Letters to the Editor
View(s):Need of the hour, prioritise COVID-19 vaccinations under Public Health
COVID is here to stay with us, not for months but years. We cannot control this with curfews or quarantines alone. Those measures are temporary ‘patch-ups’ executed by sensible nations to prevent their health services from being overwhelmed. This lack of understanding or purposeful denial has resulted in some countries facing desperate situations. Some ran out of oxygen in hospitals and poor healthcare staff trying to help with whatever the facilities, have got infected and died or been abused by the public.
Health is the wealth of the nation. This is why most developed countries fought tooth and nail to control the pandemic in their own nations before thinking about others. This was because the ‘vaccination of the nation’ to enhance herd immunity was the only solution to return to ‘normality’ controlling the pandemic. Politicians who prioritised political interests before the health of the nation eventually failed with a huge national cost of lost lives (Trump in the USA, Bolsanaro in Brazil, Modi in India etc).
Our GDP is now considered to be approximately USD 4000/ person per annum and this comes in to the Government as foreign and local currency. The primary duty of the Government is to utilise this national income for public gain with minimal wastage. A single vaccination dose costs USD 3 and this amounts to 0.1% of our GDP. Without engaging in useless criticisms of the need to share the ‘patents’ etc, I am surprised why our Government cannot use 0.1% of the GDP to vaccinate our whole population. After all, on average, each one of us earns USD 4000 per year for the Government.
Sensible politicians in the world engaged in aggressive vaccination campaigns in their nations to control this pandemic. President Biden of the USA managed to vaccinate 200 million people within the first 100 days of his term of office and that was more than 50% of the population. We in Sri Lanka have only 21 million people. If we are to vaccinate 10 million people over 100 days we need only to vaccinate 100,000 people a day.
The successful vaccination programmes in the world (USA, UK, Israel) were achieved not by politicians but by health service staff who were given full responsibility and support to execute the programme. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka, we do not know who is at the steering wheel. It could be a local politician overriding the government, a government minister who does not care or understand the urgency or a ‘retired military official’ prioritising lockdowns and punishment of the public.
A successful vaccination programme can result only by handing it over to the Public Health Department. The government should extend full support without interference as done by other countries. They will do the job in 100 days by establishing vaccination centres led by health officials and volunteers. Establishing gyms and exercise centres at the expense of our foreign reserves is not the priority.
Remember dengue time – we brought in laws and imprisoned people if they had ‘dengue friendly’ flower pots in their homes. This affected even old people who could not even attend to themselves. Did we control Dengue? No. We punished innocent people by a non-evidenced based criminalisation of an infection. What we need instead is more local research to identify the causes and resolutions.
COVID is no different. Now we have criminalised not wearing masks outdoors. Pathetic. Crowds and gatherings are known to be super-spreaders of COVID-19, but political rallies, meetings, political funerals and even weddings seem to be excluded. This reflects our weird political fairness and equality. Sad.
Chula Goonasekera Via email
Terrible state of lawyers’ office complex and apathy of UDA
I have written many letters to the Urban Development Authority dated 05/09/2007, 01/09/2007, 07/10/2020 in respect of the lawyers’ office complex at 51/59 Dias Place, Goonesinghepura, Colombo 12 and regret that no steps have been taken to remedy our grievances.
We have been occupants of this complex for the last 20-30 years.
As lawyers we are compelled to face a sad situation with various nefarious activities at these premises causing hindrance to our day-to-day professional duties towards our clients.
I am ashamed to state that the corridor of this complex is used by strangers, unauthorized persons, prostitutes, during all hours causing hindrance and annoyance to flat dwellers and their families with small children who are unable to air their grievances to any persons or authority out of fear. During the day, there are men and women who bring their mattress, pillow and bed sheets to sleep on the corridor. This is the time when clients come to meet the lawyers. They feel embarrassed to walk into the offices of the lawyers.
These people have meals in the day time as well as at night and leave the remnants of the food parcels on the corridor, leaving us to clean our doorsteps.
Even vendors on push cycles carry on their business selling bangles and fancy items in the corridor through which we enter daily to the office rooms. The adjoining drain of the complex smells of urine -obviously made use of by these unauthorized occupants.
I have this week lodged a complaint with the Keselwatta Police who advised me to take action against the UDA for not providing security to the premises of which they are the sole authority and owner.
Female attorneys-at-law feel bad to walk in daily given all these activities and the state of the premises.
I am writing this letter as a final resort hoping for early relief for lawyers who are occupying office rooms in this complex.
K. Kaneshayogan Via email