Unkind digs at jab givers

Tuesday 10th August, 2021

The military has drawn flak from former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, MP, for conducing Covid-19 vaccination programmes, which, he says, should be strictly under the Ministry of Health. He has also taken a swipe at the task force the President has set up to control the pandemic. The task of containing the pandemic is best left to health experts, Wickremesinghe has said, calling for a committee consisting of doctors.

Ideally, the military should not be called in to perform civilian duties, as we argued in a previous comment. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and the pandemic situation we find ourselves in is unprecedented. The national health system is terribly overstretched so much so that a home care scheme has had to be introduced for the Covid-19 patients who do not require high dependency or ICU care. The situation is expected to worsen further owing to the current surge in infections. Even private healthcare institutions are overflowing with Covid-19 patients, we are told. State health workers, burdened with other duties, find it difficult to cope with the increasing demand for jabs; they have almost worked themselves into the ground. The country has had to race against time to vaccinate as many people as possible with the pandemic carrying off about 100 lives a day; there is no other way to prevent people from dying in their thousands daily. It is not possible to adhere to established procedures and processes in the health sector in tackling the runaway virus, and extraordinary measures are called for. Hence the need for the deployment of the armed forces to carry out vaccination programmes.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stands accused of what his critics call his overdependence on the military, but he was right in involving the armed forces in the vaccination drive; they possess necessary resources including medical personnel, and have made a name for themselves as highly efficient organisations. Above all, they are known for their inexorable pertinacity, which enables them to accomplish missions that others consider impossible. They have lived up to their reputation where the national vaccination campaign is concerned. But for them, the country would not have been able to achieve the impressive vaccination targets, which have received praise from the World Health Organization. More than 94% of those so far selected for vaccination have received at least the first dose, we are told. This is no mean achievement for a developing country, and should be commended.

The contribution of the armed forces to the country’s fight against the pandemic is not limited to the vaccination programmes. The army has set up hospitals for Covid-19 patients. The Sri Lanka Air Force has gone out of its way to help meet the increasing demand for medical oxygen vis-à-vis the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus. It is now manufacturing Heated Humidified Oxygen Therapy Units. They must be commended for going above and beyond the call of duty.

Interestingly, Head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of Covid-19 Outbreak, and Army Commander, Gen Shavendra Silva has informed us that Wickremesinghe received his Covid-19 vaccine at the Army Hospital, of all places. The former Prime Minister went there of his own volition although he could have received the jab at a vaccination centre run by the Health Department. So, the question is how he can make an issue of the army administering the vaccine.

As for the vaccination programmes conducted by the security forces, people are the best judges. Suffice it to say that if not for the unstinted help from the military, it would not have been possible to accelerate the national vaccination drive, which has helped save many lives. One only hopes unkind digs will not demoralise the security forces that have put aside guns and bullets and taken up vaccine phials and syringes to fight a formidable, elusive enemy.