Editorial | Refocus on COVID

In times of trouble, leadership can’t afford the luxury of fatigue. Unless it is that Jamaica’s health officials believe the crisis and troubles of the COVID-19 pandemic are over and well past.

Either way, it is not an unreasonable inference of the Jamaican authorities, given the insouciance with which they now attend the pandemic, notwithstanding the surge across Europe and North America of the BA.5 subvariant of the Omicron strain of the virus, which is making millions of people ill and sending tens of thousands to hospitals. While no one expects a return to curfews and lockdowns, this dropping of the guard in Jamaica is worrying.

Clearly, we aren’t, at this time, experiencing the running away rates and infections and hospitalisations of the previous waves of the pandemic. It is important, nonetheless, that we are aware of what is happening in other countries. For instance, in the United States, where the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant is driving the bulk (nearly two-thirds) of new COVID-19 infections, cases have been up by 15 per cent over the past fortnight. On an average day, over 40,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals across America. Deaths are up by nine per cent.

Analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence, reported by its associated business news service, suggests that BA.5 cases could rise to 600,000 a day.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that first and second booster shots strengthened people’s resistance against BA.5 by the time it arrived in the spring, having shored up some of the protection lost over time from earlier doses. “Booster doses should be obtained immediately when persons become eligible,” the agency said in an analysis.

GLOBAL THREAT

Europe, which is experiencing a heat wave, and where most countries have dropped COVID-19 mandates, the expected COVID-free summer hasn’t materialised. Across the continent, hospitalisations, including intensive unit stays, have spiralled. Health officials have warned that COVID-19 hasn’t yet emerged like a seasonal influenza, with the sharp spikes reserved for winter. New variants and surges have arisen every few months.

Indeed, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has advised people over 60, as well as other vulnerable groups, to take second booster shots, rather than waiting until vaccines are rejigged to be more effective against the latest variants of the virus. But Britain, where infections and hospitalisation are at their highest since April, has announced that it will roll out a booster shot campaign to cover everyone 50 and older.

In Jamaica, where less than 30 per cent of the population is fully immunised and one-and-half per cent is “boostered”, there is little discussion of the status of the virus and what we should do in the face of new threats. We fear there is a default encouragement to national complacency. Health officials will no doubt note the ritualised public service announcements promoting mask-wearing and sanitisation. But the messages have grown stale and ho-hum. And there seems to be little emphasis on mobilising people to be vaccinated.

Or put another way, it is almost as if the public health officials, and the administration generally, have lost interest in what the World Health Organization (WHO) still describes as “a public health emergency of international concern”.

“New waves of the virus show that the pandemic is not over,” the WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, tweeted recently. “We must push back with safe and effective tools to prevent infections, hospitalisations and deaths.”

BE ENGAGED

It has not been determined whether the BA.5 variant is yet in Jamaica, what is clear is that Jamaica isn’t out of the COVID-19 woods. Over the week of July 14, the positivity rate from tests for infections was nearly 21 per cent – a ratio that continued an uptick since then.

In any event, doctors warn that it is inevitable that BA.5 will reach Jamaica. “We have observed that the BA.5 subvariant is in high circulation in the United States and because of the open borders, anything that is there will eventually end up in Jamaica,” said Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley, the president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association.

Dr Delroy Fray, clinical coordinator at Jamaica’s Western Regional Health Authority, says that the danger is the unvaccinated and immunocompromised patients. “The people that will get very sick are those who are not immunised,” he said.

We supposed that the authorities may argue that their current hands-off approach to COVID-19 is to have people take personal responsibility for their health. That, however, can’t mean looking the other way while danger lurks and the potential damage to the entire society. Again, hands-on doesn’t have to be lockdowns and curfews. It does, however, require those in charge to be engaged.