Editorial | Hoisting the red flag on COVID-19

Given his past troubles over his ministry’s award of a previous public information contract, Christopher Tufton’s bid to get ahead of the curve on this one to encourage Jamaicans to take the COVID-19 vaccine is understandable.

There is nothing, he says, outlandish about the J$422 million that the Government will spend on the campaign, from which the executors, One Integrated Group, will earn J$22 million. That’s just five per cent of the value of the project. The rest will be spent on media advertising and community-related activities. “I am not envious of what they (the project managers) have to do, because it is a lot,” Dr Tufton told this newspaper.

This newspaper, in the absence of all the information, passes no judgement on the price of the agreement. Neither can we speak to the competence of those charged with managing the exercise. We are clear, however, that mobilising Jamaicans in favour of the vaccine is work that must be done – just as we have long complained about the insufficiency of energy in encouraging people to follow the COVID-19 protocols, especially the wearing of masks in public places, to keep coronavirus at bay. We, in this context, continue to believe that the political parties, with their organisational machinery in communities, should be co-opted to the overall project.

The matter of getting all Jamaicans – or the vast majority of us – fully and personally invested in the campaign against the COVID-19 has a new, and grave, urgency. In recent weeks, the infection of Jamaicans with the virus has galloped. Over the seven days up to February 12, there was a 71 per cent jump – 1,686 confirmations – in newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19, compared to the figure for the previous week. The figure for that seven-day period was 986, which was a 24 per cent jump on a week earlier.

Two other bits of information provide for an even graver signal that Jamaica could be entering a crisis zone. The health ministry has warned that it is fast running out of beds for COVID-19 patients. At the middle of last week, 85 per cent of the 365 beds (in hospitals and other facilities) earmarked for people made ill by the coronavirus were taken. The authorities warned they could soon run out of space.

Indeed, since the end of January, to last Thursday, hospitalisations jumped 139 per cent, to 213 cases. But worse for the provision of care is the health ministry’s statistic that nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of the 2,211 healthcare workers so far tested for COVID-19 have returned positive results – albeit a chunk of the numbers represented a recent cluster at the Mandeville Regional Hospital.

VACCINATING THE POPULATION

Ultimately, stopping the spread of COVID-19 in Jamaica, short of the entire country becoming infected, will depend on vaccinating at least 70 per cent of the population. Which won’t happen this year!

The Government’s best projection is that around 225,000 people, approximately 17 per cent of the population, will get the jab with the AstraZeneca vaccine before the end of 2021. That, however, depends on if delivery schedules, promised under the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility, are kept. There is no ironclad assurance here.

Rich nations have essentially cornered the market for the vaccines by their ability to make upfront purchases from Western pharmaceutical companies, even before the vaccines were developed. So, any production hitches will have a greater impact on developing countries.

But nearly as important as having access to vaccines and a population willing to take the drug will be the efficient deployment of a scarce and expensive product. The logistics for vaccinating nearly three million people over a short period, even in resource-rich countries, isn’t easy. It will be challenging for Jamaica.

A simple oversight, for instance, is proving costly to technologically advanced Japan. They are discarding millions of doses of the Pfizer vaccine – the one that requires cryogenic storage, which would probably make its use in Jamaica, at this time, questionable. The Japanese bought 144 million doses, but don’t have syringes of the type that can extract the sixth dose from each bottle. An estimated 77 million doses will, therefore, be lost. These kinds of glitches are to be avoided at all costs. Detailed planning is essential.

FACELESS COMMISSION

In December, the health minister announced the establishment of a commission to plan Jamaica’s vaccine roll-out, but named institutions rather than people. The individuals in the group remain faceless. That is not good for accountability. Neither has the public been told anything specific about what the commission has done or accomplished since its appointment.

Two things must happen immediately. Minister Tufton must provide names – of the specific persons who are members of the vaccine commission. Second, they should be mandated to provide periodic updates about their work, starting with what are their deliverables and the timetable for each. Transparency is, of itself, good. But the openness will also help firms and individuals plan their activities around a reasonable expectation of a vaccine roll-out.

Dr Tufton needs, also, to tell the public what has been agreed between the Government and the private sector, including health insurance companies, for the latter’s participation in the vaccine delivery project. Nothing specific has been said, behind the sketch that some companies might enter the market. In the circumstances, further to our earlier question, it is imperative that Minister Tufton provides clarity on how equality of access to the drug be ensured.