by Keith Ventour
After all is said and done, in the short span of just 4 weeks, our country jumped from 1 death on 30 August, to 105 on 24 September.
Our health authorities are overwhelmed and are still grappling with the exponential growth of cases, infections, hospitalisations and deaths. It has now become a daily conversation, a nightmare for many of us here and in the Grenadian diaspora, as we await the latest tally of deaths on the Grenada Covid-19 dashboard. On 24 September 2021, we surpassed the 100-death threshold with an average of 4 deaths per day for the given period.
We have now surpassed every country in the Eastern Caribbean including Barbados in terms of actual deaths, except for St Lucia which has 183 deaths. Grenada in now in a disparaging position in the world. We have earned the unenviable distinction of becoming the world leader for deaths per million in the last 7 days, and second only to Bermuda in the world for cases per million in the same period.
In the face of all this Grenadians are seized by a feeling of hopelessness and many are in a psycho-social condition where they are simply bracing themselves for worse things to come. We are told we are getting into a good place as the positivity rate is declining. Our public health officials would be well advised to give us the data on the Covid-19 dashboard as to be able to make our own analysis.
It is clear to anyone who is paying attention that the horse is already out of the stable. Covid-19 has reached every community and we can conservatively estimate that the pandemic has affected over 80% of workplaces. Our economic survival is being threatened as more community-based and self-employed business grind to a halt. Our major contributor to our economy’s GDP, St George’s University, has been forced to go virtual once again. The economic axis of our economy, tourism, is on a slippery slope, as the USA has put us on red alert, no-fly zone. The government is caught between a rock and the deep blue sea. There is the balancing act of sustaining some forms of economic activity, driven by the need to collect much-needed revenue and the shutting down of the so-called ‘non-essential businesses’ in the attempt to limit the spread of the virus. In this latter sector, most retail outlets and self-employed have been badly affected.
In all this, I am saddened by the untimely and unnecessary deaths of our senior citizens, especially at our convalescent homes. We had significantly enough knowledge and time to practically and systematically prepare for and to adequately protect our elderly. We witnessed this daily tragedy unfolding around the world for months, but we paid no heed. It is almost inexcusable, to say the least, for this to happen after all that we saw and knew. While I will still admonish the government, I am even more critical of the management structures/boards, staff and families of the residents of these institutions. Why should our centenarians, our national treasures, including arguably one of oldest persons in the world, 119-year-old Ms Leonora Massima Noel, have to succumb to Covid, while she was permanently housed at her home in Carriacou? The good lord may not forgive us for this act of negligence. While on the sister isles of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, I must indeed share my disappointment in how our government handled this “offshore parish.” As I contended in my previous article, the powers that be, were aware of the imminent community spread of Covid-19 in the country at the end of August to the beginning of September 2021. More stringent measures could have been put in place earlier, once the virus took root on the mainland, to avoid the inevitable spread. I note that no statistics are given for Carriacou and Petite Martinique on the Covid-19 dashboard. What is the way forward? What can we do in an attempt to derail Covid-19 off its deadly course? What are the imperatives? In my humble opinion, as I mentioned earlier, the horse has already bolted. There are not much more the powers that be can do to arrest this situation. However, the following needs to be done.
- The continued expansion of testing and vaccination in the communities. Vaccination must become the operative word in messaging. I must commend the Ministry of Health for enhancing the message by adding more articulate and sober voices in presenting the message to the public. I dare to say that many of us are privileged to be alive today, for without vaccinations, life expectancy globally would have been far less than the 70-80 years it is today in most regions of the world. There are some encouraging signs in the last 2 weeks that the vaccinated numbers have been on the increase. As of 24 September, about 60% of persons eligible to be vaccinated, received a 1st or 2nd dose. 36% of those received a 1st dose while 24% are fully vaccinated. I am aware that this has been a challenge for the lack of both human and material resources. It is hoped with the recovery of our nurses and other health providers, our human resources will be bolstered. There is also an urgent push by the Diaspora to get much-needed human resources and medical supplies to Grenada.
- A change of awareness and attitude among Grenadians. We must help each other to adhere to the established protocols of wearing of a mask, practicing social distancing, washing and sanitising of hands and very critical, avoid putting our hands in our faces. This is the sole pathway for this disease to enter our body. It’s also a wakeup call for us to begin to look closer at our personal health. Our eating habits must change from more acidic to more alkaline-based foods. More fruits and vegetables must be consumed. We should increase our intake of zinc and vitamins C and spend time in the God-given sunlight, which is natural vitamin D. All these personal changes in lifestyle are prerequisites to boosting our immune systems as to fight off diseases.
- We must not self-diagnose. Covid-19 symptoms are very similar to the common flu. We must seek testing and medical advice once we begin to have flu-like symptoms. The advantage in doing so is the reduction of the risk of one being positive and infecting others unknowingly. This can be a life and death decision.
Finally, I would like to reiterate, we must be each other’s keeper. We must continue to engage others in sensible and respectful discussions about the need to become vaccinated. We must follow the established protocols as a means of protecting ourselves and everyone else around us. I end with a noble quote taken from my good friend, “SHARED RESPONSIBILITY IS THE WAY OUT.” We all can succeed, or we all will fail together. May the good Lord continue to keep us healthy and safe in his vineyard.
It might be worthwhile mentioning at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic that after almost two years of the world having to confront the virus, and after almost a year of trying to suppress the spread of the virus through the use of the plethora of vaccines available worldwide, the least that could be said is: “damn if you do, damn if you don’t.” And there are two historical precedents that should give cause to think in such terms and to tread as carefully and as slowly as possible along the path of normalizing the culture of mandatory vaccination. During the 1930s, the practice of lobotomy (otherwise known as leucotomy, or trepanation) was regarded as the “Hail Mary” treatment for people suffering from schizophrenia. And so, doctors all over the world were trained and schooled into believing that the benefits of drilling holes into the skulls of their patients far outweighed the risks. It took almost half a century, and the pain and suffering of hundreds of thousands of “human guinea pigs” before the medical profession, scientists, and the so-called powers-that-be to recognize that the procedure was “contrary to the principles of humanity” and that “through lobotomy, an insane person is [simply] changed into an idiot.” And so, the procedure was subsequently banned in most countries. There is also the case of the drug known as Thalidomide which had been marketed as the panacea for a host of illnesses; only to cause birth defects in tens of thousands of babies, and which resulted in the manufacturers having to pay millions of dollars in damages to the victims. The moral of the story is that given all of the uncertainties already discovered about the Covid-19 vaccines, governments and other authority figures should tread very slowly in their determination to make getting vaccinated mandatory because as the saying goes: “FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD.”
Natural immunity doesn’t make the companies any money, that is why they never bring it up! When the story is continuously changing, it’s not science, it’s lies.
Just for clarification. As the author, I just stated the raw data compiled from the covid-19 dashboard using 93763 eligible persons in our population that can be vaccinated. However, I will submit you cannot dismiss the first dose recipients from a calculation of the total vaccinated. Doing that suggests these individuals have the same protection from the virus as someone who did not receive the first dose. That is not true! Whilst the efficacy of the vaccine is less (50%) after the first dose, that appears to be sufficient to provide a greater level of protection than that of an unvaccinated person’s immune system response. The second dose gets you to the 90+ percent efficacy rate for the Pfizer vaccine.
As long as you keep taking you booster shots. Before it was two shots now it’s boosters, after boosters.
I appreciate your overall message in the article. In your clarification I must address 2 things:
1) The raw data from the covid dashboard keeps a running cumulative total of 1st doses and 2nd doses given. The number of people receiving their 2nd dose is not subtracted from the cumulative 1st dose number. The 1st dose number (36%) also includes those who received their 2nd dose (24%). If you add them together (36% + 24% = 60%), you are double counting the people who received their 2nd dose.
2) Vaccine efficacy against the delta variant is slightly lower than past strains. Biggest difference is w/ the 1st dose – approx 33% effectiveness vs delta compared to 50% vs alpha – https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2108891.
So while I agree that 1 dose provides more protection than being unvaccinated, I wouldn’t call it sufficient protection. Just want to stress that compared to 2 doses, 1 dose more likely allows virus to survive in the body longer, giving it more time to do damage and more time to mutate. To maximize protection and lessen chances of mutation, completing the 2 dose regimen is highly recommended.
That said, it is definitely good to see more people getting vaccinated, since that means deaths in this growing group will likely be avoided.
India is the total opposite to Israel and it’s not due to Vaccinations but early multi-drug therapies. That’s why the Indian bar association is suing the WHO for misinformation. The same misinformation which Grenada and other countries are lapping up, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of its citizens–vaccinated or unvaccinated. Why stop something that works? They will have to answer for this!!.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axF_fjk2uXM
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33387997/
https://www.logically.ai/factchecks/library/9a9cde47
Science shows that 40% of all COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic and from a large study in China we know asymptomatic spread is almost non-existent (https://principia-scientific.com/study-of-ten-million-finds-no-evidence-of-asymptomatic-covid-spread/). However asymptomatic people can be confused with pre-symptomatic, who can spread SARS-COV 2. So that needs to be looked at. Studies out of Germany shows that children do no spread SARS-COV-2 to other children and adults. So some limited quarantining could be done to distinguish the asymptomatic from the pre-symptomatic. However, children should be left alone to go back to school. (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/german-study-no-evidence-coronavirus-spreads-in-schools). About 26% of the population of Grenada is under 14 so added to the asymptomatic this is 66% of the population unable to spread SARS-COV-2 assuming there is no overlap. That leaves about 34% of the population able to spread SARS-COV-2. As a result, the science shows that children should not be at home they should be at school. For the at-risk individuals, why is the Government not pushing early multi-drug treatments which has been shown to save 85% of lives and reduce hospitalizations by 85% (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33387997/) If they really cared they would treat and treat early, instead of pushing this vaccine and this vaccine only. The vaccines are beginning to fail and when they do there is no alternative, because it would have been suppressed!! (https://theconversation.com/most-covid-deaths-in-england-now-are-in-the-vaccinated-heres-why-that-shouldnt-alarm-you-163671)
Someone should take away your internet with your nonsense. You want the gov’t to give bleach to people and horse drugs?? Put that in a blender and drink it yourself!
Someone should take away your internet access.
If you can raise the funding for monoclonal antibody treatments (estimated $1,250 USD for one regimen of Reneron, as an example) I’m sure the Ministry of Health would be more than happy to accept your donation. This is a multifactorial problem and I agree the early treatments are an excellent adjunct to vaccination efforts. The funding is not present for those early treatments for everyone who tests positive; vaccinations are cheap, even free for now thanks to donations through healthcare alliances like COVAX. Seeking a better visualization of the cost, if 100 people test positive per day on average and all accept the Regeneron treatment, that is USD $125,000 or EC $337,500 per day. Multiply that by seven and we see the cost is EC $2,362,500 per week. This does not include the cost for healthcare facilities with IV infusion systems and the healthcare staff to safely operate them (both of which are already considered critically low resources at present).
You’re doing math wrong. Also logic and reasoning. Repeating your nonsense doesn’t make it true. School risk can be minimized but only if safety protocols are followed properly and better if the majority of the caregivers are vaccinated. The US is seeing higher numbers of hospitalizations for children because of covid. You really want to see that start happening in Grenada?
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7036e2.htm
The author needs to understand that if 36% receive a 1st does and 24% receive a second dose, that is still only 36% who are on the path to being vaccinated, you don’t just add them together and say 69% have been vaccinated, that is misleading to say the least.
True. That’s quite a big oversight.
Apart from that the overall message is helpful.
Agreed, Bob. Good catch.
I would also like to mention at the beginning, the author mentions that the positivity rate is coming down. I actually don’t believe that. On Sept.21st, they stopped reporting the number of tests performed daily, and have not included that data in the subsequent daily reports since. Although the numbers appear to be coming down, I believe it is because they are doing significantly less testing each day. It is easy to disguise the decreasing new cases by testing less, but not so easy to disguise deaths, because that number must be reported accurately. And the deaths just continue to grow.
I believe the presented dialogue on vaccination numbers is wrong. If 30k people are vaccinated that’s only about a third of those eligible, and that number seems to be growing painfully slowly.
Of all the messaging I have read the past month, Mr. Ventour’s commentary has captured the dire straits Grenada is in. Comments from government officials have been long-winded and played with words. Without vaccinations this crisis cannot be stopped. It can’t! And without the full support of religious leaders putting out accurate information, it is unlikely enough Grenadians will believe they need to vaccinate. My own family member living in St. Andrews is convinced the vaccine has killed thousands which absolutely is not true. Again I say, medicine, including vaccine is through God’s grace.
Saying 60 pct of eligible population vaccinated is misleading as you can’t add the two percentages together. One of the percentages is a subset of the other