By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT
tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net
NOTED Family Island physician Dr Charles Edward Wildgoose III lost a short battle to COVID-19 on Sunday, leaving behind a wife and two children.
Dr Wildgoose contracted the virus while in Exuma where he moved about two years ago to open his own practice — Di-ara Comprehensive Medical Centre, which offered ultrasound imagery, immunisations and PCR and antigen testing for COVID-19.
Prior to moving to Exuma, Dr Wildgoose, who was in his mid-40s, worked as an obstetrician/gynaecologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital. He continued in his specialty through his business in Exuma.
Dr Wildgoose was not vaccinated.
On Sunday while she updated the nation on the fight against COVID-19, Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, advisor to the Prime Minister and chairman of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee, acknowledged there were other healthcare workers who were ill with COVID-19 and expressed condolences to the family of the deceased doctor.
“Today is a sad day. We have three unvaccinated healthcare workers, two physicians and a nurse, hospitalised with COVID-19 who are currently hospitalised with COVID-19,” Dr Dahl-Regis said on Sunday.
“Prior to coming here, I was informed of the death of an unvaccinated physician who died of COVID-19. I wish to express my condolences to the physician’s family. In our profession, we practice according to the science. The science of medicine. We know now that there is no scientific merit that the vaccine is unsafe.”
Member of Parliament for Exuma and Ragged Island, Chester Cooper, also offered condolences at the loss of the popular physician.
“Our community is shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Dr Charles Wildgoose,” he said. “He was a pillar of the community and Cecillia and I considered him a friend.
“He was a calm and caring physician and a progressive entrepreneur who consistently wanted to expand and improve medical care on Exuma. His firm was the leading facility for COVID testing on the island and partnered with Team Cooper last year to provide free testing for the community.
“Words fail us. He shall be dearly missed. On behalf of my family and on behalf of the people of Exuma, I offer our deepest condolences to his family. May his soul rest in peace and rise in glory.”
On its Facebook page, the Bahamas Doctors Union also mourned the doctor’s death.
“RIP Dr Charles Edward Wildgoose. Another casualty in the war against COVID-19,” the union said.
Dr Wildgoose was a graduate of Queen’s College class of 1995 and the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus where he received his medical education.
Comments
DonAnthony 2 years, 8 months ago
Vaccinate Bahamas. There is not a single documented case of a fully vaccinated person dying from COVID in the Bahamas!
John 2 years, 8 months ago
So what is viral immune escape.. Google it.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
You're constantly pushing and pressing for every Tom, Dick and Harry to get jabbed nothwithstanding their own personal health and medical issues and without any cautionary note whatsoever about the unknown potential long-term side-effects of these experimental novel vaccines that have been developed at warp speed. That's just plain wrong my friend.
OMG 2 years, 8 months ago
Funny , do you drink alcohol? Do you smoke? do you eat red meat? Do you take any medication? Do you breathe ? If yes to any of these then you probably on not aware of the long term effects if only that excessive smoking can kill many but not affect others. VACCINATIONS do have an effect and alllow life to return to normality. SECONDLY this is not a novel and experimental vaccine rather one built on the foundation work put in by scientists for Ebola and Mars many years ago. It has been tested on thousands of volunteers. Yes there will always be a small number of reactions to any vaccine long established or new but the overall benefits of these covid vaccines is indesputable. You just had an Exuma doctor die of covid who would most likely be alive if he had been vaccinated.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz......
joeblow 2 years, 8 months ago
@ DonAnthony ... the key word in your statement is "documented". In order to test your hypothesis you would need to know the total number of people fully vaccinated and how many have died since vaccination from either complications of the shot, COVID or other causes. Since this information is unknowable, your statement is just an opinion!
Around the world there are documented cases of deaths from COVID in the fully vaccinated and when people stop fudging the numbers, we will find deaths and complications from the shots is higher than currently reported!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee...">https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee...
rosiepi 2 years, 8 months ago
You should have read the article which points out that the numbers thus far of vaccinated folks dying from Covid is less than 0.003%. And those numskulls talking about the dangers from these vaccines, or the chemicals should start reading the ingredients/preservatives in their favorite fast food supper! And mutations, variants occur every time some unvaxx'd person gets Covid thats why scientists wanted as many vaxx'd as possible not the other way around. Good grief! Avoid becoming a walking petri dish!
OMG 2 years, 8 months ago
Spot on.
joeblow 2 years, 8 months ago
@rosiepi... of course I read the article, but you missed the point of the post which was to address the statement that NO deaths have occurred in the vaccinated in the Bahamas. The point was we don't know, but we do know that deaths have occurred in the vaccinated in America AND other parts of the world. At present the rates seem low, but there is no way to know if drug companies, who are reaping huge profits from vaccinations, are fudging the numbers!
John 2 years, 8 months ago
Antigenic escape, immune escape, immune evasion or escape mutation occurs when the immune system of a host, especially of a human being, is unable to respond to an infectious agent, or, in other words, the host's immune system is no longer able to recognize and eliminate a pathogen such as a virus. This process can occur in a number of different ways of both a genetic and an environmental nature.[1] Such mechanisms include homologous recombination, and manipulation and resistance of the host's immune responses.[2]
Different antigens are able to escape through a variety of mechanisms. For example, the African trypanosome parasites are able to clear the host's antibodies, as well as resist lysis and inhibit parts of the innate immune response.[3] Another bacteria, Bordetella pertussis, is able to escape the immune response by inhibiting neutrophils and macrophages from invading the infection site early on.[4] One cause of antigenic escape is that a pathogen's epitopes (the binding sites for immune cells) become too similar to a person's naturally occurring MHC-1 epitopes. The immune system becomes unable to distinguish the infection from self-cells.[citation needed]
Antigenic escape is not only crucial for the host's natural immune response, but also for the resistance against vaccinations. The problem of antigenic escape has greatly deterred the process of creating new vaccines. Because vaccines generally cover a small ratio of strains of one virus, the recombination of antigenic DNA that lead to diverse pathogens allows these invaders to resist even newly developed vaccinations.[5] Some antigens may even target pathways different than those the vaccine had originally intended to target.[4] Recent research on many vaccines, including the malaria vaccine, has focused on how to anticipate this diversity and create vaccinations that can cover a broader spectrum of antigenic variation.[5] On 12 May 2021, scientists reported to The United States Congress of the continuing threat of COVID-19 variants and COVID-19 escape mutations, such as the E484K virus mutation.[6]
Greentea 2 years, 8 months ago
WTF does this have to do with the majority of people who need to be vaccinated? If this is a thing- the percentage of those impacted by it is miniscule compared to those helped by the vax. Stop this shite and stay off Google and Youtube.
John 2 years, 8 months ago
Obviously you are ignorant. The fact is that this affects the MAJORITY of people, especially those who are vaccinated. NAME ONE COUNTRY that has high vaccinations and the numbers of new cases are declining. JUST ONE! The vaccines may be causing the virus to mutate more frequently and create stronger. And that is why vaccinated people now have to take another dose. So will they continue to take another and another and another? No STUDY has shown vaccines create herd immunity against COVID-19. So you stop your madness snd have people believe getting vaccinated is the fix all, end all. It may be kicking. Ball of snow further down the road,
OMG 2 years, 8 months ago
And your learned solution is ??????????????? >Fact in the UK despite rises in infections, hospital admissions are way down as are deaths. You are correct there is no one fix all but a combination or vaccination, masks, social awareness and hand washing will go a long way. COVID VACCINE does not prevent you catching or passing the virus on but it DOES reduce greatly your chance of going into hospital and ICU. Look at PMH-over 400 un vaccinated, 10 one dose vaccinated and NO fully vaccinated admissions. Does that tell you anything. UK 95% hospital admissions aged under 40 are UNVACCINATED, does that tell you anything?
OMG 2 years, 8 months ago
To technical for 99% of readers. Hope your not a teacher by trade.
ScubaSteve 2 years, 8 months ago
The only two words in the entire article that matter: NOT VACCINATED
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
The unnecessarily vaccinated may in fact be promoting the creation by mutation of even more virulent and lethal variants of the Wuhan Virus for which existing and future new vaccines may prove either ineffective or most difficult to develop.
Think of it in much the same way that many in the medical community now think of treating bacterial infections. There's a general reluctance on the part of physicians to prescribe heavy doses of powerful anti-biotics to treat such infections unless absolutely necessary because of their fear that certain very harmful bacteria may eventually develop a resistance to the anti-biotic treatment tools currently available.
ScubaSteve 2 years, 8 months ago
Or, just take the Vax and live. Pretty simple. Especially for someone that is trained in MEDICINE.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
Good for you being trained in medicine.
Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago
I think he was referring to the doctor in the article.
Greentea 2 years, 8 months ago
Sigh- You talking apples and oranges. It has taken decades to build up the current and growing resistance to antibiotics. What it treats is not the same as covid, polio, Measles, Chicken Pox etc. However some doctors in Nassau are prescribing antibiotics to deal with the symptoms of Covid. Like covid, the flu, etc. Cancers mutate as well- but there is no cancer vaccination.
tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago
You missed my illustrative point - I'm not confusing viruses with bacteria - the two are certainly different. But they behave in much the same way in order to survive by adapting in extraordinary ways to defend against threats they come across.
chuck 2 years, 8 months ago
Please get vaccinated people. The vaccines work. They do what they were designed to do — prevent serious illness and death. They are our only way out of this mess.
carltonr61 2 years, 8 months ago
The vaccines work but stop working after three months after which they return to status unvaccinated. normal antibodies lasts for over a year. Sad for the Doctors family but is this still the truth that persons with underlying comorbidity die fromCovid. they are using his death as the poster child for unvaccinated persons. Is the story that simple though.
Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago
And you know this how?
whogothere 2 years, 8 months ago
Bobby don't be coy - why do you need boosters if they work so good....?
John 2 years, 8 months ago
Don’t argue in IGNORANCE: go and study the new case and active case curves of the five highest vaccinated countries and then compare them to five of the least vaccinated countries. Things you may notice. Hardly any of the least vaccinated countries have the sharp spikes the vaccinated countries are having. Their curves are more flat and in most cases, the numbers of active cases (and deaths) are declining. On the contrary the high vaccinated countries are seeing sharp spikes in new cases. And in the cases of France, Israel and UK the numbers of new cases may plateau ( remain flat) for a while, but they NEVER decline to level below what they were before the vaccinations began. No one ( at least not me) is denying the vaccines may have saved lives. BUt forcing them in everyone, like is currently being done, may be creating a bigger problem. Why, for example, persons who recently recovered from the virus or persons who tested positive then went negative again are not being advised that they now have natural immunity to to the virus and they do not need to take the vaccine in the immediate term? And to vaccinate young children who will now have to the ability to transmit the virus. Whom then will they take the virus back home to. These ‘spur of the moment’ decision on vaccines and mass vaccinations are extremely dangerous, not to the vaccinated and the vaccinating countries, but to the entire world population.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
There are a whole lot of variables. The most critical one (my opinion) is that the virus spreads across borders. Countries with massive waves of humanity crossing borders will experience spikes in relation to increased activity. Tokyo Olympics was an example. Principal also holds with internal borders.
whogothere 2 years, 8 months ago
Precisely - there is significant 'collateral' damage vaccination programs - it might be social effect cues at vaccination centres are super events in themselves...or maybe a unrecognised side effect but either way undeniable phenomenon.
Side note on the good doc may he rest in peace: Mask efficacy?
Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago
Too many other variables for it to be an accurate comparison. Most of the least vaccinated countries are going to be poorer nations, with minimal healthcare infrastructure and the inability to test and report because of isolated settlements etc.
Population density and shared borders are critical factors. Look at the data between the islands of our own nation, and compare their populations and population density. Haiti & Dominican Republic might be an interesting comparison since they are a shared island nation with different socioeconomic statuses.
Bluewaterjack 2 years, 8 months ago
And I was looking forward to leaving the US for awhile to get away from folks who not only cant sseperate their politics from their critical thinking but then can;t seem to keep their tin foil hat medical science understanding to themselves. Each of us has the right to reject science gravity time or even have your hamburger well done. But for the Lord;s sake talk about something that helps us come together, to rebuild, to embrace kindness even if you reject facts nnot in dispute by the medical community.
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