“Man to man is so unjust; yo don’t know who to trust…” Bob Marley

“Before you relax, get vax!” — MOHW slogan

Mon. Sept. 13, 2021
Even as the country is battling through another wave of Covid-19 infections, causing our national referral hospital, KHMH, to enter the third phase of its emergency mode, and in the midst of a continued effort by the Ministry of Health & Wellness to encourage citizens, including children over 12 years and pregnant women to become vaccinated with the recently received and fully WHO-authorized Pfizer vaccine, there remains a reluctance on the part of some citizens — the adamant anti-vaxxers, who still refuse to be vaccinated. Though none of the vaccines so far can provide 100% immunity to possible contraction of Covid-19, health officials, backed up by reports from the WHO and CDC, insist that vaccinated persons are less likely to get infected, or be hospitalized or die if they do get infected. And in regard to the very important issue of mortality risks, again the authorities maintain that most, some say almost all of the mortalities occur among patients who were not vaccinated. But apparently the “anti-vaxxers” do not believe them; and so far, the KHMH has not published definitive numbers of vaccinated versus non-vaccinated mortality cases. No names of individuals need be mentioned, but such a revelation, if it corroborates the general assertion of the authorities, would likely help to convince some skeptics to take the jab.

“Best-selling author” and much maligned medical conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer, Dr. Joseph Mercola, recently highlighted the great level of skepticism and mistrust of U.S. Government leadership in war matters, referencing the invasion of Iraq and the absence of weapons of mass destruction, and how this mistrust has extended to the official positions on the current vaccination program being presented by the WHO and CDC. Though often demonized by many in the medical establishment, Mercola’s newsletter costs nothing, his posts are relatively short, and he usually quotes from qualified doctors and Nobel Prize winners to bolster his criticism of Big Pharma or the U.S. Government’s official narrative on health matters.

The thing is, no one can really deny that the so-called “Military Industrial Complex” is real and influential in national policy in the USA; and neither can we expect to convince serious thinkers that Big Pharma, a parallel powerhouse in the medical industry, is not also very real and influential.

But there is also a thing called “realpolitik”, which explains, until a real change occurs, why Belizean elections continue to be dominated by the two major parties, blue and red. People are reluctant to “waste” their votes on any third party once the “big blue machine” and the “big red machine” get rolling with their financing from special interests, which the vulnerable and generally unenlightened masses can’t seem to resist. So, the solution for the anti-corruption idealist may be to not vote at all. But whichever party wins, and gets to run the government, they, the non-voters, like all the rest of us who voted, will have to endure the policies and leadership style of the elected government, for better or for worse.

So, we’re skeptical of politics; and we’re skeptical about wars; and justifiably so. We can stay away from professions like the army, navy and marines; and we can choose not to vote in elections.

But now, this medical “industrial complex” is another matter. We’re in it up to our neck, even if we don’t want to be. And if we are in the lane of conspiracy theorists, there are enough things out there to steer us into major confusion.

First, they propose that this killer Covid-19 may well be an escapee from a lab where research was being done for possible use in war. So what? Whether or not that is the case, obviously they had not yet developed an antidote, so it is a killer on the loose that respects no one, not even its master. The whole world is at risk.

Some wild speculation is that the virus scare is just a big bluff, to frighten all of us into taking a vaccine that is not even effective or safe, all so that Big Pharma can make billions off the world population. They require a second vaccine; then they want us to take a booster; and then maybe every year. It’s all about the big money for the vaccine manufacturers, say the anti-vaxxers.

First of all, it is not a bluff. People are dying “hand over fist.” KHMH has too many Covid patients already; their ICU room is reportedly filled to capacity, and without enough nurses to give the one-on-one attention needed. The hospital had to go into “emergency mode” a couple weeks ago, so that regular patients needing health care or surgeries had to wait until they reach crisis stage. Some have died due to the situation, even though they did not have Covid. So, whoever caused the pandemic, and whoever is profiting from the vaccines, the fact is, Covid-19 is real. Since March of last year, 369 Belizeans have died from Covid-19, twenty-five in the last month alone; and an unknown number more from the indirect effect of the lockdown, etc.

We don’t know what treatment protocol is being followed for Covid-19 patients at the KHMH. All we know is that our doctors and nurses are overworked, stressed, and trying their best under difficult circumstances to save lives when we turn up sick from Covid-19. And all they are asking is that we “get vax.”