Jab issues and lame excuses

Friday 10th September, 2021

Medical experts and scientists continue to resign from the Health Ministry’s technical committee tasked with pandemic prevention, claiming that their views and advice are not heeded, and decisions are taken arbitrarily. Doctors have taken exception to the government’s decision to use the Pfizer vaccine to inoculate the youth in Hambantota. Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama and Dr. Ashoka Gunaratne have tendered their resignations during the past few days.

Unable to explain why the Pfizer vaccine was sent to the Hambantota District amidst objections from medical experts who want it used for booster doses to save the lives of those in high risk groups, the government has resorted to an exercise in smoke and mirrors; it has started giving the Pfizer jab to the youth in the Matara District as well!

A senior doctor representing the government has claimed that Hambantota received the American vaccine (Pfizer) instead of the widely used Chinese one (Sinopharm) because it has a port and an airport! The irony of the pro-Chinese Rajapaksa government sending an American jab to their home district may not have been lost on those who are aware that the Hambantota port and the Mattala airport were built with Chinese funds. Is it that the government thinks the Chinese vaccine is not good enough for the Hambantota youth, or the people living in areas with ports and airports should be given American vaccines?

Sri Lankan politicians and their officials have got trotting out lame excuses down to a fine art. The aforesaid doctor’s defence of the government over the jab issue reminds us of the proverbial toddy thief who started shinning down a kitul palm on seeing the owner of the pot of sweet sap, running hitherward and demanding to know what he was doing up there. The stealer claimed he had been looking for some grass to feed his cattle, and on being told that grass did not grow on trees, he nodded in agreement, saying, “That was why I am climbing down.” The present-day politicians and their bureaucratic lackeys must be descendants of the crafty toddy thief.

Some foreigners who are not familiar with the geography of Sri Lanka mistakenly call the Mahaweli Reach Hotel in Kandy the Mahaweli Beach Hotel. But the aforesaid doctor’s claim that Hambantota got an American vaccine instead of Sinopharm because of its seaport and airport makes one wonder whether the government also thinks Kandy is a coastal city with a port and/or an airport, for it has sent an American jab (Moderna) instead of Sinopharm, to that part of the country.

Even if it is granted, for the sake of argument, that the Pfizer vaccine was sent to Hambantota because of its seaport and airport, can the government explain why Matara, which has neither a harbour nor an airport, has received the same vaccine? Mannar and Vavuniya have also got the Pfizer vaccine although they do not have seaports and airports. Above all, how would the government explain why it has not used Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in Colombo, where the biggest Port is located and in Gampaha, where the Bandaranaike International Airport is situated?

Let the government be urged to stop playing politics with its successful vaccination drive and use the limited stocks of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to save the lives of the elderly people and others, who need a third dose of a vaccine other than Sinopharm owing to comorbidities and poor antibody responses.

Among the professional bodies trying to knock some sense into the government politicians as regards the vaccination programme are the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) and the Government Medical Officers’ Association. The AMS has said vaccination has to be done in a scientific manner and it is essential to inoculate the unvaccinated, vulnerable people as a national priority, and then consider giving a booster dose to the fully-vaccinated persons at high risk of severe disease. No wonder medical specialists are resigning from the government committees.