The Tribune

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar has been one of the most notable public proponents of Bahamians getting vaccinated. That is understandable, as the appraisal of his performance depends greatly on how well his ministry is at getting heads in beds.

If I were him, I too would be advocating for widespread vaccinations. Particularly, as we are shattering projections and resorts are experiencing higher occupancy levels than they thought possible just a few months ago.

After the backlash of prematurely opening the borders a year ago, the time is ripe for a tourism explosion. Factoring in the pent-up demand from Americans who have been getting vaccinated and are now ready to resume all of the pleasures of pre-pandemic life, we are likewise eager to take advantage to fully revive our economy.

But what is the challenge?

Just as it was last week and the weeks prior, our challenge is two-fold - our inability to access vaccines, and vaccine hesitancy. How much of a role this hesitancy actually plays is hard to say without sufficient vaccines being made available.

Last week, Mr D’Aguilar, again, spoke to the issue.

He said: “If you don’t get vaccinated, you run the risk of the number of positive COVID-19 cases increasing and ending up on these lists like the CDC’s,” which have not been shy about placing travel advisories on The Bahamas throughout the pandemic.

“By more and more people getting fully vaccinated, it reduces the possibility that you end up on these lists,” he restated.

“There’s a lot of hesitancy out there, and a substantial amount of hesitancy increases the risk of cases spiking and increases the possibility that we will end up on these lists, impacting tourism. There are travellers, mostly groups, that look at this sort of thing and make decisions based on it.

“I want to mitigate that risk as much as possible of getting on these lists, and the best way to mitigate this risk is through vaccination.”

Now, Minister D’Aguilar is a member of Cabinet, and his concerns should be shared by all members, especially the Prime Minister and Minister of Health. It has become increasingly apparent the government, however, is choosing to be less transparent on major details on the state of vaccines in the country.

On one hand, the Minister of Health is saying he believes herd immunity would have been achievable this summer. On the other, he is saying that we can potentially have 30 percent of the population vaccinated by September. However, we’re currently sitting at about 11 percent of our citizens being fully vaccinated and operating in a business-as-usual manner that does not reflect the actual state of affairs.

The vaccine consultative committee seems more like a public relations buffer and no one wants to answer questions on where we are going to get additional vaccines.

Meanwhile, the Delta variant, which has proven to be 60 percent more transmissible than its UK counterpart – the Alpha variant, is seen as the biggest threat in the US to eliminating COVID-19.

A prominent professor of molecular medicine, Dr Eric Topol, told the Scientific American publication: “It is the most hyper-transmissible, contagious version of the virus we’ve seen to date, for sure — it’s a super spreader strain if there ever was one.”

While some Americans may be a little rattled by hearing these kinds of reports, Pfizer and Moderna, the two most widely distributed vaccines in the US have 88 percent effectiveness against the Delta strain. AstraZeneca, however, has a slightly reduced efficacy rate of 60 percent after two jabs and drops to 33 percent if you’ve only had a single dose.

What is concerning for us is that only 20 percent of our population have received at least one jab. Moreover, all of the doses we have currently and that are on the way are AstraZeneca.

Considering an outbreak just turned back the hands on the clock on Bimini amid another lockdown, we’re still very much in a precarious position without vaccines.

The conversation from the government’s end needs to elevate from placing the emphasis solely on vaccine hesitancy to focus heavily on how we’re going to get additional vaccines.

We understand discussions are being had. Likewise, we’ve been hearing for months that coolers are on the way. But it is growing more troubling that tourism’s resurgence is being touted without the proper mechanisms to ensure its sustainability – more vaccines.

While it may not be politically expedient to discuss vaccines in case our inability to acquire them causes widespread fear, avoidance of this discussion does not create comfort either.

For the critical thinking minds observing this situation, the Minnis administration is gambling with what can be a cataclysmic fallout if an outbreak happens at one of our major resorts during our bounce back.

We’re getting a taste of the long-awaited rebound – one that we hope continues. Let’s not bungle this by not prioritising the need to get vaccines in the country and shots into the arms of Bahamians.