The good news that the world has been awaiting, has come; several vaccines have been developed, tested, and proven to be effective in protecting people from COVID-19 infection. While everyone is understandably elated by such exciting news, scientists say that, at this point, there are numerous known challenges that will necessarily be encountered, as well as unforeseen obstacles that will arise, all of which must be overcome. In fact one expert, Dr. Raymon Krishnan, President of the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society has said that “The COVID-19 supply-chain challenge is of a scale and magnitude no one alive today has ever seen.” Another scientist at the forefront of the fight against the global pandemic has said that, the supply, acquisition, storage, and distribution will be the greatest logistical challenge that any government would have ever faced since the last world war, and may be the most difficult undertaking that the human species has ever encountered. Considering those chilling warnings from the experts, and knowing, from experience, our current government’s record and general level of competence, Guyanese may be justifiably concerned about whether the Irfaan Ally administration is up to such a monumental task.
First, the good news, vaccines, also called jabs, work to prevent disease by causing the body to produce proteins called antibodies, as well as getting the body’s cells ready to fight specific infections. Within the last few days, a handful of vaccines against COVID-19 have been approved by various governments for general use within their respective territories, even as many other vaccines are being tested worldwide. Foremost among those already approved are jabs invented and manufactured by pharmaceutical companies based in western countries, notably Pfizer, and another one by Moderna. Additionally, another vaccine made by Oxford University is being used. In non-western countries one jab, called Sputnik Five (Sputnik V), made in Russia is already being distributed and used in that country and some territories allied with Russia. All of those vaccines have been reported to be between 95 and 70 per cent effective at preventing people from becoming infected with COVID-19. Those are indeed positive developments.
Second; the bad news. Let us examine the challenges that scientists know about. The biggest one may be due to the fact that all the vaccines developed to date must be stored and transported at extremely cold temperatures, otherwise, they will spoil and become useless. And those cold temperatures do not involve ordinary freezers; specialised equipment must be used to keep the vaccines colder than it is during winter at the North Pole. Those cold temperatures have to be maintained from the moment the jabs leave the factory to the time they are delivered to communities; scientists call this maintaining the “cold chain.” Considering that Guyana is a hot country, and we have little if any equipment or trained personnel to maintain the necessary cold chain, it would be interesting to know what are President Irfaan Ali’s plans along those lines. Especially since many of Guyana’s residents who live in distant communities, may have never even seen an ordinary freezer. Could this mean that even if Guyana gets the COVID-19 vaccines as promised by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, many of those precious doses could spoil before they reach the people who need them? The fact is, just getting the vaccine is not the end of the problem, but instead, is the beginning of the most difficult phase of the issue.
The medical experts say too, that maintaining the cold chain at control points such as airports, shipping ports, and other transfer points is notoriously difficult, even in well developed countries, and Guyana is by no means “well developed.” In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that over half of all vaccines are wasted globally because of temperature-control logistics and shipping-related issues.
Guyanese may wish to be cautiously optimistic. Citizens are well aware of the sudden and significant spike in COVID-19 cases from the time this administration took office. And, the excuse that such a spike occurred because of more testing is simply not true. That fact is evident because there was not only a spike in positive tests; there was also a surge in hospitalisations; more hospitalisations were not the result of more testing. The current government’s record in handling the pandemic is horrible by any standard, the failure to enforce curfews, social distancing rules, and masking requirements, and, considering that the most difficult part — vaccine distribution — is yet to come, Guyanese may wish to hope and pray that the government, by some miracle, would somehow manage to get it right.
