000 people before the pandemic, although some of those were seasonal. In order to prop up the hotel owners (think election campaign contributions) the Barbados government found $300 million to help them through tough times. Stupid move. They could simply have used the same $300 million to pay each and every hotel worker a $20,000 over a year in which they could retrain for opportunities like photovoltaic installations, repair and maintenance (that sector is begging people to train and work for them). Bingo! The unemployment rate stays at its historical level, and the growth of import replacement energy sources gets a big boost. The only thing standing in the way is our traditional political corruption.
@ksFebruary 23, 2021 9:09 PM
Our vaccination system is not bureaucratic, but flexible. This allows us to speed up the process. Soon we will even have overtaken Israel and Great Britain. My friends in New York and Zurich are just enthusiastic about the rate of vaccination on our island. I would not be surprised if soon tourists come to get vaccinated here.
Thank you, Most Honourable Prime Minister Mia Mottley!
@David February 23, 2021 9:15 PM
Please don’t encourage ks to go down there in the hot sun and collapse waiting in a line.
Government needs to get this fiasco right and it is very simple to do. Do not vaccinate at the polyclinics, only at schools or other non-medical facilities. Strict appointments ONLY policy with guards at the front gate turning away persons not on the list.
“Stupid move. They could simply have used the same $300 million to pay each and every hotel worker a $20,000 over a year in which they could retrain for opportunities like photovoltaic installations, repair and maintenance (that sector is begging people to train and work for them). Bingo! The unemployment rate stays at its historical level, and the growth of import replacement energy sources gets a big boost. The only thing standing in the way is our traditional political corruption.”
stupid sell out leaders, they even deprived the hotel workers of compensation/severance, them and the tiefing hoteliers….these 2 legged snakes just don’t want to see the majority Black population free and independent…and for that we will have to very closely monitor them….these times call for that…they are on watch and need to come to grips with the truth that they’re not a 1/4 as intelligent as they believe themselves to be…there will be NO reintroduction of slavery UNLESS it’s on the world stage show.. ..let everyone see the actors in living color.
Again Richard Petko is suggesting more death for Bajans and their visitors. He quotes data from Florida, Costa Rica, and Aruba.
The death rates from Covid19 for those places :
Florida, 1390 deaths per million
Aruba 663 deaths per million
Costa Rica 543 deaths per million
Barbados 108 per million
If we follow Petko’s advice and acted as Florida has done we would have about 350 deaths by now.
If we follow Petko’s advice and acted as Aruba has done we would have about 170 deaths by now.
If we follow Petko’s advice and acted as Costa Rica has done we would have about140 deaths by now.
Richard Petko may be comfortable with the deaths of an additional 32 to 242 primarily black and brown people. I am not.
I suggest that Richard Petko be Covid19 death number 33. I am very, very comfortable with that.
@RICHARD PETKO February 23, 2021 8:49 AM “a doctor or epidemiologist looking through their highly focused lens on ONE outcome – no covid”
Nobody has suggested no covid.
Everybody has suggested minimising covid.
We have a limited number of ventilators. What happens when people begin to need ventilators and there are none? Do we pull Richard Petko off his ventilator?
@Sargeant February 23, 2021 2:46 PM “When John gets an idea in his head it becomes an obsession…Now the latest about water borne COVID, he is wasting his talent here he should send his findings to every scientific publication or the many scientists doing research on the subject, they would welcome another brilliant mind to the herd.”
Because John was brilliant at 17 it does not mean that he is brilliant at 67. You know don’t you that some of us at 67 are being diapered and spoon fed in nursing homes.
Cuhdear BajanFebruary 23, 2021 11:54 PM
@Sargeant February 23, 2021 2:46 PM “When John gets an idea in his head it becomes an obsession…Now the latest about water borne COVID, he is wasting his talent here he should send his findings to every scientific publication or the many scientists doing research on the subject, they would welcome another brilliant mind to the herd.”
Because John was brilliant at 17 it does not mean that he is brilliant at 67.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
First of all I am not 67!!!
Then of course there is Einstein who got brillianter with age and of course there is Trump, a stable genius at 74, a year younger than Einstein!!
And then I don’t have to share my ideas with scientific publications, they support them!!
Here is the evidence which I have posted before that supports my ideas!!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7528884/
Abstract
The presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in water and wastewater has recently been reported. According to the updated literature, the stools and masks of the patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were considered as the primary route of coronavirus transmission into water and wastewater. Most coronavirus types which attack human (possible for SARS-CoV-2) are often inactivated rapidly in water (i.e., the survival of human coronavirus 229E in water being 7 day at 23 °C). However, the survival period of coronavirus in water environments strongly depends on temperature, property of water, concentration of suspended solids and organic matter, solution pH, and dose of disinfectant used. The World Health Organization has stated that the current disinfection process of drinking water could effectively inactivate most of the bacterial and viral communities present in water, especially SARS-CoV-2 (more sensitive to disinfectant like free chlorine). A recent study confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in inflow wastewater (but not detected in outflow one). Although the existence of SARS-CoV-2 in water influents has been confirmed, an important question is whether it can survive or infect after the disinfection process of drinking water. To date, only one study confirmed that the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in water for people was null based on the absence of cytopathic effect (CPE) in infectivity tests. Therefore, further studies should focus on the survival of SARS-CoV-2 in water and wastewater under different operational conditions (i.e., temperature and water matrix) and whether the transmission from COVID-19-contaminated water to human is an emerging concern. Although paper-based devices have been suggested for detecting the traces of SARS-CoV-2 in water, the protocols and appropriate devices should be developed soon. Wastewater and sewage workers should follow the procedures for safety precaution against SARS-CoV-2 exposure.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus, Enveloped virus, Sewage, Wastewater
Therefore, further studies should focus on the survival of SARS-CoV-2 in water and wastewater under different operational conditions (i.e., temperature and water matrix) and whether the transmission from COVID-19-contaminated water to human is an emerging concern.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We accept it is in sewage.
We accept it is in wastewater derived from sewage.
We accept waste water is treated to become drinking water by removal of most impurities so that it meets WHO standards.
Therefore COVID has to be in drinking water.
If we can accept it can jump from Bats to Humans then it is clear that it may also jump from drinking water to Humans.
QED
Incidentally, the “desal” plant treats waste water, sea water and fresh water, all of which are mixed together.
Once COVID is present in Drinking water it will be consumed by anyone who drinks it and excreted once again back into the sewage and thus back into the drinking water.
Depends on how long it survives in water.
Which as the scientific paper above shows is an emerging concern.
I can’t help it if I am on the cutting edge, it is a gift from God!!
@peterlawrencethompson February 23, 2021 5:51 PM “@RICHARD PETKO
I am puzzled by you decision to critique the way Barbados has handled the pandemic by citing comparative examples which have done a worse job: Costa Rica and Aruba. TheOGazerts pointed this out to you ten hours ago but I have yet to see you address the matter.”
@Richard Petko “If a supermarket in Florida has a positive test, they don’t shut down the market and test the 200 employees.”
Florida’s death Covid 19 death rate is 13 times higher than Barbados’. Their infection rate is about 9 times than Barbados’ I shudder to think how we would cope if instead of 758 people in isolation, we had 6650 people in isolation, and even if only 1% of those people required ventilation do we have 66 ventilators? do we have enough staff to ensure 3 shifts of trained people to operate the ventilator? In the USA and in Canada too if there is a problem a patient can be driven across state or provincial borders for assistance. How much does it cost to medevac a person from Barbados? How much does it cost? How long does it take? Who pays?
The supermarket workers who are dying in Florida are very likely poor black and brown immigrants. I doubt very much that they are supermarket owners who can afford to hide on their large estates. Just like our GP was able to remain indoors in Florida.
Pingback: BARBADOS: COVID Paralysis Versus VS COVID Management Compared – Opinion | Guyanese Online
There will then be a reservoir of COVID available to infect, or not humans again and again.
We are told by the scientists that if can spread from humans to humans hence the need to wear masks.
If humans are being continually being infected by COVID now resident in the sewage and ergo, drinking water, then it will never go away.
… unless we make it and one way of so doing is by the use of UV.
But then we were told that already by a stable genius!!
https://imgur.com/WlHXait
Petko also referenced Columbia
Colombia has 1,154 Covid19 deaths per million; and 43,596 infections per million
Barbados has 108 Covid19 deaths per million; and 9,916 infections per million
… and Dominica has 0 (zero) deaths!!
John, sadly neither you nor I nor any of the BU denziens are Einsteins, so let’s not fool ourselves,ok?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/05/03/can-covid-19-coronavirus-live-in-water-what-about-drinking-water-and-swimming/?sh=193c21984360
It looks like the COVID-19 coronavirus may be able to live in water for a few days, potentially even a few weeks. There is a big but, though. And you’ll like this big but. Just because a virus can survive in water doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s present in large enough concentrations to infect you.
Is this situation a bit like a teenager pointing out a few hairs on his face and then claiming that it’s a beard? There actually has to be enough hairs to make it a beard. When you can still count the number of hairs, it’s not a beard, unless, of course, the hairs are really, really long and very, very curly.
Similarly, consider what is known about the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in water. Indeed studies have suggested that the SARS-CoV2 could actually hang out in the wet stuff for a little while. For example, a study published in the journal Water Research in 2009 found that two viruses that have similarities to the original SARS virus, the transmissible gastroenteritis (TGEV) and mouse hepatitis (MHV) viruses, could survive up to days and even weeks in water. The University of North Carolina team (LisaCasanova, William A.Rutal, David J.Weber, and Mark D.Sobsey) that conducted the study concluded that “coronaviruses can remain infectious for long periods in water and pasteurized settled sewage, suggesting contaminated water is a potential vehicle for human exposure if aerosols are generated.”
Dominica has a vibrant agricultural industry, significantly supported by much higher rainfall and much better soil.
Dominicans have not been seduced into eating “tourist food” Dominicans eat what they grow.
Dominica does not receive as many tourists per capita as Barbados. Most of their tourists come by ship and the ships have mostly stopped sailing months ago. I was hearing just today that there are 400,000 sailors stuck at sea. Not sailing their ships anywhere The big cruise liners are not moving, we all know that.
https://imgur.com/vCFdaZW
… and Dominicans are fit fit fit, have to be to walk the hills!!
At least they used to be!
Source: Nation
Source: Nation
Source: Nation
Source: Nation
AND YET A PIECE OF SCUM ON BU TODAY INSULTED ME BY SUGGESTING THAT I FOLLOWED THAT IDIOT
THEY ARE JACKASSES ON THIS BLOG LAUGHING BECAUSE I SAID I WAS APPARENTLY EXPOSED TO COVID
Name the ‘piece of scum’ and the ‘jackasses’ as it is in your paranoid mind
for the record I said your moaning and groaning whining and grineing was too much
@PLT
I know you were born in the UK of Barbadian parents, but why are you Canadian? Is it the passport? Shall I call you a Bajan-Canadian, or Canadian-Bajan?
Nice to see some lawyers have the morality to question some of the decisions made by all-powerful magistrates. They often abuse their authority and this goes u8nquestioned because the victims are often ordinary working class people.
The other flaw in the criminal justice system is why should an appeal against someone being unfairly remanded be made to the court of appeal? The duty judge should be authorised to oversee such decisions by magistrates and within 24 hours.
Here is a report from Barbados Today:
Some of Barbados’ most prominent criminal lawyers are questioning recent developments in the Magistrates’ courts that have landed locals and CARICOM nationals on remand after pleading guilty to breaching the country’s Covid-19 Directive.
Over the last week, a number of Barbadians including a father and son, a Guyanese businessman and two Guyanese shop owners were hauled off to Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Dodds pending sentencing. According to authorities, the rationale for the decision is to emphasize the “significance” of their offences, which range from hosting a ‘lime’ to operating a non-essential business.
The imprisonments have all occurred under EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (COVID-19) (CURFEW) (NO. 4) DIRECTIVE, 2021, which imposes a fine of $50,000 or one-year imprisonment, or both, to anyone who fails to comply with the terms and conditions of the ongoing curfew.
Former president of the Barbados Bar Association Andrew Pilgrim Q.C. however argued that it is inappropriate to incarcerate persons “through the back door” in connection with summary offences. Summary offences refer to crimes which do not require the deliberations of a jury before a judgment is made. In most jurisdictions, such offences include traffic cases and minor drug offences.
“In my view, it is an abuse of power for you to remand people in custody whilst thinking about what to do with them in summary matters,” Pilgrim told Barbados TODAY.
“Summary matters are by definition supposed to be dealt with quickly. So to adjourn for a month without having to get a pre-sentencing report or any further information on the person, why would they be in prison?
“Is it that this period of imprisonment is not considered punishment or is it that you really want to sentence them for a month and then give them a break after that? If that is what you wanted to do, then sentence them to 28 days and let the Court of Appeal say if that is appropriate or not. I don’t like incarceration by the backdoor,” he concluded.
Some social media commentators and members of the public have spoken on the difference in treatment of matters involving tourists found guilty of breaching the terms and conditions of their quarantine – including one attempting to flee the country while positive for COVID-19.
According to criminal lawyer Michael Lashley Q.C., it is uncommon for first-time offenders to be denied bail in such circumstances.
In fact, he informed Barbados TODAY of his intention to make urgent applications for bail in the Court of Appeal on behalf of three persons including a Guyanese national who are imprisoned in a similar manner.
“The magistrate can exercise his discretion and once we as attorneys believed that he or she exercised their discretion unfavourably, then we go to the Court of Appeal and challenge it and I am prepared to do that,” he said.
Lashley added: “My opinion is that first-time offenders should be treated like first-time offenders and I respectfully do not believe that a prison term is the right way to treat a first-time offender and that is my view.”
Asked if there appears to be a difference in the treatment of locals and tourists in relation to COVID-19 breaches, Andrew Pilgrim replied: “It’s certainly starting to look that way, but that’s just my opinion.”
Fellow attorney Asante Brathwaite, however, was not so conservative with her critique as she argued that first-time offenders ought not to have been denied bail unless the magistrate intended to impose a custodial sentence.
“It might appear that what is good for the goose isn’t good for the gander. The law must be certain so that people can see that there is fairness across the board and there is not an uneven scale being meted out to citizens when compared with visitors,” Brathwaite told Barbados TODAY.
“So for the average citizen to see on one hand that visitors pleaded guilty after breaching their quarantine and probably placed people’s lives at risk, and they were given a fine. There was no resorting to remand. So why is it that we are remanding our own nationals? It seems unfair.
“These persons have no convictions before the court. If they are looking at a fine, they should fine you there and then. Other than that it looks like they are sending people up there just to teach them a lesson,” she added…..(Quote)
It is misguided to presume that the management sciences have no limitations.
That somehow all possible variables could be covered.
The basic fact remains that the virus has been in near full control for most of the last year.
@6:21.. great post
I supported tough penalties to ensure that people adhere to the protocols, but I have always felt that the penalties should be distributed in an even manner.
It seems to me, as if we always fail (and we should) when we attempt to do the two or three Barbadoes thing. Tilting the scales of justice to favor one side needs to be discouraged and stopped
Good to see Andrew Pilgrim speaking up. He can always be found where a good cause needs assistance
Looks as if the actions I supported are taking a beating. Yet, I do not believe that my thinking or the actions I supported were wrong.
Where we are failing is in the execution of these actions. We are hearing of the same behavior being ignored for some and punished for others.
Covid-19 appears to lack the respect that our leaders have for some group.
“One nation, one policy’ should be our chant.
Have a great day
@ John February 24, 2021 1:23 AM
“It looks like the COVID-19 coronavirus may be able to live in water for a few days, potentially even a few weeks. There is a big but, though. And you’ll like this big but. Just because a virus can survive in water doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s present in large enough concentrations to infect you.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Master(ful) John, we have been following, rather avidly, your ‘watertight’ hypothesis which posits that Covid-19 could indeed be ‘transmitted’, like electricity, via the medium of water.
Which does indeed demonstrate that even a pearl of wisdom can be found, on rare occasions, in the verbal faeces unloaded from the ass of a racist rightwing political nutcase.
What we would want to hear from you is if your waterborne virus thesis can also be applied to the highly probable event that Covid-19 and its mutant family could be found in imported bottled (stale) water of which a significant quantity is consumed daily in Barbados especially by those facing serious challenges in accessing potable water from the BWA.
If you are prepared to place a high probability of occurrence on Covid-19 existing in imported water in plastic bottles, then you might have opened a can of worms swimming in bottles of dirty (germs and virus infected) water to make Covid-19 appear not only as an angel of death but also a godsend to save the country millions of dollars in foreign exchange enough to make the wasteful country come to its financial ‘common’ sense(s).
Yeah Theo…especially when the stupid, bowing ad scraping government allowed the likes of the billionarie dude who resides at Heron Bay to slither in on his private jet, go straight to his mansion and then proceeded to wander around everywhere without quarantine isolation…his diseased could infect the whole island.
diseased ass…
Someone should send that article on vaccine shaming to wickum the political scientist, what the hell is a political scientist anyway..
Is Covid just a means for nations of the world to avoid paying pensions they cannot afford as oldies are not dying when they should
WHAT A BUNCH OF BLACK JOHNNIES ON THE 2 X 3 ISLAND
NO WONDER WHITE PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD THINK THAT ALL ARE IDIOTS.
HAPPY I LIVE IN A CITY OF SEVERAL MILLION WHERE PEOPLE HAVE THEIR FREEDOM 24/7 WHILST MOST JUST WEAR MASKS AND SANITIZE.
BIM WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA
“How can it be justified that these young black businesspeople, people who are now trying their hands at self-employment and entrepreneurship that we place a criminal record on their lives. Shouldn’t we reconsider this? I am advocating that we reconsider this. Let us reconsider fines for these kinds of breaches. I have a challenge in criminalizing these business owners,” said Holder.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/02/24/business-people-being-criminalized/
@Cuhdear
Because John was brilliant at 17 it does not mean that he is brilliant at 67. You know don’t you that some of us at 67 are being diapered and spoon fed in nursing homes
++++
I’m sure you heard of the use of sarcasm
@Theo
Be thankful for Mia. Be thankful for what you got.
Called all over NJ today to get the vaccine. My search was a failure…
+++++++
Don’t you know anybody? It works there as well as in Bim, my relative was sitting at home minding his business when he received a call from a friend at the hospital “saying come over now, we have some extra doses” He and his better half hightailed it over there and now they both have their second doses…… thing is they are younger than me and I am still waiting on a provincial Gov’t that couldn’t organise a pissup at a brewery.
Sarge
Come to Barbados and get yours.
Grasshopper
If it is in the water which commonsense and scientific publications says it is a lot of people are going to look like real idiots!!
You will be just one more.
An Aussie doc explains why his ability to practice medicine has been suspended:
Note that the name of the doctor authoring this news release has been changed to a pseudonym, as the Editor of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service explains: Normally I include a brief “about the author” statement here, but in this case, if I did so, Dr. Louis would be in even more hot water than he or she already is. Suffice to say that, as a journalist, I opt to protect my sources. To that end, Dr. Louis is a pseudonym. But the doctor, an Australian, is very real indeed,
Since this is a news release, I will copy the entire document,
Link to source: http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v17n07.shtml
“This is also the case with social media who rely on “fact checkers” who have not been educated in nutrition.”
fact checkers will be the death of many people who don’t do their own indepth research.
“How can it be justified that these young black businesspeople, people who are now trying their hands at self-employment and entrepreneurship that we place a criminal record on their lives.”
minority trash set legslative policies for Black business people they see as competition, they’ve done it in the best of times and for decades, while parliament sellouts help them…something like setting labor laws to allow tiefing hoteliers to rob hotel workers of severance payments only last year….it’s what they’ve always done and don’t intend to stop….this is the perfect opportunity to stop Black businesses from growing…
..the population has to do something for themselves…and MOVE AWAY from parliament sellouts and minority criminals…..can’t say that Enuff.
“If it is in the water which commonsense and scientific publications says it is a lot of people are going to look like real idiots!!”
why don’t you shut up shit up until you know people are catching covid from water
No (Mixed)
Grasshopper
You won’t be alone!!
You looked like an idiot when you were banging on about Trump cunt and everyone on bu was cunting you out except for 1 cunt
See what I mean Grasshopper!!
There was no way you could have been brilliant at 17
you must have been awarded yours because your parents had a plantation
Retro Futurism
Some time ago, the acting chief medical officer, Dr George, said that some doctors in private practice were misdiagnosing CoVid.
Nothing has been said in public about this sense. Who were these doctors? How were they misdiagnosing the virus? What were the consequences? Will any of them be compelled to undertake retraining?
@ John February 24, 2021 11:07 AM
Why are you behaving like the big Daddy Grasshopper by ducking the pertinent questions posed directly to you?
The same way you want to condemn black Bajans for blaming the spread of the virus on the ‘seasonal’ arrival of visitors to the island for the sake of the foreign dollar and failure to enforce effectively the established protocols and the health and safety quarantine measures, why not indicate if Covid-19 can be found in imported bottle water.
Speak out and speak up, Johnny or forever be considered a mere pissy waterboy to your idol Don the Cowardly Cunt Trump!
What questions?
Bring me questions I got answers!!
Now this I find interesting.
is the john knox trump cunt lover a gigolo for republican cunts posting crap like a professional cunt
@ John February 24, 2021 3:22 PM
“What questions?
Bring me questions I got answers!!”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Since you want to play a ‘Bongo’ game of a ‘red’ bag of riddles, here is one thrown into your frighteningly puny lap like a cat on a hot tin roof to cause you to wet your diaper for an underpants.
Who is the current duly elected and Congressionally confirmed POTUS?
Answer that correctly and we would stop the Mandingo man from his nightly visits to your woman’s boudoir to disturb and dirty those satin sheets and pillows with a serpent hiding in his three-legged trousers.
Joe Biden is the congressionally confirmed POTUS but there are questions as to whether he was duly elected.
As John of John Tuck’s Shop fame from HC would say … NEEEEEEEXT.
can see and hear him now
lovely days them
Turns out Tiger was driving on a deceptively dangerous downhill road, it was an accident.
Just minutes before his terrifying rollover car crash in California, Tiger Woods was caught on camera driving in the slow lane up a winding hill in Rancho Palos Verdes.
“In the surveillance video obtained by TMZ, Woods’ 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV is seen driving behind a minivan on Hawthorne Blvd. at what appeared to be a regular rate of speed.
The time stamp on the video says 7:05 a.m., just seven minutes before first responders got the call for the harrowing crash at the site of a nasty downhill curve near the intersection of Hawthorne and Blackhorse Road in Rolling Hills Estates.
Woods was in town for the Genesis Invitational golf tournament and a celebrity photo shoot. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the vehicle was a courtesy car.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday that Woods’ vehicle hit a center divider, “crossed into the opposing lane of traffic, hit the curb, hit a tree and there were several rollovers during that process” before the vehicle finally came to a rest “several hundred feet away.”
“Obviously that indicates they were going at a relatively greater speed than normal,” Villanueva said. “However, because it is downhill, it slopes and it also curves, that area has a high frequency of accidents.”
He said there was no evidence of “skid marks” or “braking” at the scene.
Woods was “calm and lucid” as he talked to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Gonzalez before he was rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with serious leg injuries, the deputy said at a press conference Tuesday.
A vehicle rests on its side after a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods along a road in the Rancho Palos Verdes suburb of Los Angeles on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)
The golf legend required “emergency surgery” to treat “significant orthopaedic injuries to his right lower extremity,” Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA, was quoted as saying in a post on Woods’ Twitter account after midnight Eastern Time Wednesday.
“Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia,” the doctor’s statement said.
“Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins,” the statement said.
The post said Woods was “awake, responsive and recovering in his hospital room.”
According to Golf Digest, Tiger was heading to the second day of a shoot with the magazine and GOLFTV where he was due to give lessons to celebrities.
Reports by ESPN and others said he was due to meet Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert but was running a little late at the time of the near-fatal crash.”
We have almost overcome the plague, so that we can again invite tourists at full steam from Easter onwards: Our Most Honourable Prime Minister and her team have already vaccinated more than 22000 human beings of our wonderful island. We have only about 700 active cases left.
Thank you very much for the vaccine, Dear Prime Minister!
The makings of you by the OG GP
Gladys knight and the Pips
Very long lines reported at the Globe Drive in location, a drive thru vaccination site. So far Barbadians are responding to the call to be vaccinated.
@ David February 27, 2021 4:29 PM
Is this method of vaccine delivery by appointment only or is it a situation one might find at any large KFC or Chefette fast food outlet on a bank holiday weekend?
What is Dr. Ferdinand saying about this vaccination apartheid ‘arrangement’?
@Miller
The arrangement was to facilitate appointment only but Barbadians have been turning up (walkins) in large numbers and they are not being turned away.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLzxrBRgCuC/
Much as I think that Richard Petko is playing fast and loose with the comparison to other countries (you were using Jamaica previously, but that has fallen apart) and there is too much uncertainty and underlying differences such as demographics to compare without a more detailed assessment, he is right in one thing.
That the country cannot afford to extend the lockdown, as so many are hurting, they need to earn money. Many of the people yelling for extended lockdowns, know where their rent and food is coming from. But the average person is sucking salt and were doing so even before Covid, it is worse now.
Many people are being supported by their family, both breadwinners out of work. This cannot continue.
Unfortunately, the health service will have to get used to the idea that the country will not remain under lockdown. As bad as that is, the alternative will be worse if this continues. With the unemployment level so high, extending a lockdown will cause it to get worse.
It is a choice between a rock and a hard place, but a homeless and hungry man is a desperate man, especially if he has a family to support.
There is no good reason to expand on this here. Some will appreciate what I am saying.
THE VIEW FROM EUROPE: Vaccine passports may hold the key to tourism’s safe return | Barbados Advocate
https://www.barbadosadvocate.com/columns/view-europe-vaccine-passports-may-hold-key-tourism%E2%80%99s-safe-return
Crusoe,
I think the purpose of the lockdown was to buy time whilst vaccinating the vulnerable.
We do not read Petko to tell us that we need to reopen.
Many have forgotten Barbados was an economy in a fragile state even before Covid-19 arrived. The argument that Barbados can afford to lose 150 million as posited by the PM must be taken in context i.e. the risk reward of lockdown versus compromising the health of Barbadians-public health.
High powered group ready to assist with vaccine financing – High powered group ready to assist with vaccine financing: https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/03/03/high-powered-group-ready-to-assist-with-vaccine-financing/
(quote) The other directors are businessmen Mark Maloney (deputy chair); Sir Paul Altman and Queen’s Counsel Barry Gale. Director of Finance and Economic Affairs (DFE) Mr Ian Carrington was nominated by PM Mottley to sit on the board.(unquote)
So we have three known “power players” in the continuing theft of real estate, (Mallalieu of Terra is Chair) and their preferred lawyer, plus the person who was in charge during the demise of the NIS. No wonder the following statement was needed
(quote) However, the chairman assured the country and prospective donors that none of the money raised would go into the pockets of its directors or would be used for any other reason other than for the objectives outlined.(unquote)