Submitted by Tee White
The recent statement by the representative of the DLP calling on the government to initiate a ‘pause for the cause’ and a response from the current BLP government for the DLP to get on board with the effort to persuade Bajans to be vaccinated has once again highlighted the challenge facing the country with regard to managing the Covid outbreak and protecting the population as best possible.
One mantra that has become synonymous with Covid 19 is the declaration to “follow the science”. But this declaration presents science as a body of knowledge which tells you what to do in any situation. However, what it misses is that more importantly, science is a method which human beings use to try to get a better understanding of how the natural and social worlds work so as to work out what to do. Unfortunately, this understanding of science as method is lacking from the government’s response to the Covid crisis. It is a feature that is common across the Caribbean, where government policies are simply copied from abroad, usually North America and Europe, and are not informed by any scientific studies conducted by Caribbean scientists on the actual impact of Covid 19 in the Caribbean.
But without such an approach, there will be no exit from the Covid crisis. Due to the struggles of our ancestors and Errol Barrow’s government, the descendants of the enslaved Africans in this country were given mass access to secondary education. Today, more than ever, we need to draw on our ability to think critically and question everything, to make sense out of nonsense, to find our bearings in the current situation.
Under pressure from local and global elites, the government has embarked on a policy of persuading Bajans to engage in mass vaccination in the hope that this will lead to an exit from the Covid 19 nightmare. To its credit, it has not succumbed to the pressure to embark on the insane policy of vaccine coercion, which is taking hold in the region and which is exemplified in Guyana, Antigua and St Vincent and the Grenadines. But does the policy of indiscriminate mass vaccination actually make any sense? To date, according to officially provided data, just over 3% of the world’s population have tested positive for Covid. That means that 97% have not. Of that 3%, just over 2% have died as a result of Covid infection. That means that 98% of those infected have survived. As a percentage of the world’s population, 0.064% have died as a result of Covid infection. With regard to hospitalisation as a result of Covid infection, there are no global figures currently available but data from the European Medicines Agency state that around 7% of those infected in Europe and the USA, some of the areas with the worst Covid 19 outcomes, have required hospitalisation.
The question then arises as to whether mass vaccination of everyone you can lay your hands on represents a rational or scientific response to the Covid threat. In the circumstances where Barbados, like other CARICOM countries and unlike Cuba, has no capacity to produce vaccines and so must spend its time trying to get hold of these internationally, the question arises as to whether it makes good sense to use your limited supply of vaccines vaccinating people who had a low risk of developing severe Covid in order to protect them from severe Covid. Isn’t that just a waste of vaccines? Would it not make more sense to focus your limited supply of vaccines on those who actually would benefit from them? But this is where following the science comes in. But here it will require following the science as method and not as a body of knowledge which tells you what to do. According to data published by the Covid Communications Unit, as of 9 September, Barbados has had 5651positive cases and 51 deaths. There is no publicly available data on the numbers who have required hospital care as a result of Covid infection. After over 50 years of independence, isn’t this a large enough data set for those in the Ministry of Health or in the research departments of UWI to apply science as method to identify the common factors among those who have become infected and those who have progressed to serious illness and death so that this information can be used to inform the policy to combat the virus and allow for more targeted use of the vaccines?
There are those who promote mass vaccination as the silver bullet that will allow us to return to normalcy, but is this belief based on science? The data from highly vaccinated countries like Israel and Iceland suggest otherwise. With regard to our own reality, the official data published on 9 September shows that 0.094% of the vaccinated population are currently in tertiary isolation in St Lucy compared to 0.246% of the unvaccinated population. Clearly vaccines are not a silver bullet and we will need to think more widely about prevention and treatment for those who are sick. In china, the health authorities make use of traditional chines medicine along with modern medicine to treat those who are sick and in Cuba they have made use of homeopathic medicine in the same way. We will need to think outside of the box with a focus on saving the lives of the small minority who are seriously threatened by the virus but to find solutions we will need our own scientists to take up their responsibility to society and begin to carry out science as method to provide us with answers to pressing questions rather than simply repeating what they hear from North America and Europe. Then we really can follow the science with regard to Covid 19.
What if God stopped your Sunday sermons because you are unworthy.. a stumbling block.
I STOPPED MY SUNDAY SERMONS ON BU DUMMY
I WAS DEALING WITH HARD STONY UNBELIEVING HEARTS. I USED MY TIME
MORE EFFICIENTLY ELSEWHERE.
I HAVE SINCE USED MY TIME SUCH THAT ON MANY SUNDAY MORNINGS I HAVE IN SOME WAY INFLUENCED BIBLE TEACHING IN AT LEAST FOUR LOCATIONS ON THE GLOBE DUMMY, AND WITH OUT BEING PRESENT
A CERTAIN DR IN MY ASSEMBLY TRANSLATED MY PPTS INTO SPANISH AND SENT THEM TO SOME SPANISH PLACE
ANOTHER CHAP REFERRED TWO OF HIS FACE BOOK FRIENDS TO ME
IN ONE INSTANCE THE CHAP ON ZAMBIA HAS SOUGHT GUIDANCE AND WAS HELPED TO BE A “TENT MAKER” INTER ALIA
IN ANOTHER A PASTOR IN KENY HAS USED MY MATERIAL TO SET UP A BIBLE INSTITUTE UNDER MY TUTELAGE, AND THEN HE TEAMED UP WITH ANOTHER PASTOR AND GOD HAS USED US TO LAUNCH A PROGRAM CALLED MILK AND MEAT FOR KENYAN WIDOWS TO IMPACT 174 WIDOWS IN 8 CHURCHES.
IN ADDITION I HAVE BEEN INVITED AS A RESOURCE PERSON IN AT LEAST TWO BIBLE READING DISCUSSIONS, INCLUDING ONE AT HOME, ATTENDED BY FOLK FROM MANY IN THE DIASPORA, AND IN OUR CONTIGUOUS ISLANDS.
I AM NOW PARTICIPATING IN SOME SERIOUS TEACHING ON ANXIETY/DEPRESSION IN ANOTHER BAJAN ASSEMBLY
NO DUMMY GOD DOES NOT SEE ME AS EITHER UNWORTHY OR A STUMBLING BLOCK, DUMMY.
GO BACK TO YOUR MARK AND RUN IN AGAIN DUMMY
THE ONLY PERSON WHERE ILL WILL HAS EVERBEEN DIRECTED AT ME CONCERNING MY MEDICINE OR THEOLOGY IS BY BIBLE AND MEDICAL ILLITERATES ON BARBADOS UDERGROUND
NOW TRY TO BE A NICE BOY AND STOP SEEKING TO PULL ME DOWN——YOU CANT DUMMY
What if in his mysterious ways, the Good Lord was using me to show you the error of your ways and the demons that are within you?
Here trying to read the scientific tea leaves of govt and which are very hard to understand in this COVID environment
Some what baffling which reveals that David Ellis is now a part of govt long chain of PR experts in other words a mouthpiece for govt by which he would use his journalistic skills in helping govt to fight the virus
These are funny days and funny nights
What if in his mysterious ways, the Good Lord was using me to show you the error of your ways and the demons that are within you?
NO DUMMY YOU ARE A BIBLE ILLITERATE
GOD IN HIS MYSTERIOUS WAYS DO NOT USE BIBLE ILLITERATES OF YOUR ILK TO SHOW ANY ONE THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS AS POINTED OUT HE USED A JACKASS TO SPEK TO BALAAM WHO WAS ESSENTIALLY ANOTHER JACKASS
NO DEMONS HERE DUMMY
I AM HERE SITTING QUIETLY AND IN SOUND MIND…DONT RAISE VOICE DONT RAISE TEMPER JUST LOOKING TO BEAT BAD BOWLING
GO GOOGLE AND SEE IF YOU CAN ANSWER THE “SILLY” UESTIONS I POSED YESTERDAY
What if the Good Lord decide to use me to provide you with a Damascene moment? What a thing that would be?
Hi, where are you.
You recovered yet?
I am wondering if you are like a modern day Pharisee pretentious, self-righteous and lacking God.
@John
fyi
stuff you make up in your head is not true, even if u write 300 page essays on bu about it, it is still a load of shit
“GOD IN HIS MYSTERIOUS WAYS DO NOT USE BIBLE ILLITERATES OF YOUR ILK TO SHOW ANY ONE THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS AS POINTED OUT HE USED A JACKASS TO SPEK TO BALAAM WHO WAS ESSENTIALLY ANOTHER JACKASS”
Are u referring to that Trump cunt who is turning evangelical for sucker conservative racist christians in white man lands (which were stolen)
GP September 11, 2021 12:36 AM
john knox
your two posts above make medical sense
neither the “virus” or the “vaccines”” are behaving typically
That is amazing when one of the most common respiratory virus behaves the same way and the vaccine(s) used to combat it has the same level of effectiveness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine
The longer this pandemic progresses the more the “science” is supporting my assessment that COVID-19 will become one of the common respiratory viruses (diseases). These viruses have the common:-
1) the recovery rate eventually being high even without a vaccine.
2) They still takes lives worldwide by the hundred of thousands. This is usually from those that are immuno-compromised and were not vaccinated. This is in comparison to the hundreds of millions that recover
3) A “one and done” vaccine does not exist. This is due to the fact that these viruses mutate rapidly (in comparison to most viruses). A (major) virus mutation does not necessarily make it significantly more debilitating \ fatal. It may make it more evasive to the immune system and in this way MAY cause more deaths INITIALLY. The immune system has to (re)recognize these mutations as a threat and mount a response. This is how the immune system functions. Through our lives it recognizes MOST pathogens and mounts a response to MOST of them. Vaccinations help reduce the length of time to re-recognise the virus\mutations and for mankind to develop a collective immunity.
My question is why is mankind “reinventing the wheel” when we have been exposed to viruses that behave the same as COVID-19 and are still commonly spread. We have not been able to eliminate these viruses and these viruses have not eliminated mankind. My observation is we have been “blinded” by non scientific fake news, the politicizing of the public health disease prevention measures and the utter nonsense from anti-vaxxers. Also, some of the mixed messaging from the scientific and medical community has only added to the uncertainty in combating this virus. What we must do is to logically assess this virus after a 20 month pandemic against the history of fighting similar viruses\diseases and let modern science help tame this pandemic in the shortest time possible.
As supported by the prevailing science and the data on COVID-19 this is my assessment on the pandemic
1) border closures, lockdowns & curfews will become useless to stop the spread in any meaningful way in the long term. The advent of the delta variant HAS and WILL make this abundantly clear. Those measures were used with the intention of being temporary and that the pandemic would have eventually ground to a halt. This is now wishful thinking. Far from coming to a halt, only more variants have arisen. What these measures may do is to provide a temporary reduction of cases. This is just too costly, unsustainable and ineffective for the purpose of ending this pandemic. More targeted measures are needed.
2) The first measure is to have a deep and rapid vaccination program. Barbados and countries the world over have gone through mass vaccination programs to viruses before (including to viruses that literally have been more crippling). We know from influenza that vaccines and boosters are devised yearly for particular influenza subtypes(variants). They have not been mandated as influenza now has a relatively high recovery rate unaided. My estimation is that countries should have the CAPACITY to immunize 60% – 70% of the population over 6 months for the next 1-2 years. This falls inline with estimates of the length of time particular vaccines are effective. Not strictly getting to this number does not mean failure as this virus has a high recovery rate to begin with . it will only determine how long we will stay in this pandemic. The current vaccines have been given “emergency use authorization” after going trough successful Phase 3 trials. Real world data is supporting the full authorization of these vaccines. This will strengthen the argument of mandating vaccines at least until the pandemic is brought under control. Vaccine mandates are far from unique. In my opinion when these vaccines are fully authorized, there must be a universal mandate of either to become vaccinated or be subjected to 7-14 day testing at least for the next 12-24 months. This mandate can occur when there is enough vaccines\boosters to vaccinate 60-70% of the population
3) Mass isolation \ quarantining will become impractical and basically unnecessary for THIS virus. In Barbados, the data is showing that the majority of cases are in tertiary isolation. Gov’t is now considering monitored home isolation. In my opinion this is essentially supervised sick leave. Doctors authorize SICK LEAVE with intention that people STAY AT HOME to recover on their own.
The danger these people with COVID pose to the rest of society is less if we continue to adopt the public health measures of sanitizing, temperature checks and mask wearing for all including the vaccinated. In my opinion this monitored isolation should only be for the unvaccinated. In theory, those vaccinated that develop Covid-19 should pose an even lesser threat when directed to be on “sick leave”
4) Data is revealing that the virus spread is occurring in enclosed areas with poor ventilation and people staying in such areas for a prolonged periods. In certain environments e.g. in bars or restaurants, improper mask wearing occurs for prolonged period without the required social distancing This is an obvious, unwanted and now unacceptable gap in the protocols. The strategy against this is straight forward. Reduce or totally ban the patronizing of such places( environments) if the public health disease prevention measures cannot be adhered to.
The CMO has stated that sanitizing the work place after the discovery of a single COVID case is not obligatory. I would support the idea that this sanitizing be mandated by the Ministry of Health if such a business has been found to be the source of a significant cluster or has been the destination of several cases. The MOH should perform a specific “COVID-19 audit” of said businesses to modify operations to make them compliant to prevent future COVID-19 spread.
@ Disgusting Lies & Propaganda TV September 13, 2021 10:05 PM
Dear DLP Antigene,
Thank you very much for your sensible comments.
I agree that Corona spreads like any other cold virus. Air-conditioning is particularly conducive to its spread, as cold viruses like it cold.
However, you do not answer the crucial question. You talk about quarantine at home for infected people. But what about the many expats and others who have a second or third villa in Barbados? Should they continue to serve their quarantine at the Crane for US$1000? Wouldn’t it be better to send these persons to their villa after the test at the airport and let them wait there for the test result?
With the current Taliban rules on entry for fully vaccinated persons, the winter tourism season will be moderate to poor. With all the consequences.
Hence my proposal:
Ban entry from 1 November for those not fully vaccinated and in return only a 15-minute rapid test at the airport for the fully vaccinated.
What do you think of that? An answer is expressly desired.
Pingback: Chasing the Virus | Barbados Underground
.WE SHOULD ALSO BAN PEOPLE FROM HOMES WHERE MASK WEARING PROTOCOLS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING ARE NOT BEING OBSERVED!!!!
84 FAMILY CLUSTERS YESTERDAY!!
So, we are left to conclude that Barbadian families socialise in BARS!!
It is de WATUH!!
It was not my intention to answer these four questions, because I consider them as oly nonsensical. However, something may be gain by looking at them one at a time.
I- WHICH VIRUS HAS EVER PREVIOUSLY UNDERGONE SO MANY MUTATIONS SO RAPIDLY?
What has that to do with anything?
Is there a rule for how quickly a virus can mutate?
We know that the a new strain of influenza virus is present every year. It does not stretch the imagination to imagine a virus that can mutate even faster than the flu virus. But to show the ridiculousness of the question of this super fast mutating virus here is an excerpt from a site that states the mutation is slow compared other RNA viruses.
“From what has been observed thus far regarding the genetic evolution of SARS-CoV-2, it appears that the virus is mutating relatively slowly as compared to other RNA viruses. Scientists think this is due to its ability to “proofread” newly made RNA copies. This proofreading function does not exist in most other RNA viruses, including influenza. Studies to date estimate that the novel coronavirus mutates at a rate approximately four times slower than the influenza virus, also known as the seasonal flu virus. Although SARS-CoV-2 is mutating, thus far, it does not seem to be drifting antigenically. It should be noted, however, that SARS-CoV-2 is a newly discovered virus infecting humans. There are still many unknowns, and our understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to grow”
2- WHEN HAS ANY PANDEMIC LASTED THIS LONG?
What has that to do with anything?
Is there a rule on how long a pandemic can last?
It would seem to me that the length of duration of a pandemic would depend on the available scientific knowledge to fight the virus or on the behavior of the virus itself.
The question is also loaded. Do we have knowledge of all the pandemics that happened in the past and how long they lasted.
3- WHY CANT WELL TRAINED DOCTORS ALL OVER THE WORLD OVERCOME THIS MALADY IN PERHAPS THE MOST GLORIOUS AGE OF MEDICINE?
This is the most glorious age of medicine and it will get even better. So what?
Does that mean we already have answers for every medical problem? Scientist are making every effort to overcome this malady, but to expect a 1-minute answer is ridiculous..We will be challenged now and we will be challenged in the future.
4- WHEN WILL THE NEXT VARIANT BE RELEASED? HOW AND WHERE?
Conspiratorial nonsense. Where is the proof that variants are being released.
I avoid ignorant bowling.
Stick to
SHELVES OF HOUSTON, BETA SOME SHIT, JOHN IS RIGHT, IT CANNOT BE REFUTED
and being insulting
——xxx—————
People learn by making mistakes but some fools do not learn how to stop repeating them
Doctors jobs are there to identify symptoms and provide standard treatment as per approved protocols
they are not healers or experts in developing vaccination technologies
Doctor Demon (Pampas Judas), Black Bat
Black Ark Production
Vaccines wane. Antivirals do not.
#TODAY #THEFAKECOVIDVIRUS #THELETHALINJECTIONS INJECTION @MIACH/@MIATH, CAUSES COMPLETE CIRCULATORY FAILURE IN ALMOST UP TO 12 MONTH’S THYME @ARISTOTLE @ARISTOPHENES “THE WASPS” #AUTOMEDON… 8357 ANGIOPEPSINOGEN STEARATE STEROID HORMONES LEAD TO THE CURE #MOLNUPIRAVIR JIM MACNEILL IS THE ANTICHRIST IS ONE SOURCE OF ALL BADSTUFF, HE IS THE DIRECT CAUSE BEHIND ALL BAD THINGS WHICH HAVE HAPPENED, THAT HE WILL DEFINITELY NOT GET AWAY WITH IT, THAT HE WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH IT EVER AGAIN 111, 222, 2000, 2001, 3002, 3745, 3455, 8720, 9000, 8357: ET TU, ZEUS: SARAH TADEI IS THE ONE BEHIND THE CORONAVIRUS HOAX; SHE IS THE HOST