Refusing the Covid-19 Vaccination

 

On 22 April 2021, Anguilla closed its borders following identification of “a cluster of active Covid-19 cases.”  This appears not to have originated in a notorious gambling den and house of entertainment for discriminating gentlemen who take pleasure from the presence of Venezuelan ladies smuggled into Anguilla from nearby St Maarten under cover of darkness.

Government immediately acted under the Public Health Act not only to close borders but to restrict movement outside the home, and to order most business places to close.  These restrictions have gradually been loosened as the number of new infections began to fall.  The island is scheduled to be completely open, and for all restrictions to be lifted by 28 May.

Part of the public health measures introduced was the offering of 20,000 free AstraZeneca vaccinations donated by the British people and government.  The vaccine is up to 80% effective at preventing infection, which is an incredibly good rate among vaccines.  It is 100% efficient at preventing Covid-19 death. 

Ministry of Health officials have explained that the only guarantee we have of preserving ourselves from death or serious illness from Covid-19 infection is to be vaccinated.  Ideally, every person in Anguilla who can be vaccinated should be vaccinated.  We have been told that if we can get at least 70% of the population vaccinated we may benefit from so-called “herd immunity”.  This would mean that it will be difficult for the virus to circulate if only 30% of the population is unvaccinated.  We have not yet achieved the minimum of 70%.  The risk is that we will not be safe by the time that the remainder of the 20,000 doses expire and must be thrown away.

Anguillians are as susceptible as people all around the world to consuming the anti-vaccine propaganda that presently fills social media.  There are Anguillians who publish on Facebook and Twitter their refusal to follow medical advice and get the jab.  Justifications follow the usual conspiracy-theory, non-scientific ones.  These vary from, “I place my faith in God;” to “Vaccination causes autism in children;” to “The vaccines are not fully tested and are experimental;” to “I will not let them put poisons in my body;” to ”All you need is sea-water baths to keep healthy.”  And there are many more spurious excuses.

Some resisters say they are afraid of suffering a blood clot that may be fatal.  The estimated 4 in 1 million chance of suffering a blood clot after taking the vaccine is less than the risk of a blood clot from using the contraceptive pill.[1]  No one is suggesting the pill should be abandoned as a result.  There are some minor side-effects, such as tenderness where the injection is given, headache, or nausea.  These side-effects are just evidence that the body is processing the information given by the vaccine to create a protective shield.

The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination is safe and effective, despite the several unfounded conspiracy theories and misinformation surrounding its use.  Contrary to rumour, the vaccine will not paralyse me, it has never made anyone infertile, and it does not inject a microchip into my body.

The health risks of taking the vaccine are miniscule in comparison with the harm that contracting the virus may cause.  Even if one survives infection by Covid-19, the mounting evidence of Long Covid illnesses is growing.  Long Covid is a range of symptoms that can last weeks or months after first being infected.  It can happen to anyone who has had Covid-19, even if the illness was mild or they had no symptoms.

Research says that up to 10% of people infected by Covid-19 get Long Covid.  It can happen to anyone, whether you are young, old, healthy, or have a chronic illness.  It does not matter whether your natural resistance is high or low.  In addition to the usual Covid symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, loss of smell and taste, shortness of breath, anxiety, fever, muscle pain, depression, headache, and rapid heartbeat, Long Covid can affect your internal organs.  You may get inflammation of the heart muscle, lung related issues, severe kidney injury, hair loss, skin rashes, joint pain, chest pain, sleep issues, dizziness on standing, a hard time with concentration and memory.  Long Covid symptoms may last for three months or longer.

On 13 May 2021, the Minister of Health of Anguilla with approval of Executive Council made the Public Health (Temporary Restriction on Movement of People and Public Gatherings) (Step 2) Regulations 2021 under the Public Health Act.  This was the 49th set of Regulations made by the Minister to protect Anguillians from the worst effects of the infection since the pandemic was declared early in 2020.  The Regulations are in force between 13-20 May.  They may be the last one if no new infections occur, or they may be replaced by updated Regulations.

The temporary restrictions do not apply to the listed essential services or to persons who must visit these essential service places.  They also do not apply to visits between not more than 12 friends or family members, or to visits to restaurants, places of worship, or gyms, on condition all persons are vaccinated and there are not more than 12 persons present.  Each restaurant and place of worship must keep a register or log of the names, addresses, contact information, and vaccination code of each person present.  Government has explained in press conferences that this log is for tracing purposes in the event of another outbreak.

These Regulations were greeted by an uproar from among the anti-vaccine minority.  The principal objection appears to be that the vaccination qualification for going to church or to dine out in a restaurant is discriminatory, and “contrary to my human rights.”  Attempts by public health officials to point out the selfish and dangerous nature of the continuing resistance by some individuals to taking the vaccination have not succeeded in persuading the vaccine hesitant to overcome their resistance and help the community to achieve the minimum of 70% of the population to achieve herd immunity.

On 17 May, the Leader of the Opposition and of the Anguilla United Front political party published a letter addressed to the Minister of Health expressing her party’s general approval of the public health measures being taken by the government.  She supported government’s efforts to ensure that as many persons as possible in Anguilla are vaccinated.  But she expressed “extreme concern and wholehearted disagreement” with those aspects of the Regulations which, as she put it, seek to deprive persons who are not fully vaccinated from participating in society in the like manner as fully vaccinated persons.

She alleges that disparate treatment of fully vaccinated persons versus not fully vaccinated persons in our small society has already created division, disharmony, and tension among our people.  She claims it gives rise to discriminatory and punitive treatment against persons who are not fully vaccinated.  She warns this could potentially erupt into negative and volatile interactions across the island.

What the letter boils down to is an objection to government’s policy that only vaccinated persons may leave their homes to go to church or to dine out in a restaurant, and there may not be more than 12 persons present at any one time, and the church or restaurant must keep a confidential log of persons present.

In my view, the Leader of the Opposition’s letter is disingenuous and subversive of the public health.  It seeks to undermine the efforts of government to encourage all persons in Anguilla to take the vaccine.  It gives support to the Covid-deniers and anti-vaxxers who circulate on social media memes, jokes, and propaganda against both the existence of the virus and the benefits of vaccination.

We already have too many Anguillians who are resisting this safe and effective protection against infection by the virus.  Government ministers are on the radio nearly every day offering encouragement.  The Chief Medical Officer and the Permanent Secretary Health spend their time on the radio giving the facts about vaccination hoping to encourage those who are hesitant.

No one doubts that government cannot introduce a law to make vaccination mandatory in the sense of criminalising failure to vaccinate against Covid-19.  But, similarly, no one can doubt that government, as an employer, has a duty to provide staff with a safe system and place of work, including ensuring that unvaccinated public servants do not put either other staff or members of the public at risk of infection.  Private employers have a similar obligation.  Telling unvaccinated employees that they cannot interface with other vaccinated staff or the public may well be an essential precaution in fulfilling that duty.

What exactly has the Opposition been doing to encourage people to vaccinate?  While Ministers are fully employed at the business of government, members of the Opposition are now out of office.  Should they not be out debunking myths and campaigning to encourage their constituents to go to the Hospital to receive their jabs?  Should they not be doing so just as energetically as they were before the general elections, trying to get us to vote for them to keep them in power?  How about each of them trying to send several hundred people to get their shot.  How about visiting individuals and families in each of their constituencies, debunking myths and offering encouragement and incentives, if necessary?  Are they, instead, sitting back on their laurels looking to make political points, regardless of the danger to our people and to our economy?

Has the Opposition offered any alternative to the mandatory vaccination remedy proposed by government for keeping us and our visitors safe?  What is their alternative plan?  Most of us have been vaccinated to protect ourselves and the economy.  What about our right not to have to deal with selfish unvaccinated people who have no interest in our welfare or the protection of our tourist economy?  Is not every responsible employer obliged to keep their employees and customers safe?

Why should we have to face reckless unvaccinated persons coughing and spluttering all over the place?  Those of us who have been vaccinated may not get ill from these persons.  But we are still at risk of picking up the infection and taking it home to our family members who are too old or too young to take the vaccination.  Tourists who come to Anguilla may be vaccinated, but their children will not be, until and unless there is a vaccination for children.  If Anguilla could boast that all staff in tourism are vaccinated, that would be a major selling point for Anguilla as a desirable tourist destination.

Our public health officials should be congratulated for being so careful and methodical in their recommendations.  If the advice of our professionals is followed by our political leaders, I am confident that we shall remain safe and healthy.  It will only be a matter of time before our economy opens.  If our leaders falter and their advice is ignored, then the risk is that in just a few weeks’ time we shall be under another lock-down, with some more infectious and dangerous variant circulating in the community.

I will not be taking the Opposition’s protestations seriously until I see them out in public encouraging people to take the vaccine.

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[1]              https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/side-effects-of-the-astrazeneca-vaccine/103646/

The Virus and the Cure

 

I do not want to hammer away at this, but it is a truism that if you protest racism you are going to upset some racists.

Recently, an Anguillian radio host took a turn on his radio station against a citizen who dared to express his opinion of Covid-19 vaccination refusers.  The citizen criticised persons who refuse vaccination, claiming they will hinder the reopening of the island’s tourism-based economy.  The citizen in question is White, and the radio host is Black.

He urged government that, “When everyone who wants vaccination gets it, probably in May, we need to open.  Do away with the 14-day quarantine.  It is not realistic to expect tourists to endure that.  People who choose not to get vaccinated should stay home and hide out.  They should not have the option of hospital treatment, they should not get to work in tourism, travel, public service, or any forward-facing job.  I do not want to be held hostage by people who choose to hide from covid.  …  there has to be an exit strategy, or we will collapse economically.  Government needs to view the requirement for vaccination as a Health and Safety issue, much like hard hats on a construction site.  If you work in construction, you wear the required PPE.  No-one can tell the employer they cannot demand PPE.  Workers who refuse get sent home.  In any hospitality related job, workers who refuse vaccination should be sent home.”

So, the background to this incident is the coronavirus pandemic and the controversy over both the disease and the cure.  The disease is real, as every virologist and epidemiologist has convincingly explained.  In addition to the many preventable deaths, the crippling, long-term damage to the health of survivors is worrying.  It is not just the lungs that are affected.  So too are the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and blood.  Governments all around the world are working with the World Health Organisation and centres for disease control to develop mechanisms for preventing and curing the diseases caused by this virus.

This has not stopped the many loud and deranged Covid-deniers out there.  Most of them are White but some of them Black.  Some White ones, like Robert Kennedy Jr are persons of influence.  They are listened to and believed by Anguillians, among others.

These vaccination sceptics are busy publishing propaganda against the vaccinations that are offered against the virus:  their approval was too hurried.  They are unproven treatments.  They will inject poisons into us.  They are intended to kill us off.  They are a conspiracy by foreign billionaires to reduce the earth’s population.

These messages of disinformation and misinformation by malicious trolls are widely propagated on Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, and other social media.  They have infected the minds of many otherwise intelligent listeners in Anguilla.  Some have understandably developed unfounded doubts about not just the existence of the virus but, more worrying, about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

So, back to the incident in question.  The radio host ranted on his radio programme for nearly an hour against this “bold statement made by that man.”  He repeatedly warned the citizen that he had overstepped his bounds.  What he wrote was disrespectful to Anguillians because he was not a “born Anguillian”.  His tone was too abrasive.  He was being disrespectful to Anguillians.  He had to understand that, as someone not born here, he could not be allowed to “get in front of Anguillians.”  Ninety percent of the villas are now owned by White expats.  They have taken over the villa business in Anguilla.  They have come to believe that all Anguillians are inferior to them.

According to the radio host, the citizen’s real offence was that he was an “expat”, a White man, lecturing Black Anguillians.  The radio host, while protesting that he was not a racist, that he loved some Whites who knew their place, proceeded to attack the citizen entirely based on his colour and place of origin.  Where, he asked, did this expat citizen get the power to be able to speak like this without fear to born Anguillians?  Who, he asked, emboldened him?  Who did he think he was to speak to Anguillians in this tone of voice?  He threatened ominously that this person ought to be afraid for speaking out in this way.  He needed to apologise to us for his words and their tone.  The warning of violence was unmistakable to the alert listener.

The radio host’s entire critique of the citizen was not a reasoned repudiation of the citizen’s opinion on this public health issue.  It was an unspoken but false suggestion that White people believe in the virus while Black people hold the better view that the virus is fake and the vaccination dangerous.  White people, he implied, conspire to kill off black people with a dangerous and unproven vaccination.  Four hundred years of slavery, he stated, had alerted Black Anguillians to be alert to the natural race prejudice of White people and to reject their views.  Black people were justified in refusing to accept the Covid vaccination.

It was a classic racist rant.  I know the radio host and I do not believe he is racially prejudiced.  But he must be careful about how he expresses himself.  Every word appeared designed to trigger outrage and fear in the Black listener. It was an indulgence in race blaming, envy, and victimhood.  It appeared designed to stir up listeners to condemn and destroy this stranger in their midst, this foreigner from afar who had dared to express his opinion about vaccination deniers.  It was a shameful performance on the part of the radio host.

The radio host seemed to assume that every Anguillian listening to his rant would agree with him.  It assumed that the average Anguillian shared his racist views.  I do not accept that Anguillians generally believe themselves, because of their colour or their place of birth, to be either victims or superior to anyone else.  This is not just a chip on the shoulder.  It is nothing but a demonstration of a crippling inferiority complex.

Personally, I believe that any person among us who refuses to take the anti-Covid vaccine when it is offered is a danger to not just himself.  He is a public health risk to the general population.  He should be sanctioned by law.  There should be a fine or imprisonment.

Those of us of a certain age can remember in the 1950s and 1960s when we were not allowed on an aeroplane if we could not produce the yellow WHO Smallpox vaccination certificate.  No sensible person at the time objected to this legal requirement.  If we are going to be enclosed in a limited space with fellow travelers, we should not be made to feel we are being entombed with them.  Once the Covid-19 vaccination campaign has come to an end, airlines and ferries should be obliged not to accept as a passenger anyone who does not produce a valid vaccination certificate.

When we are relaxing with friends around a social meal or a drink in a bar, we are entitled to feel safe.  We should not be exposed to reckless individuals who care nothing of our health.  In the USA, when we try to buy a drink in a bar, we are asked to show identification to prove we are over twenty-one.  We should similarly be required by law to show our vaccination certificate to prove we are safe to be included in the clientele.

Anyone refusing to be vaccinated in Anguilla should be refused entry to ‘planes, ferries, restaurants and bars.  It should be a prerequisite, an essential qualification, for employment in the tourism industry.  No teacher should be allowed in school who is not vaccinated.

It may not yet be politically feasible to make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory by law.  But every effort should be made to encourage Anguillians to get vaccinated.  In fact, we need to work hard on vaccinations for disinformation of all kinds.

Anguilla in Quarantine

 

Anguilla is a typical small island developing state.  We have a tiny population of twelve thousand persons.  But we are required to provide most of the basic services for our people that large states do.  We have the same number of people as a small village in the UK or Nigeria.  But we are obliged to have a similar infrastructure as London or Abouja, including police, customs, and immigration departments.  While the world’s economy was booming, we were easily able to pay for this luxury.

When the international leisure industry was at its peak, we could pick up the crumbs to meet our public administration bills.  Before terrorism and money laundering became a world-wide issue, we could provide liberal financial services to the international community, and cream off some of the wealth to cover our government costs.  That has all changed now.

Unlike the islands around us, Anguilla has managed to stay Covid-free since the first 3 cases in March 2020.  We have done this by imposing strict quarantine and border control regulations.  So long as we maintain quarantine regulations and border closure, we can be relatively confident that we will remain safe.  At present, we insist that anyone arriving must quarantine, initially at government’s expense, in a secure location for between 10 and 14 days, depending on whether they come from a relatively Covid-free country or not.  They must also pay a charge to cover the cost of their quarantine and the ancillary services, such as food and security personnel.  But, with the economy collapsing, the good sense of these regulations is now being questioned.

From what I hear, hotel guests are cancelling their reservations for the 2020/2021 winter season.  As a result, it seems to me that most of the major hotels of Anguilla will be obliged to shutter for the season.  Restaurants, water sports companies, car rentals, holiday apartments, and other tourism-related businesses will be forced to close.  The excuse being given by some cancelling guests is that Anguilla’s quarantine restrictions prohibit their arrival on our shores.  They say they are going to spend the winter instead in Antigua and Saint Lucia.  There, they say, the Covid-19 regulations are much laxer.  We will have to wait and see.  Personally, I very much doubt there will be much tourism to Antigua or St Lucia in the coming 2020/2021 season.  Reservations in October do not automatically equate to warm beds in December.

Unemployment increases daily.  The hotels, especially the foreign-owned ones on Anguilla’s coastline, are now pressuring government to open.  We read that they accuse us of being unreasonable in our quarantine regulations.  They loudly proclaim in the press, and on TV, and radio that it is government’s fault that staff are being fired.  They say that, if only the quarantine regulations were slackened to be the same as Antigua and St Lucia, the staff would all be back at work.

This is all nonsense, of course.  Any thinking person who keeps up with the international news knows the truth.  It does not matter if every quarantine restriction is removed.  Few visitors will come to the Caribbean this winter.  Only the most reckless US or European traveller, careless of his or her health, will visit us for a holiday.

There is the problem with air lift.  We read that the world’s major airlines are mothballing their planes and laying off their staff.  Air France, Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, each are applying for tens of billions of dollars from their governments to help them keep afloat.  They will likely not get it since there is no more money.  The cruise lines have all laid up their ships.  It is not likely they will get any more bail outs.  It seems to me that it will take another decade, if ever, for them to recover.

The bottom line is the leisure travel industry as we knew it pre-2020 is dead.  Few international travellers will be arriving on any Caribbean shores.  In my crystal ball, I see a full one half of the luxury hotels of Anguilla abandoned.  There will be palm trees growing out of their windows before long.  Most of the luxury restaurants will have sold their pots and pans and shut for good.  No more caviar and champagne.  From now on, we dine out on johnny cake and corned beef.  We must find other ways than tourism to occupy our time and earn an income.  And none of it will be due to the strict quarantine regulations now in force.

Perhaps most ominous for Anguilla’s economy, a recent report in the newspaper indicates that government’s revenue from taxes and licences is less than half what was budgeted for this year.  This revenue is needed to pay our bloated public service their salaries and other emoluments.  The situation is not sustainable.  Something has got to give.  Logically, with only half the revenue, we must cut our costs by a half.  Either we let go half of the public service, or they all stay on, but at half of their salaries.

Even with cost-cutting, the Anguilla as we know it is not sustainable.  The nanny-state that Anguilla aspired to be in the good times is now out of our reach.  We cannot afford any more subsidised education, health care, or social services.  These will shortly have to be met by user fees.  We must cease paying the cost of hospitalising in Panama our gunshot gangster youth.  These social services will soon be a thing of the past.  We just have not realized it yet.  And it is nothing to do with the strict quarantine and border control regulations.

Then, there is the possibility of coming international political and economic instability.  Trump has threatened that he is not going to leave the White House in January.  If civil disturbances break out in the United States this winter, there will be no airlines flying out of Kennedy or Miami International Airport to the Caribbean, even without the pandemic.

It may not happen on election day, November 3, or on December 14 when the Electoral College meets.  But, if by January 21, Inauguration Day, there is turmoil all over the United States, there will likely be no leisure travel from the US to the Caribbean.  If this occurs, we cannot blame either Covid or the British for the resulting economic catastrophe.

Then, there is natural traveller caution.  Covid-19 spreads fastest through the air in confined spaces.  In early 2020 at the start of the epidemic, cruise ships were centres of infection.  They are all laid up now.  I expect that, with a few foolhardy exceptions, they will not resume their cruise schedules until 2022.

Everything depends on the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.  The epidemiologists have explained why one will not be approved until early in 2021.  Even then, it will not be widely available to us until mid- to late-2021.  Without being vaccinated, no sensible person will choose to go on holiday overseas by sea or by air.

Meanwhile, doubts and confusion about vaccinations are being spread by anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists.  These operate both locally and internationally.  Recent surveys in the USA and Europe reveal that the result is that, even when a vaccine does become available, it will not quickly be taken up by everyone.  It may take years for most of the public to enjoy the benefits of vaccination.  Which one of us is going to be so negligent as to travel unvaccinated to a foreign country with medical services of an unknown quality for a holiday, amid a pandemic?  Even if Anguilla opened promiscuously, abandoning all health precautions, I do not believe that a single additional passenger will risk arriving on our shores at this time.

The conspiracy theorists are not helping.  Anguilla’s more racist conspiracy theorists are now filling the airwaves with dire warnings.  To hear their panicked voices, the UK public health system is putting pressure on Anguilla to shut our borders.  They express certainty that the white British are out to punish poor little black us.  Quite why the British would want to do such a thing to Anguilla is anyone’s guess.  But anti-British feeling, fuelled by a pernicious and ingrained racism, is prevalent among certain elements in our society.  As if the British have the slightest interest in causing Anguilla any harm!  They would probably have to pay to bail us out of it in the end, anyway.  But, there never had to be any good reason for conspiracy theories to flourish in the best of times.

Anguillians must face a new reality.  Nothing will be the same when this pandemic is over.  Public services will be pared down to a minimum.  The days when the Anguilla public service was used as a sponge to mop up the unemployed and the unemployable are over.  We can no longer afford to employ five persons to do the job of one as we presently do.

There is the little matter of our failure to enforce our own tax laws.  No enforcement proceedings have ever, to my knowledge, been brought against a single tax defaulter in the modern history of Anguilla.  We can no longer afford to continue forgiving persons who neglect to pay their taxes, as we have done for decades past.  If we do, why should any foreign taxpayer contribute to our self-created folly.

One last prediction.  The next time our government appeals to the British government for another hundred-million-dollar bail out, we will finally lose our entitlement state of mind.  The British deficit is presently about £300 billion.  I see the British PM responding to our Premier with these words, “Colonialism has been over for a long time.  We have looked at the books.  It appears that Anguilla has never in its history contributed anything to the British Treasury.  Do you not think it is about time that you helped us with our fiscal deficit?  We were thinking of a token contribution from you in the region of ten million US dollars.  How about it?”

If my cautionary words appear exaggerated to some, hopefully they will serve to counterbalance the ridiculous claim that our health quarantine regime has been imposed on our government by an oppressive and uncaring British government.

Necessary Cost Adjustments

 

Under the Quarantine Act and the Regulations made under it, Anguillians and residents of Anguilla returning home from certain countries that are experiencing dangerous levels of the Covid-19 disease, such as the USA, must be taken directly from the port they arrive at to an authorized place of quarantine.  There, they are provided with lodging, medical attention, security, food, and drink, all at the public expense.  This lasts for a period of approximately two weeks.  They are not allowed to pay for it.  Even if they wish to pay for their board and lodging, they are not permitted to do so.  The rules, they are told, require that this be a public expense.  Millions of dollars, I understand, have been disbursed by the past and present government on this venture since quarantines started in March.  This is an expense that was never budgeted for.  It is money that we can ill afford.  Our economy has tanked with the failure of our tourism industry since the start of the year due to the pandemic.

The House of Assembly should be asked to vote on a Bill to require persons who are detained, quarantined, or placed in isolation, to pay the costs of their quarantine.  Most if not all Anguillians will agree that this is a necessary reform.  It is unfair to the Anguillian public that we should have to pay the costs incurred by persons who choose to return to Anguilla at this time, and put us all to the risk of contracting the disease.  If returnees wish to enjoy the comfort and safety of home, they should be willing to pay for all associated costs incurred by their return from abroad.  This has become the international standard, and we will not be doing anything unusual in having our law ensure this.

Care must be taken to ensure such a provision does not offend against our constitutional right to freedom of movement.  There is an exception in cases of public health and safety.  The necessary Orders must first be made by the Governor and Executive Council under the Constitution and the Public Health Act.

It is a simple enough measure to enforce.  One of the conditions for permitting the return to Anguilla should be a payment of a deposit, say US$10,000.00, per person into the Treasury.  That would give the provision teeth.  The deposit will be refunded, less the cost of all disbursements associated with their quarantine, at the end of their quarantine.  If this proves too expensive for any would-be returnee, he or she is not obliged to make the payment.  They can simply stay where they are and save the cost of returning.

The duty to refund government’s costs should not be limited to persons who return to Anguilla with the permission of the Quarantine Authority.  It should extend to persons who enter illegally.  In the case of persons who are caught illegally entering Anguilla in breach of the Quarantine Act or any Regulations made under it, the Act should provide that one of the conditions for their release from custody is the payment of a cash bond, say US$10,000.00, to secure the refund to government of all costs incurred in their arrest and detention and medical treatment including but not limited to transportation, board, lodging, medical and other.  It should cover all costs of tracing and treating the persons who have encounter the illegal entrant.

Nor should this bond be limited to persons who want to return in the future.  There is nothing legally impossible or morally wrong in the law being drafted to authorize Government to demand a refund of part or all the past costs paid in maintaining earlier returnees in quarantine at the public expense.  Every effort should be made to recover the past costs incurred in relation to persons who have been given permission under the Quarantine Act and its Regulations to enter Anguilla since January 2020.  This may be hard on some of the persons and families affected.  They can be given time to meet the refund, and other terms.  In suitable cases, perhaps certified by the Department of Social Development after the application of a Means Test, the law might even provide for exceptions to be made.  In my view, most if not all the persons who have had their quarantine expenses paid for by government should be obliged to refund all the costs that were paid out of public funds.

What is certain is that we cannot continue to meet this expense.  We simply do not have the money in the public purse.  In one of his last speeches in the House of Assembly, the outgoing Minister of Finance revealed that our projected tax revenue for the year 2020 will be about one half of the amount budgeted.  Further, we do not know how long the quarantine provisions will have to continue into the future.  Given the irresponsible behaviour of the US and certain other governments in dealing with their own infections, it might last until well into 2022.

Since I wrote the above paragraphs, someone has pointed out to me a draft Quarantine (Amendment) Bill on the Order Paper for debate on 11 August.  It is a noticeably short Bill.  It provides,

“(1a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) the Quarantine Authority may require persons who are detained, quarantined or in isolation pursuant to this Act to pay in part or in full the expenses incurred by the Quarantine Authority in detaining, quarantining or isolating such persons.”

This is inadequate.  It is a token provision.  It is for show only.  It lacks teeth.  It is filled with loopholes.  It gives a power to charge the costs without any mechanism for collection. 

Bearing in mind that the Constitution limits the power of the Assembly to pass an Act restricting our freedom of movement, care must be taken to ensure that the necessary State of Emergency and Public Health Orders and Proclamations are renewed from time to time.  The ones made earlier this year all appear to have expired without being renewed.  Without care being taken, any law restricting entry into Anguilla by Anguillians may be unconstitutional and unenforceable.

And, while we are on cost cutting measures, is there any reason why a 40% tax cannot be imposed on all pensions previously paid to Ministers and Parliamentarians?  These payments have been a huge drain on our Treasury.  They have met with universal condemnation in Anguilla.  I do not have the exact figures at hand.  We have all seen various sums circulating in the media.  If these are correct, we have paid out tens of millions of dollars in the past several years in gratuities and pensions to retiring parliamentarians.  They need to do their part now that we are in crisis.  They need to refund some of this undeserved largess they paid themselves.  A 40% tax should be immediately imposed retroactively on the pensions and gratuities of every living parliamentarian who benefitted.  Retired parliamentarians and Ministers should be happy to agree to refund 40% of the very generous pensions and gratuities paid to them.  To answer the question at the start of the paragraph, care will have to be taken to ensure that such an Act does not offend against the protection of private property provision in the Anguilla Constitution.  If it does, then retired parliamentarians will need to be shamed into making a voluntary return of their ill-gained pensions.

Such an essential reform, if legal, is not intended to be retroactive only.  Entitlement to pension and gratuity for future retirees should be reduced accordingly, ie, by 40%.  Those who are presently in the House of Assembly and in Government would be aware of how untenable and unsustainable their overly generous pension provisions are.  There is no possible legal or moral objection that can be made to such a reduction.

While we are on the topic of curtailing benefits, why not extend the cuts to parliamentary salaries and allowances?  Anguillian politicians are in receipt of a high level of remuneration that is not matched in any other West Indian nation.  We have heard a previous Minister of Finance make a boast of the fact.  The levels of salaries were set during the 1980s and 90s when money was flowing into the Treasury like water under a bridge.  Those days are now long gone.  We cannot afford these excessive salaries any longer.  Ministers and Parliamentarians should agree in the public interest to reduce their salaries and allowances by 40% with immediate effect.  Such a contribution would meet with universal acclaim and appreciation in Anguilla.

Anguillians join in calling on Dr Ellis Lorenzo Webster, the Hon Premier and Minister of Finance, to move the necessary actions in the Executive Council.  We urge all Ministers and Ministerial Assistants to support these initiatives.  We call on all members of the Opposition to support these measures when they arrive before them as a series of Bills for debate.  We call on all members of the House of Assembly to pass the reforms into law without undue delay.

The Economy Improves

 

I learned at breakfast in town this morning that Anguilla has a new tourism-related activity.  This one is even more incredible to me than the one about us paying for overseas medical treatment for victims of drugs-turf shootings.  In fact, I am really distressed over this one.

Apparently, one of our residents returned to Anguilla recently from the USA accompanied by several family members.  The existing bar on arrivals from the USA does not apply to returning residents.  But they are required by the Quarantine Regulations to spend 14 days in government-controlled quarantine.  This is provided at a local luxury hotel.  They were all put up at government expense for the duration.  Never mind their mode of travel back to Anguilla was the most expensive there is, private jet.  There was no question of them having to pay the cost of their own quarantine.  Indeed, we were told their offer to pay their own way during the quarantine was summarily rejected.

From what we learned, once one is an Anguilla resident returning to Anguilla from the USA, not only is the bar on visitors from the USA lifted.  Your compulsory quarantine will be spent in a local hotel at public expense.  Over the past five or six months and continuing, this generous public facility has been extended to hundreds of Anguillians and Anguilla residents regardless of their means or their need.  In the early stages of the pandemic, other countries used to cover this cost.  Most have long stopped that waste of government funds.

I wonder if to enjoy this treat, we have only to make our way to the USA.  When we return home, maybe we too will be put up at public expense in a first-class local hotel for the quarantine period.  Now that we have British taxpayer money to assist, it seems there is no holding back on the spending.  Other countries with a quarantine rule oblige travellers to pay the cost of their own quarantine.  But, not Anguilla.  We are too generous with public funds to contemplate such a burden.  Not even a means test is applied.

What a blast!  More of us should be encouraged to take advantage of this generosity.  This project deserves the widest publicity.  We must ensure it is taken up by everyone in need of a free holiday.

Also, at breakfast, I learned that the Government of Anguilla does not spend unbudgeted public funds only on quarantining returning residents.  For years, we have been sending young men who have been either shot during drugs-turf and other disputes or suffered serious accidents abroad for medical treatment.  We jet these patients by air ambulance to hospitals in Central America free of charge.  We cheerfully pick up their hospital bills.  There is no question of obliging the patient or his family to cover the cost.

It seems that persons have long quarrelled over this abuse with the department responsible for making the arrangements.  It has been explained that the service is rendered on political instructions.  For decades, you and I may have spent a small fortune paying for health insurance and the cost of medical evacuation costs for ourselves and our families.  But, in Anguilla no question of either medical insurance or means test arises once a “medical emergency” is discovered by a Minister.  It costs us millions of dollars each year, and not a cent of it appears in the budget.  Nor is any serious attempt made to recover the cost.

Some people think this is wrong, and they are labelled unkind.  On the contrary, I think this is an example of public service we should show to the rest of the world.  We should give this programme more publicity.  We ought to broadcast its details more widely.  It could be professionally advertised.  How about the theme, “Get yourself shot in Anguilla, and stay in a first-class Panamanian or Costa Rican hospital for months while seeing the world at public expense.”  Of course, not every country is as rich as we are and can afford such largess.

Finally, at breakfast we heard another story related to our tourism product.  One of the breakfast group took a drive to Blowing Point last Friday evening to see what was happening for Carnival.  He parked in the area to the east of the ferry terminal where there is a car park.  It was dusk.

All the August Carnival festivities were over.  There was no sign of life anywhere.  No Immigration, Customs or Police Officers were in sight.  There were several other cars parked in the car park.

He says he heard a small engine coming from the direction of the entrance to the harbour.  He observed an inflatable dinghy with several persons in it.  It did not go to one of the jetties.  It carried on a further couple of hundred yards to the beach where he was.  Its passengers came ashore without the benefit of a Customs of Immigration interview.  They got into a grey car and drove off.  As he drove home, he followed them behind two or three other cars.

It drove to a well-known place of male relaxation in George Hill.  When he arrived home, he called the police number given for reporting suspicious activity.  There was no one at the other end.  Instead, he got an answering machine with a recorded woman’s voice.  The voice did not say she was a police officer, so he hung up.  He went on to the government’s website and then to the page for making reports.  He typed in his anonymous report there.  The police now have the car registration number and the address the car went to.  It is up to them to follow through.

For the life of me, I cannot think of any legitimate reason why there would be no “first responders” attending Anguilla’s main passenger port at 6:00 PM every day of the year whether a holiday or not.  To a suspicious mind like mine, it is almost as though it was pre-arranged for there to be no Officer present monitoring the port at the very time the dingy was coming ashore.

I have previously written about this famous place of business in George Hill:

https://donmitchellcbeqc.blogspot.com/2018/01/anguilla-brothel-keeping.html

https://donmitchellcbeqc.blogspot.com/2018/01/is-anguilla-civilised.html

One thing is for sure.  Anguillians are an enterprising people.  We are natural entrepreneurs.  We have a history of smuggling and ignoring the law going back hundreds of years.  The outlaw life is stamped into our DNA.  Now that government is giving us a little help in developing these natural skills, nothing can hold us back.

Reopening Villa Tourism

 

Anguilla’s borders have been closed to visitor traffic since mid-March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Hotels and villas have had to close, and staff have been let go.  The island economy has collapsed.  Both employers and employees are close to the limit of what they can bear.  Government revenue has shrunk to half the budgeted amount.  Public expenses, meanwhile, have more than doubled.

Some of the villa owners are pressuring government to begin opening Anguilla up to tourist arrivals.  In a memo of 23 July from the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association to its members, there is a suggestion that villa owners and their guests be allowed in by private jet or charter from 1 August.  This is to be a soft opening preliminary to a full opening of the tourism plant this coming winter.

I have some thoughts on the suggestion that we now pull the plug on the measures that have kept us safe.

Covid-19 continues to rage throughout the world, including both the USA, our main catchment area, and Antigua, Puerto Rico and St Maarten, the hubs through which our airline passengers arrive.  The USA has the worst statistics for the disease in the entire world.

Canada and other countries that depend on tourism are not permitting anyone from the USA to enter their countries.  The USA is Europe’s biggest tourism market.  The Europeans have banned US tourists even as they open to other visitors.

Anguilla’s main defence against widespread sickness, hospitalisation and death is the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.  The likelihood is that there will not be such a vaccine this year.  The earliest would be eighteen months from the date the research institutes began to work on vaccines, ie, January 2020.  If so, this means that we cannot realistically expect to have a vaccine for Covid-19 before July 2021.  It follows that the earliest we should be considering reopening Anguilla’s borders to tourist arrivals is winter 2021.  Anything before that will almost inevitably result in our being re-infected and having to close our ports and our hotels again.

Under President Trump’s misguided leadership over the past six months, the virus has been allowed to rampage through the USA.  Why would Anguilla let any US resident in before mid-2021 when they are so evidently careless about their health?  What do they care about our health if they care so little about their own?  It would be different if we were to allow in tourists from countries where they had suppressed the Covid-19 epidemic.  But, to allow into Anguilla visitors from the USA currently is unimaginable to me.

If we do open our ports for guests of villa owners, will we be able to make them take the necessary health precautions?  Will visitors be made to produce a Covid test result that is not more than three days old showing they are clear, or be sent back on the plane they arrived on?  If they turn out later to be infected, will we be able to make them self-quarantine for 14 days?  Do we have the means or the will to police a quarantine?  These are rich and “entitled” people who are accustomed to buying their way out of any situation.

If any of them later turns up positive, we shall have to trace all their contacts and confine them to quarantine if we are to stop social spread of the virus.  Do we have adequate amounts of testing equipment?  Do we have the capability to produce timely results?  Are our health personnel trained in contact tracing?  Do we have the resources to conduct a proper tracing programme, and to enforce the resulting quarantines?

What about our stocks of Personal Protective Equipment?  Will our supplies of masks be adequate before the borders are opened?  Do we have the gowns and other PPE needed for the medical staff?  Do we have the latest models of ventilators for when we are committed to the Intensive Care Unit?  Do all the villas have adequate stocks of PPE in advance of opening for the use of staff and guests in appropriate circumstances?  Will our villa staff be trained in the correct use of this PPE prior to opening?

If we admit in visitors from the USA, and as is inevitable, the virus catches and begins to spread in Anguilla, we shall be obliged to lock the island down again for a couple more months at least, until it is contained. 

Of course, repatriation of Anguillian nationals from any country remains a continuing necessity.  Fortunately, the testing and quarantine protocols and safeguards put in place by the Health Department for dealing with repatriated Anguillians are now well practised.  Such repatriations have not resulted in any local spread of the virus since the first three cases in March.

It is arguable that the last administration suffered politically, and lost the June general election, at least partly because they chose health over economic interests.  They totally closed the island to visitors in March.  Our borders are still closed today.  The result was they limited Covid-19 cases in Anguilla to three mild ones in March.  We are free of infection today.  But the previous administration suffered serious political damage.  Many businesses closed, some permanently, and large numbers of us became unemployed.  Schools closed, and the children struggled with distance learning.

Opening our borders to visitors from a country where the infection is surging out of control will likely destroy all that our sacrifice has accomplished.  Is the present government prepared for the political backlash that will follow if they allow the virus back in to flourish for the sake of a few villa owners’ financial interests?

If we open the island to US visitors, we can expect numbers of us, not only to be committed to the ICU, but to die.  What answer will the administration give our families when they are accused of opening before the USA could flatten its own curve?  Are they ready to deal with the accusation that they allowed the villa owners to kill us off?

Other than for a short period in August, July to November are dead months for tourism in Anguilla.  It is the Hurricane season.  This is the low season for West Indian tourism.  Why open the island in this quiet period when there will be few or no tourists (other than the highly risky ones from the USA) coming by air or by sea to Anguilla?  Opening our borders to tourists of any kind now will contribute hardly a penny to either government revenue or to the economy.  There is no real economic point in reopening before late November or early December.

Are the Anguillian public prepared to deal with a new surge?  We have been safe for so long that we now all ignore the social distancing rules we used to practise in March.  People lean on shop counters, despite the printed signs; stand in line in the supermarket pressed up against each other, despite the spacing marks on the floor; and not one of us wears a mask in public.  When we let in tourists, we will need to relearn the social distancing precautions.  Will our health authorities engage us citizens in an intense social distancing revision course in the months before we let in tourists?

Finally, as Dr Fauci reminds us, we must ask what is the recommendation of the Health Authority?  What is the expert advice our Ministry of Tourism has received?  Is the recommendation that it is safe to let in visitors to villas from the USA?  Or should we wait until after a safe and effective vaccine is generally available?

Later on Friday, I was pleased to see what amounted to a Government response to the AHTA initiative on behalf of villa owners.  This was a press release titled “Covid 19 Update 13”.  It advised that Anguilla’s borders will remain closed until 31 October.  An exception is made for visitors from countries with active cases of less than 0.2% of the population, who will be allowed into Anguilla on condition.  They must comply with all relevant protocols and quarantine regulations.  That rules out visitors from the USA.  The US (with 4% of the world’s population and 25% of all Covid-19 infections) cannot meet the less than 0.2% benchmark.  We all anxiously await the arrival of a safe and effective vaccine.  I need not have worried.  No doubt, it helped that we have a physician as Premier.

24 July 2020

Revised 27 July