About ten years ago, when I was listening to the daily news, there were constant reports of people who were dying due to chest angina or chest pain, which is caused when the heart muscle doesn’t get enough oxygenated blood and this thereafter leads to a sudden stroke (heart attack). Of course, I am not a specialist in anything that has to do with health, but I’ve been living for many years with heart disease. In those days, there was no Angiotrofin (Diltiazem) to be found in Belize. For that reason, I wrote on three occasions through these pages about how important it was for the health system to include angiotrofin in the distribution of medications to persons who were suffering from chest pain.

I don’t think my writings on the subject influenced the UDP government to acquire such medication for poor Belizeans or “the little people down there” for us to live a little longer. However, such medication (Diltiazem) was introduced and distributed at the public clinic for those of us whose lives depended on such treatment. Today, Friday, August 6, 2021, there is no Diltiazem at the Corozal Community Hospital’s pharmacy, and no one knows when it will ever be in stock. This reminds me of another article I wrote sometime ago concerning what the president of the IMF had stated in 2018, when she said, in my words, that there were too many old people in the world and that this was affecting the global economy and something had to be done urgently. By coincidence, the ending of 2019 brought the deadly Coronavirus to solve the world’s economic dilemma through the extermination of as many of us “the little people down there”. It will take at least ten (10) years to control this unseen deadly beast, and I expect history to record at least 50 million deaths caused by COVID-19 and its variants.

Nonetheless, when Belize started to receive such deadly visitors I personally felt no fear because of the amount of medications I was taking that were prescribed by the medical system of Belize, among others. So when the time came for me to take the Astrazeneca vaccine, I was reluctant. Why? Because I didn’t need it. I had already fought a few of the COVID-19 symptoms in August 2020 and recovered without any damage. In fact, I was among persons who were clinically diagnosed with the virus, yet I didn’t catch it — so then, why take the vaccine? Looking back, a friend of mine who is a psychologist and has a knowledge of my health condition sent me a mobile text with the advice to go take the vaccination against COVID-19. I said to myself, she knows better than I do. On March 21, 2021, I took my first dose. I did not feel the needle, much less the liquid. It was not until one week after, while lying down on my bed around 8:00 p.m., that I started feeling chest pain, which did not worry me, since at 6:00 p.m. I had taken my 180 milligrams of Diltiazem and my 25 milligrams of Captopril. With that I felt assured. Five minutes later, the chest pain disappeared. On May 7, 2021, I took my second dose, and up to now I have felt no negative reaction. Up to this day I don’t know what will happen without taking my medication.

Had I known before taking the vaccine that I wouldn’t have been able to get the medication that has me alive, I wouldn’t have taken it. Now that I am in this situation I understand why so many Belizeans are reluctant to take something that… It’s only the privileged few who have the constitutional right to have health insurance abroad, paid with the people’s money.

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August 8, 2021
Finca Solana
Corozal Town