• What was tragic about all this is that Sri Lanka has one of the most robust immunisation schemes for young children not only in Asia but the entire world. The health systems were therefore already there, if only they were utilised properly.
• Amidst all this, there has been one voice of reason in the government. That belongs to Dr. SudarshaniFernandopulle who ironically carries the title State Minister of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and Covid Prevention. Unfortunately, her voice has been ignored. She doesn’t make vital decisions.
The government’s handling of the vaccination roll out against corona virus has been a litany of errors, trying to cover up one blunder with more blunders and would have been ridiculously funny if not for the fact that it is the general public who are paying the ultimate price for these errors- with their lives.
Ironically, at the outset, they got it right. When the very first stocks of the vaccines arrived in the island, a decision was made to vaccinate healthcare workers as a priority as they were the most at risk. Within days, the entire sector, from top medical specialists to hospital orderlies, was vaccinated.
This was some time ago, when the government heeded calls from medical experts for a lockdown and the pandemic was carefully managed, leading to a period where, for most of last year, Sri Lanka remained a model for how to deal with the outbreak, while the rest of the world was struggling.
Then came the complacency- and the claims that ‘we did it the best’ from no less than the highest in the land. While other countries which suffered high death tolls due to the corona virus rushed to place orders for the vaccine, Sri Lanka preferred to engage in watchful expectation and masterly inactivity.
The result was that the only vaccines we got were from a few donations- handouts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and a few hundred thousand each from the only ‘friends’ we have in the world: India, China and Russia, but hardly enough to vaccinate a population of 22 million people.
With high demand and low supply, market forces were at play, Sri Lankan style. That meant that politicians called the shots. You had to be somebody’s somebody to get the vaccine. There was no organised, methodical roll out of the vaccine. Only those who knew someone’s someone got the jab.
Most countries had a method to distribute the vaccine. People were categorised according to age and those who had medical conditions that made them vulnerable to the virus. They were given priority. Not so in Sri Lanka. If you didn’t know someone who called the shots, you didn’t get the shot.
That led to chaos. There were large queues outside vaccination centres. Even after waiting for several hours, people, including very elderly persons, were turned away because stocks had run out. Vaccination centres themselves turned out to be ‘at risk’ areas because large crowds gathered there.
What was tragic about all this is that Sri Lanka has one of the most robust immunisationschemes for young children not only in Asia but the entire world. The health systems were therefore already there, if only they were utilised properly. They weren’t- because the military was dictating health policy!
Then came the ‘third wave’ several weeks ago. Questions about the retarded vaccine roll out were raised. The government was caught flat footed. It responded with another blunder- a publicity stunt, importing a few hundred thousand Astra Zeneca vaccines and using them in an indecent hurry.
In the rush, someone forgot to do the maths. They didn’t divide the total number of vaccines available by two- because every individual needed two doses. They just wanted to say that so many people were vaccinated. As a result, 600,000 people who had the first dose, didn’t have the second dose.
Fools rushed in where angels had feared to tread. Enter Channa Jayasumana, a medical doctor and a professor to boot. He wanted the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine approved, just like that. The data for that was not available. The National Medicines Regulatory Authority refused. He sacked its experts!
When data was made available, the Sinopharmvaccine was eventually approved by the WHO. Newly recruited presidential media advisor Kingsley Rathnayake then made it known that the WHO approved the vaccine on the same day that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked them to do so!
Faced with an acute shortage of the vaccine and a rapidly spreading pandemic that was claiming lives by the dozens every day, the government announced another harebrained idea- they were considering mixing and matching vaccines. No other country had done that and it was only a research idea at best.
Now the latest wave of the pandemic is fully established, thousands have died and the country is finally in lockdown, a decision President Rajapaksa had to be dragged in to, kicking and screaming. Vaccines are still in short supply with reports that the government will now “buy at any price”.
That didn’t stop those who wield power from abusing their privileges. The trade union of doctors, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), members of which sought nomination from the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna at the last election according to Basil Rajapaksa, swung into action.
They sent lists of names of extended family members of doctors, so they could ‘jump’ the vaccine queue. Relatives of doctors are at a higher risk and deserve priority but what of other healthcare workers such as nurses who spend more time on the wards? Why were these lists sent surreptitiously?
The issue raised such a stink that Grama Sevakaniladharis threatened to go on strike, if they too were not given priority. The Ministry of Home Affairs had to quickly reassure them that they will be vaccinated on a priority basis. So much so for a smooth vaccine roll out by the authorities!
Amidst all this, there has been one voice of reason in the government. That belongs to Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle who ironically carries the title State Minister of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and Covid Prevention. Unfortunately, her voice has been ignored. She doesn’t make vital decisions.
When medical experts broke their silence and called on the government to declare a lockdown, Fernandopulle leant her voice, saying that as a doctor, she had similar views. She and the medical experts quickly earned the wrath of General Shavendra Silva, the numero uno on Covid control.
The current trauma the nation is undergoing was entirely preventable, if only the government managed the vaccine rollout professionally, listening to the experts and without bias or corruption. They didn’t. So, we are now paying with our lives.
