News
The good and the bad of the jab programme
As the community vaccination programme went into its third week in the Colombo and Gampaha districts, order prevailed in some areas and disorder in others.
Many people, particularly outside the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) area said that in places such as Piliyandala and Boralesgamuwa even though the ‘wait’ differed there was order, with a separate queue for the elderly. There was some praise on social media how the programme was being handled in these areas.
Registration being done in an orderly manner in Piliyandala and a family comprising an old and feeble couple and most probably their daughter carrying her child at the Gothatuwa MOH office
The problem of mismanagement or the ‘vaccine circus’ seemed to be ‘localised’, a ground-level issue, with district health officials rushing here and there to troubleshoot and sort them out.
Numerous calls summoned the Sunday Times on Thursday (March 4) to “see what was happening” at the Gothatuwa Medical Officer of Health (MOH) office, just opposite the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID or IDH).
There were two queues – a short one reportedly for “staff” but with many complaining that “akkas, aiyas, mallis and nangis” of questionable relationships were in that one, while the other was a long, long one (about 2km) snaking past the water tank.
Tired and sweaty people, especially the elderly were sitting wherever possible to rest their weary legs – large tree roots or even cement slabs.
This was while a middle-gate to the vaccination premises was also surreptitiously allowing in this one and that one without being in line.
In the long queue of the poor, humble and non-powerful, when the Sunday Times arrived at about 10 a.m., there were about 2,500 people, young, middle-aged, old and very old. Some had joined the queue at 4 a.m.
It was a restive crowd – with no end in sight for their ordeal, people just volunteered to talk to us.
“Everything is being done as a show on TV but nothing at ground level,” said a middle-aged woman, sweating profusely due to the humidity. “Anthimai,” was her verdict, as she explained that people were not drinking water for fear of having to pass urine.
Another was adamant that only money or power “talked”. How did celebrities from out of Colombo get themselves vaccinated from Colombo, she questioned angrily.
“The first day I came, they said they were vaccinating ‘nalu-niliyo‘,” another middle-aged woman who had been in the queue for four hours said, mentioning a name or two.
When they kicked up a fuss that day, the staff at the MOH office had said that the NIID was the catchment area for the whole country. Then what about her rights, the rights of the people who were residents of this area, she asked.
“There are many diabetics and other sick people in the queue. They may die before they get the vaccine,” she lamented.
A man berated the authorities for not having a system, with volunteers from among those who had queued up becoming the strict ‘keepers of order’ blocking anyone who attempted to crash the queue.
As two young men, obviously vaccinated out of turn drove out, many bent down and glared at them through the side-windows.
An elderly person whose family had come the day before and been turned away said there were people aged 69, 74, 75 and 79 close to them.
“Why is there no system? All these old people have to wake up early morning and make arrangements to lock up their houses, find three wheelers and spend a lot of money to come there,” she grumbled.
Many were also angry about the poor communication, ‘localised’ once again, with most learning of the vaccination programme by word-of-mouth from those who had seen a small square of paper pasted near the door of the MOH office.
Others also stressed this point. “When I called the Grama Niladhari (GN), he told me to call the MOH, who said call the GN back again,” said a young woman, with a knot of people around her nodding vigorously.
Alleging that those who paid money got the vaccine without a problem, several people asked why the system followed when distributing the Rs. 5,000 during the lockdown could not have been the model – road by road in a particular GN area.
Why have people to gather in large numbers at one place when we have a network of hospitals where vaccination can be done, was another question doing the rounds.
“We have come from Gothatuwa but heard that today they are vaccinating people from Megoda-Kolonnawa. Some already went home after being in the queue for a long time. But we will wait and see,” said another young woman who had come from about 5km away.
The most pathetic stricture on the much-touted public health system came as we were about to leave.
While posh VIP vehicles were leaving the NIID vehicle park adjacent to the MOH office after the occupants had got their jabs, a family comprising an old and feeble couple and most probably their daughter carrying her child were also walking out.
The elderly woman shuffling out, helped by her elderly husband and daughter had to be protected from falling into the large drain as the vehicles whisked out without allowing them to proceed.
A sad day indeed for the country!
| Gampaha deaths due to heart attacks The two deaths in the Gampaha district are not linked to the COVID-19 vaccination but due to heart attacks, the postmortems have found, said Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera yesterday. The Deputy Director General (Public Health Services I), Dr. Hemantha Herath added that the deaths were not immediately after vaccination but about two days later and there was a need to check whether there is only a ‘temporal’ relationship (relating to time). There are accepted methodologies to investigate all side-effects and whether they related or caused by the vaccination. | |