How to beat COVID-19 before it beats us
Dear Editor,
There`s a monster at the door called COVID-19 which has come to kill, steal, and destroy everything that we cherish, love, and enjoy; especially our freedom. We must refuse to accept and entertain this idea that we must learn to live with a rat in our house. We must reject this notion that we must accommodate this monster, this plague, as some sort of “new normal”. We have the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of how simple it is to defeat this monster.
There is more than enough evidence which has shown us that if we practise all the right protocols, proper hygiene, social distancing, and the wearing of masks that we can significantly reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. There is one other strategy that if properly employed will help us to quickly and completely eliminate and eradicate this monster and that is to test, test, and test again!
These COVID-19 tests should be the rapid antibody or antigen tests, the type of tests that are simple to administer, provide results within 15 to 20 minutes, and have an accuracy standard of at least 95 per cent. It is most obvious that if we employ these testing strategies with alacrity we will be able to quarantine the sick from the healthy and, within a matter of months, contain, control, and eliminate this plague. We don’t have to be rocket scientists to figure that out.
The real challenge that we seem to face is not so much the COVID-19 virus itself, but the bureaucracy, indecision, and ineptness of some of the people who have been entrusted and charged with the responsibility to make those decisions that are in all our best interests. Einstein said it, and I will say it again, “To continue to do the same things and expect a different result is insanity.”
Test again, as many people may be potentially asymptomatic. Test all arriving passengers; test all tourism industry personnel; test all health care workers, doctors, and nurses, hospital staff, police and soldiers, government employees, etc. Everyone who is serving the public should be tested at least twice a week. Failure is not an option.
Until such time, stay safe, and remember to eat, drink, and be merry.
Michael C Moyston
Montego Bay, St James
jahspeed@hotmail.com