The Tribune

• Hails 60m vaccine dose release as ‘game changer’

• Bahamas has ‘one of strongest cases’ for access

• Tells Bahamians: ‘Do better on embracing vaccine’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister last night said the US pledge to make 60m AstraZeneca COVID vaccine doses available to other nations can be “the shot in the arm” for The Bahamas’ tourism and economic revival.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business he “would be extremely disappointed” if the Biden administration did not include The Bahamas among the countries that it allows to access that vaccine stockpile.

Speaking after the White House promised to release 60m doses to help other nations win their battle with the global pandemic, the minister said this nation was “one of the countries with the strongest cases” for accessing this potentially critical resource.

He argued that it would be “a win-win” for the US to aid one of its nearest neighbours, as it has previously done with Canada and Mexico, given that much of the leakage in spending by The Bahamas’ visitors goes straight back into the American economy.

When combined with the 120,000 vaccine shots that The Bahamas has already received from India and the COVAX facility, Mr D’Aguilar suggested as little as 500,000 doses could be required to fully vaccinate (with two shots) some 300,000 out of this nation’s estimated 400,000-strong population and achieve so-called “herd immunity”.

Hailing the US pledge as a potential “game changer” in The Bahamas’ efforts to escape the pandemic’s clutches, he nevertheless warned that this must be combined with Bahamians “doing a better job of embracing vaccinations” if the country wants to rebound economically from both COVID-19 and Hurricane Dorian.

“I would be extremely disappointed if The Bahamas was not a part of that,” Mr D’Aguilar said of the upcoming 60m AstraZeneca vaccine distribution. “I’ve always said this is a win-win situation for the US.

“First of all, we’re right on their border and, presently, 93 percent of our visitors come from their country. A large percentage of the visitor spend made in the Bahamian economy through their citizens ends up going back into their local economies. 

“They’ve already given it to their two closest neighbours, Canada and Mexico, we’re the next closes, and we desperately need AstraZeneca. All we need is 500,000 doses. That means 59.5m doses can go elsewhere,” he told this newspaper.

“The Caribbean is in the US sphere of influence. This is the place where many of their citizens go on holiday. It’s where the most tourism-dependent economies on the planet are, and we’ve been truly devastated by COVID-19. One of the ways they can help us is by making available doses of the vaccine.”

With stockpiles of the AstraZeneca vaccine accumulating, and its emergency use yet to be authorised in the US, the Biden administration was reported in March to have agreed to make 2.5m doses available to Canada and give 1.5m to Mexico as it was unable to use them on Americans because the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) had yet to approve it. This remains the case.

However, the Biden administration said the shipments to Mexico and Canada would effectively be a loan, with the US receiving doses of AstraZeneca, or other vaccines, in the future - something that The Bahamas would find hard to reciprocate.

The White House, though, possibly feeling pressure to act amid the collapse of India’s healthcare system as that country reports more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases daily, yesterday confirmed that the US will distribute the AstraZeneca vaccine to other countries as supplies and production allow.

The UK’s Guardian newspaper reported that Andy Slavitt, the White House senior COVID-19 adviser, posted on Twitter: “US to release 60 million AstraZeneca doses to other countries as they become available.”

With more than 53 percent of the US adult population reported to now be inoculated, and the country awash in Pfizer, Moderna and other vaccine brands, it no longer needs the AstraZeneca stockpile thus making it available for release.

A senior White House official was reported as telling media on a conference call: “Given the strong portfolio of vaccines that the US already has and that have been authorised by the FDA, and given that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not authorised for use in the US, we do not need to use the AstraZeneca vaccine here during the next few months.

“Therefore the US is looking at options to share the AstraZeneca doses with other countries as they become available.” The Bahamas’ vaccine needs pale in comparison to the likes of Canada and Mexico given this country’s 400,000-strong population.

The first 20,000 vaccine shots received by this nation were supplied by India, and a total 100,000 have been ordered from the Pan Health Organisation’s (PAHO) COVAX facility with 33,000 having already arrived and a similar number due to touch down imminently.

The Bahamas would likely need somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000 more vaccine shots to achieve so-called “herd immunity” or the inoculation of its entire population and, based on these numbers, Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business of the US release: “It could be a game changer. It’s huge. You can’t under-estimate it.

“Of course I’m biased, but we should be marked as one of the countries with the strongest case to make given the win-win for our country and the US.... We are one of the most tourism dependent economies on the planet. We’ve been severely impacted by COVID-19.

“In order to facilitate and assist with our tourism rebound, we need vaccines to vaccinate our people. Then we need our people to want to be vaccinated. There are other ways to source vaccines, but this would be a shot in the arm, I swear to God. I’m sure those who have contacts with the US will be lobbying as hard as they can.”

Mr D’Aguilar said the second part to The Bahamas’ potential COVID-19 escape lies with more citizens and residents becoming vaccinated. “Bahamians have to do a better job of embracing using the vaccine,” he told Tribune Business.

“The science is saying 100 percent of the people who take the vaccine, if they get infected they do not get so sick that they have to go to hospital. The most important component is that it reduces your ability to spread the virus to someone else by 90 percent. If you are infected and take the vaccine, you are 90 percent less likely to spread it to someone else. The benefits of taking the vaccine way, way outweigh the potential fears.”