The MOHW had declared that come December 15 all public officers should report to work vaxxed, and if they didn’t there’d be repercussions, but last week the GOB “caved in” to resistance from its employees. Discussing the change of position by the GOB, PSU president Flowers said it was a victory for democracy, but if it was about that thing that is of, by, and for the people, all adults would have gotten vaxxed, because more than 60% of the eligible population can hold up papers which show the dates when they faced the nurses.
In a democracy the minority has its say, and the majority has its way; that’s what our first prime minister told us. It could be argued that some who got vaxxed were jerked into doing so, but coercion would have to be proved. Has any election petition ever not been thrown out in court?
Covidvax Live says that as of last week 198,625 (49%) of us had been fully vaxxed, and 229,473 (56.67%) of us had gotten at least one jab. It’s absolutely no stretch to say that within the next few weeks at least 56.67% of us will be fully vaxxed, because people who get one, get two. All of us can’t vote in Belize, and the young ones can’t get jabbed. If you look at a population of 320,000, of which 229,473 are vaxxed, that puts the eligible population who are vaxxed at 71.7%. The majority is clearly for the jab, which the experts say works best if we all submit to it!
For various reasons, about 30% of eligible Belizeans haven’t been vaxxed, so the PSU prez, who incidentally might be vaxxed, wasn’t speaking just for his crowd. Following his declaration for democracy, the PSU prez said a lot of wonderful things about the process. Congratulations, he suggested that if things get worse they might have to revisit their support of their members who object to getting vaxxed. Hopefully we won’t have to go there.
We really have to keep our fingers crossed that the Omicron is not worse than Delta, because if you’re a working person, it will be hard as hell not to catch it. A CDC paper said that Covid-19 is generally more contagious than the flu, and one report from Japan says the Omicron is 4.2 times more contagious than the Delta variant. I’ve noticed some doctors saying that we’ll all have to move to N-95s, along with our physical distancing and the hygiene measures to beat back this latest version of the animal. Pray to the gods that it holds true what was preliminarily observed, that it is milder than Delta.
There are unvaxxed people who, because they have serious health issues, are understandably more wary of the vaccine than the rest of us. Those health issues make them more susceptible to serious illness from the virus, but they just don’t have the faith to get the jab. And then there are those who feel that somebody is out to get them, or somebody is out to rake in all the little money we have, all kinds of things.
Those more militant ones, the latter group, some of them are still hollering hoax, after almost 600 Belizeans have died, some in their prime, and thousands of us are battling long Covid. I’m not about disrespecting anyone, that’s not my game, but what I want to bring to the fore to these resistance champions and their rights as non-experts is that their decision had/has implications for others.
Whoa there, all things being possible under the sun, it’s not absolutely impossible that Belizeans who have so far ducked the vax are right, but the only science that some of them appear to know is that yeast makes the dough rise. Yet they’re cussing out the excellent WHO. People who took the jab did so because the WHO said the vax gave individuals a better chance against the disease, and they took it because the WHO said it was the best decision for mankind.
Sorry, there’s no great victory for democracy with this one, and non-experts really shouldn’t be so bold. The victory here is for intransigence, and if the Omicron is no worse than the flu, hooray, we might have lucked out. I hope so; if so all’s well that ends well. Just don’t brag about it, because there’s nothing noble in resisting the WHO and the PAHO.
When a pandemic is declared, the doctors rule
This individual rights thing, which does get special protection in a democracy, at times our government has, on the advice of the medical experts, pushed it aside. Even in the most open society, our freedom is limited for the good of the whole, and despite the pushback from some during the pandemic, we have been forced to wear masks, and we have been locked down, in one instance all of us for an entire month.
When the WHO declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, individual rights got tossed out the window. There were many in the medical world who were wondering what the WHO was waiting for, and some conspiracy theorists said the WHO was slow on pulling the trigger because of political reasons. Really, the WHO hesitated because it knew the implications, that individual rights would get a punch in the nose.
Declaring a global pandemic meant the medical experts were taking full control of the wheel, their sole mission to lead human beings safely through a storm that if unchecked could be catastrophic. The declaration was clear—the world was under attack by a new virus, a virus that could fizzle, a virus that could cause great and terrible damage before running its course, a virus that could mutate into the big one and take human beings near to extinction.
None of us have lived through a global pandemic, the last one being in 1918. While only few of us lived through the Second World War, all of us know what wars are about, and what happens when it breaks out. For whoever is involved in war, it is out with individual rights, everyone falls under military rule.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the guns and bombs wars have been massive failures. They have sent millions to their deaths and maiming for no good reason ataal. Politics and egos are beasts. Fortunately, the leaders of the wars against diseases are a lot smarter, a lot better educated, and because they are in the business of saving lives, they make good decisions. They do what they have to do. Under their informed leadership, the human population keeps growing.
It doesn’t matter if you live under a dictatorship, monarchy, democracy, theocracy, when war is declared, the military rules; and when a pandemic is declared—the medical people rule.
Lady, you are supposed to have regrets
From The Atlanta Black Star via the Yahoo I saw the story, “Still don’t look a day over 30….”, and by the pics she, Toni Braxton, the much celebrated, congratulated singer/songwriter is, yes, a very young 52. I was reminded that a few months ago she and Jane Fonda announced to the world how much they regretted not being round and about more when they were younger. I don’t know Jane’s story, but Toni was brought up in a religious home, and maybe that’s why she tried to walk the straight line.
Cutting straight to the chase, so I can get to the tape on this page, I’m wondering how all that religious upbringing didn’t impress on the lady that a life well-lived is supposed to have plenty regrets. She should be feeling a little sad, yes, but mostly she should be feeling proud for doing her part. Hey, cave rules done 6,000 years ago. It’s healthy to have regrets.