Carolyn Cooper | Jamaica governed by insanity

Albert Einstein is often credited with this famous saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” As it turns out, the world-famous physicist wasn’t the one who conceived that witty sentence. The Business Insider website reveals that it was the mystery novelist Rita Mae Brown who put those words in the mouth of her fictional character Jane Fulton. The origin of this insightful statement really doesn’t matter. We don’t need a genius to tell us it’s absolutely true. Is pure common sense!

In the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the Jamaican Government has been making the same mistakes over and over again. With no different results! By any definition, that’s insanity. In August 2020, as the nation celebrated Emancipation and Independence, both the prime minister and the minister of health seemed to have taken leave of their senses. Apparently under pressure from various special interests groups, they relaxed some of the restrictions that were intended to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. The results were entirely predictable.

A Gleaner editorial, published on August 26, described the Government’s decision as “reckless”. Over a nine-day period that month, there was a 46 per cent increase in COVID-19 cases. Well, that’s the official figure. Many of us are quite sceptical about the numbers the Government releases. We will never forget how the People’s National Party downplayed the chik-V crisis with systematic bogus counting of cases. I suppose the rationale was, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.” Keeping the Jamaican people in blissful ignorance seems to be the preferred strategy of both political parties.

The Government’s response to the rapid increase in cases was completely delusional. The Gleaner editorial noted that, “The Government has blamed this upward spiral to heavy partying during the August 1 and August 6 Emancipation and Independence celebrations, when it relaxed restrictions on public events for what, according to Dr Tufton’s imprudent description, was ‘reward’ for the population’s good behaviour in adhering to COVID-19 protocols over a long period. The Government, Dr Tufton conceded, was aware of the risks inherent in its actions.”

PREMATURE RELAXATION

If the Government really did know the risks of its irrational decision to relax COVID-19 restrictions for the holidays, it should have accepted some responsibility for the spike in infections. It was completely unreasonable to blame only partygoers. They did exactly what the Government should have been able to anticipate and avert. The “heavy partying” was a direct result of the Government’s own lax actions. To make matters worse, the Government in its folly cravenly insisted on calling general election soon after. There was even more heavy partying. This time, it was strictly political.

Fast-forward to June 2021 and the announcement by the prime minister that the entertainment sector was going to be opened up on July 1. It was the same action as last year: premature relaxation. The consequences were similar, with one difference. The increase in COVID-19 cases was even more extreme than in 2020. In the first two weeks of July this year, there were, on average, only 52 cases each day. Again, that’s the official figure.

By the first week of August, the reported number of daily cases had jumped to 238. That’s an increase of approximately 450%! With the opening up of entertainment, the Government did try to put in place measures to contain the spread of the virus. But it seems as if politicians do not actually know the Jamaican people. Many of us are neither fully literate nor numerate. According to the macrotrends website, Jamaica’s adult literacy rate in 2021 is 88.10%. I find that hard to believe.

I suppose the Government accepts the accuracy of this percentage. And it must assume that the numeracy rate is just as high. This is how the prime minister explained the guidelines for the number of persons allowed at small indoor events with no more than 100 patrons: “This is determined as 60 per cent of useable square footage, not including bathroom or kitchen, divided by 40 square feet, or 100 persons, whichever is lower.” Sounds like a maths test that many barely numerate partygoers were doomed to fail.

VACCINE INSANITY

Jamaicans are notoriously indisciplined and we do not always act in our own best interest. When the entertainment sector opened up, most partygoers did not wear masks and they definitely didn’t keep six feet apart. Soon after the Emancipation and Independence holidays, entertainment had to be locked down again. Just like last year. The nightly curfew was cut back from 11 p.m. to 7 p.m. This continued moving of curfew times up and down is another example of the Government doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We can’t blame the Government entirely for the grave situation in which we now find ourselves. Many of us are acting insanely. We are afraid of taking the vaccine that will provide a measure of protection against COVID-19. Most of us got vaccinated as children. Admittedly, we didn’t have a choice. Our parents did what they thought was best for us. We are now parenting ourselves and, unfortunately, some of us are doing a very bad job of it.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, made an excellent point in an interview with Jim Acosta on CNN in July: “If you look at the extraordinary historic success in eradicating smallpox and eliminating polio from most of the world, and we’re on the brink of eradicating polio, if we had had the pushback for vaccines the way we’re seeing on certain media, I don’t think it would’ve been possible at all to not only eradicate smallpox, we probably would still have smallpox, and we probably would still have polio in this country if we had the kind of false information that’s being spread now. If we had that back decades ago, I would be certain that we would still have polio in this country.” Poor Dr Fauci repeats himself to emphasise his argument.

It’s pure superstition to blindly believe in the accuracy of everything that circulates on the Internet. We need to give thanks for the science that governs so many areas of our lives – including the medicines we take for diabetes, heart disease, asthma, high cholesterol, cancer and so much more. Do we know what’s in those drugs? And many of them have dangerous side effects, known and unknown. We still take them because we calculate that the benefits outweigh the risks. We know the drugs can save lives. All of a sudden, we are now amateur detectives looking for signs on the Internet that the anti-coronavirus vaccines are going to kill us. For our own survival, we must emancipate ourselves from vaccine insanity.

- Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a teacher of English language and literature and a specialist on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com.