“We’re in the pandemic together.” Casting aside false information and taking decisive action on vaccination the key to ending Covid-19
I read the front page article in the Solomon Star on 16 July which featured an article and accompanying photograph of the Australian and the UK High Commissioners to the Solomon Islands, Dr. Lachlan Strahan and Dr. Brian Jones, receiving their second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine at the Si Government field hospital on Thursday last week.
The same article went on to say, and I quote.
There’s only one way out of the COVID-19 pandemic: we all must get vaccinated as soon as we can!
The latest COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney demonstrates that the Delta strain can spread rapidly, putting people of different ages into hospital, some into intensive care units on ventilators’, Dr Strahan said. ‘The Delta strain has recently hit other countries in our region, especially Fiji and Indonesia, hard.’
All the data indicates that the AstraZeneca vaccine is highly effective against all COVID-19 strains, including Delta, providing very strong protection against serious illness, hospitalisation and death. Getting a jab is all about saving lives and allowing our economies to recover from the turmoil of the last 18 months.’
Dr Strahan called on everyone to ignore conspiracy theories which are undermining confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. ‘Some people are spreading frankly ridiculous claims, such as the vaccines damaging virility or fertility, bearing the sign of the beast or carrying microchips, which are creating fear and putting lives at risk. Such irresponsible and dangerous behaviour must stop. We all should listen instead to good scientific advice, based on evidence, which aims to protect the health of all of us.’
Asked his motivation for getting vaccinated against COVID-19, Dr Jones said it was a sense of duty to protect his family, his colleagues and Solomon Islands. ‘The vaccine is the best way to prevent getting seriously sick or dying if you catch COVID-19, and if you’re not sick it makes it less likely you’ll infect other people. So it is everyone’s duty to get vaccinated. ‘
By getting his second dose of Astra Zeneca today, Dr Jones said he was joining more than 35 million people in the UK who had had their second dose of the vaccine. ‘Almost all of them have walked away afterwards with no pain or discomfort. And all of them are now protected against getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19.
The vaccine is easy, quick and available free of charge in Solomon Islands’, said Dr Jones, ‘so everyone over 18 should protect themselves and their families by taking it as soon as possible.’
Dr Strahan said Australia would deliver another 50,000 Australian-made AstraZeneca doses to Honiara on 30 July. ‘Australia has pledged to provide Solomon Islands with up to one million safe and effective vaccine doses to ensure that the entire population of the country is vaccinated’, he said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine represents another great UK-Australia collaboration, with the scientific research taking place in Oxford in the UK and the vaccine doses being manufactured by CSL in Melbourne in Australia.
As two of Solomon Islands’ closest partners, Australia and the UK are supporting Solomon Islands through the pandemic through vaccination, healthcare, testing, economic support and other expert services and advice to the Government of Solomon Islands. We are doing so bilaterally, with other partners such as New Zealand and Japan and through the international organisations such as the WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the Global Vaccines Fund. We’re all in this together. We will get out of this together!
End of quote.
Comment
The Solomon Islands is very fortunate to have sufficient effective Covid-19 vaccines on hand and a guaranteed promise of 50,000 AstraZeneka doses to come from Australia this month.
I express my appreciation to all those singled out by Dr Strahan as supporting the Solomon Islands through the pandemic and in the varied ways he described.
Both Dr Strahan and Dr Jones talked about the motivation, indeed the sense of duty, to getting vaccinated and called for a stop to the irresponsible and dangerous practice of spreading out false information and rumours about getting vaccinated to save lives.
In the United States today, President Joe Biden has warned that the spreading of misinformation of Covid-19 was killing people.
He was responding to a question from a reporter about the alleged role of social media platforms in spreading falsehoods about vaccines and the pandemic.
The White House has put increased pressure on social media companies to tackle disinformation.
"They're killing people," Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House yesterday. "The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated."
US health officials have warned that the country's current spike in Covid-19 deaths and infections is exclusively hitting unvaccinated communities.
About 67.9 percent of US adults have received one dose of the vaccine, while 59.2 percent of adults are fully vaccinated.
Source. Radio New Zealand.
It is unfortunately the case in Fiji where unvaccinated communities are seeing more deaths occur from the pandemic.
Fiji has reported a daily record 1405 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8am on Friday, health authorities said.
That compares to 1220 cases and 10 deaths in the previous 24-hour period
The 7-day average of new cases per da is 824 cases per day or 932 cases per million population per day.
Source. Radio New Zealand.
In Bangkok from where I write, there are averaging (over the last few weeks) 8000-9000 fresh Covid-19 infections per day, a rising death rate and a nightly shutdown in place for 14 days from 9 pm to 4 am daily. The wearing of face masks is compulsory, unemployment is now rife and in many areas of the country and shops, hotels and commercial premises have closed, some for good, as the tourism trade is almost totally collapsed.
Here (in Thailand) no one will cast any doubt on the validly and necessity of Covid-19 vaccines and all people are eager to be vaccinated put so far the roll out as not been sufficient. The authorities are endevouring to catch up but with a population of over 60 million resident in Thailand it is not an easy or quick task for the authorities.
It is true we are all in this pandemic together but the way out of it is to be vaccinated and especially where the opportunity now exists to do so.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
