by Mark Da Cunha

COVID19 could be eliminated in the Bahamas in two weeks if everyone was tested at the same time.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health and economic crisis leading to psychological suffering and economic pain for all Bahamians.

The key to stopping the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus– the cause of the COVID-19 disease in humans – is mass testing of every Bahamian to identify those who are contagious and quarantining them until they are no longer contagious. The motto is: test for the virus, isolate infected individuals, repeat.

The Bahamas is not doing population testing, but selective testing of a tiny part of the population at any given time
The problem is that the Bahamas is not doing complete population testing. We are not testing everybody, but only a select portion of a country’s population at any given time, leaving the vast majority of individuals at any given time untested. To compound matters, many of those undiagnosed individuals infected with the COVID-19 virus who are contagious show no symptoms (are asymptomatic). Unaware of their infectious state, they end up infecting other individuals.

The Bahamas government is using the Communist China model of mass lockdowns of the healthy as a substitute for its lack of mass testing
When too many individuals get infected, and hospital resources are in danger of being overwhelmed, the government’s response has been draconian social and economic lockdowns of both the unhealthy and the healthy. Both the unhealthy and healthy are locked up as without mass testing, the Bahamas government cannot distinguish between the two: everyone is presumed guilty. If only we tested all individuals, we would never need mass lockdowns, as we would only have to quarantine the infected. Nation-wide testing will end the need for nation-wide lockdowns.

The Bahamas government uses expensive, slow to get results, non-scaleable PCR tests for COVID19 testing that people cannot do daily on their own
Why don’t nations engage in systematic population testing as selective testing alternating with lockdowns doesn’t work? One reason is the test mandated by government health agencies: the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is known as the “gold standard” of testing. It can detect SARS-CoV-2 particles in microscopic amounts: a PCR test can usually detect a single molecule of RNA in a microlitre of solution. Unfortunately, PCR tests fail for nation-wide testing for three reasons: PCR tests can take from a day to weeks to get test results when what is needed is a test that can give quickly. PCR tests require specialized and expensive lab equipment that requires specially trained personnel to administer and interpret the test. PCR tests cost from $100 to $300, making frequent testing prohibitively expensive; when what Bahamians need is a cheap test that people can afford to take daily.

Bahamians need a cheap COVID-19 test that they can take on their own that give immediate results, like a home pregnancy test.
What is needed is a COVID-19 test that is easy to administer, like a home pregnancy test. Such a test should be sensitive enough to detect when people have a high viral load — when they are most contagious. It should be affordable enough to be used frequently, i.e., daily. It needs to give immediate results that are easy to interpret, like a pregnancy test.

Multiple U.S. Biotech firms can make such antigen test strips for less than a dollar per test
What I have described sounds like a miracle, doesn’t it? Except that it is not a miracle. Multiple companies – including 3M, E25Bio, Sherlock, and Abbott – have developed such COVID-19 antigen test strips, and they work perfectly for screening purposes. These firms can manufacture them quickly in the billions, and their retail cost is less than $1 per strip test.

Cheap antigen test strips are a decentralized market solution to the failure of government central planned selective testing that results in a mass lockdown cycle
How do these antigen strip tests work? Where the PCR tests look for viral particles and antibody tests look for antibodies in those who have recovered from the virus, antigen tests look for antigens your immune system creates when your body responds to a COVID-19 infection. They can be easily used, at home or work, and don’t require a blood test, but only require a nasal or saliva sample. These little pieces of strips of paper change color when they detect antigens to the virus. Like a home pregnancy strip, $1 home antigen tests are not as sensitive as a $300 lab test, but they are more than good enough to catch the vast majority of cases that are being missed. They sacrifice a little sensitivity for massive scalability and are the best option as a home and work screening tool: catching people who otherwise would go untested. They are an inexpensive and elegant free-market capitalist solution to the population testing problem.

Government regulations block the use of test strips in the U.S.
So why aren’t these inexpensive test strips available to the general public for screening purposes? In the U.S., government bureaucrats at the FDA are using the police power of the state to prevent $1 test strip producers from selling them for consumer use. Comments Michael Mina, of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health on this regulatory problem:

“I’m usually not against regulation, but it’s just gotten so extreme here, and it’s truly been hindering every step of the way our ability to test our way out of this virus since February…We could reduce maybe by 90-95% transmission in this country in the next few weeks if everyone could have one of these tests tomorrow.”

A COVID-19 test with 70%-80% sensitivity is better than no home test at all
One of the regulations stopping the use of over the counter (OTC) tests must be at least 90% sensitive (antigen tests are typically 70-90% sensitive). The government regulator’s argument against lower sensitivity tests completely misses the point. A home test with low sensitivity is better than no home test. Even if the test only catches 50% of the people not caught before, it is an improvement over no test. Right now, the best Bahamians can do at home or work is to take their temperature with a thermometer – which essentially is no test at all. In cases where greater accuracy is required, people can still opt for a PCR test: the two – antigen test strips and PCR tests – are not mutually exclusive alternatives. Dr. Mina and economist Laurence Kotlikoff in a New York Times editorial describe some of the ways these tests may be used:

“Once they are provided to all, employers would likely require their workers to take time-dated pictures of their negative test results before coming to work. Colleges would require students to do the same before coming to class. Restaurants could accept reservations only if accompanied by negative-test pictures. In short, everyone will have an incentive to test themselves daily to participate fully in the economy and return to normal life.”

Low Cost $5 Antigen Tests are FDA Approved, But Not For “Over-The-Counter” OTC Personal Use!
In August 2020, the U.S. government approved a $5 COVID-19 antigen card test, the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card rapid test, which is over 90% sensitive. Unfortunately, the U.S. government dictated that one needs a prescription for its use and can only be used by those who have symptoms. That the government mandates that only “healthcare professionals” administer the test and that it requires a “patient prescription” makes no sense. It makes a $5 test into a $5 test plus the cost of a prescription. Neither does it make sense to prohibit testing for those without symptoms. Such laws effectively outlaw mass-scale in-home or at work screening, unless you wish to keep a doctor or medical professional on call.

The Bahamas government should legalize the import and sale of cheap antigen test strips for home use in the Bahamas
Only mass-scale testing will put an end to the need for mass-scale lockdowns permanently. Such testing, in conjunction with other public health measures, will put a severe dent to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, ending the need for mass lockdowns in the Bahamas permanently. These cheap antigen strip tests are available now from companies like 3M, E25Bio, Sherlock, and Abbott. We have nothing to lose but our lockdown chains by using them. Though the U.S. government has prohibited these cheap antigen test strips, there is no reason the Bahamas government must do so. The Bahamas government should repeal all laws banning the import, sale, export, and use of cheap COVID-19 antigen strip tests for over-the-counter (OTC) use. They should allow the unrestricted Tax/VAT/Duty-free import and sale of these tests, and take those measures necessary for Bahamians to get access to these test strips. Laissez-faire COVID-19 home testing!

The post Ending the Need for Lockdowns in The Bahamas–A View appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

TAMPA — Consider the impact on the people of Cuba, say Cuban-Americans in Tampa who have strong feelings about placing the island-nation on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism.

But after a whiplash of policy moves toward Cuba under the last two presidents, sharp divisions remain about what that impact mght be.

Just 90 minutes off Florida’s shores, Cuba has no business as the latest entry on the list with North Korea, Syria and Iran, opponents say. The decision was announced Monday by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo during the final two weeks of the Trump administration.

“It changes back and forth and that affects people directly; we are tired of it,” said Cuba-born Maria Perez, 52, who works at Nicahabana Cigars in Ybor City. “It’s not the regime that loses, but ordinary people.”

Among its effects, the listing triggers restrictions on interaction between the two nations. With Cuba in mind, Florida passed a law in 2006 that prohibits travel to any country on the terrorist state list using money that flows through state universities.

But others say Cuba is right where it belongs on the list.

“Just take a look at those who are part of Cuba’s circle — Venezuela, Iran, Russia, North Korea,” said Alexander Rodriguez, 48, of Tampa, who works with a finance company.

As an entrepreneur, Rick Nelson, 45, said he supports keeping the pressure on Cuba’s government to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that can help improve life in the island nation.

“Unfortunately, that pursuit is not permitted to the millions of Cubans who are living under an oppressive regime,” said Nelson, who owns the Town N’ Country shipping company The Fulfillment Lab. “My family is from Cuba and the Cuban people will never be free until they are given true liberty.”

Related: Tampa-Cuba ties forged under Obama frayed under Trump. Now, it’s Biden’s turn.

With its historical and cultural ties to the island nation, Tampa has the third-largest population of Cuban immigrants of any region in the U.S., behind South Florida and New Jersey.

Returning Cuba to the list of terrorist nations was the last in a series of Trump administration measures reversing moves by President Barack Obama to normalize relations between the two nations. After the rise of Fidel Castro and communism in the late 1950s, the U.S. imposed a travel and trade embargo.

The Obama administration had removed Cuba from the list.

Pompeo defended the new move, saying Cuba continues to host fugitives, supports socialist President Nicolás Maduro in strife-torn Venezuela, and refuses to extradite a group of Colombian extremists linked to a police academy car bombing in Colombia in 2019 that killed 22.

“The Trump Administration has been focused from the start on denying the Castro regime the resources it uses to oppress its people at home and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere,” Pompeo said Monday.

Listing as a terrorist state further limits travel between Cuba and the U.S. and money sent to support relatives back home. Commercial and charter flights from the United States to cities other than Havana already were banned and a $1,000-per-quarter limit had been placed on remittances.

Cuban exiles in the U.S. pose a greater terrorist threat than the Cuban government they are sworn to overthrow, said Maura Barrios, 71, of Tampa, an activist with the Cuban American Alliance and Cuba Vive of Tampa Bay.

As an example, she cited Luis Posada Carriles, who worked with the CIA in a number of covert actions against the Castro government before he was linked by the FBI to a terrorist group blamed in a Cuban airliner bombing that killed 73. Carries died in Miami in 2018.

Barrios, who has visited Cuba 15 times, questioned why listing Cuba as a terrorist state came so late in Trump’s single term.

“They remembered the Cuban exiles at the last minute,” she said. “Even they know Cuba does not sponsor or commit terrorist acts in the U S., some exiles do.”

The move will hinder any steps toward normalization by President-elect Joe Biden, Obama’s vice president, said Domingo Noriega of Tampa, a Cuban-born civil engineer.

And it further ingratiates Trump with the Cuban exile community in South Florida, which helped Trump carry Florida during his failed re-election bid, Noriega said.

“Let’s stop being hypocritical,” said Noriega, 60, who came to the United States when he was 20. “We all know that Cuba is up to its neck economically and is not a factor in global terrorism today.”

He added, “This will bring more deprivation to ordinary Cubans, to ordinary people, and it will not change anything there.”

The post Cuba, A Terrorist State? Floridians Have Diverse Feelings appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

Businessman Mark Kerr-Jarrett, who serves as a director and head of the crime portfolio at the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), wants persons involved in the shipping of illegal guns and ammunition into the island to be identified, named, and prosecuted.

He was speaking against the background of an incident earlier this week in which the police intercepted a barrel at the Montego Bay wharf, which contained six rifles, 13 handguns, and 470 rounds of assorted ammunition. The barrel was addressed to a woman in Falmouth, Trelawny.

“We look forward to some names being attached to this (shipment) and just penalties awarded to them,” said Kerr-Jarrett, who was taking questions from the media at a press conference hosted by the MBCCI on Wednesday.

The businessman, who has been one of Montego Bay’s foremost business leaders for over three decades, praised the security forces for intercepting the barrel before its illicit contents could reach the gangsters in the criminal underworld.

“It’s frightening because those weapons are only used for killing people and waging war,” he noted, arguing that with so many guns in the hands of violence-producers, law-abiding citizens are basically at the mercy of their rampant criminality.

“Are we as a country going to wage war on ourselves and allow the revolting and predatory elements in the society to continue to rob us of our potential?” asked Kerr-Jarrett, who is also a renowned land developer.

In light of the most recent gun find, among others in recent times, the businessman is calling for greater partnership between the police and law-abiding citizens so that critical information on criminal activities, to include those shipping illegal guns into the island, can be shared and the requisite actions taken to identify and apprehend them.

JOIN THE FIGHT

“I encourage us as citizens to participate in the information gathering and surrendering process,” said Kerr-Jarrett, in his appeal to citizens to join the fight to stamp out lawlessness.

Based on information garnered about this week’s busted shipment of weapons, the police are now working with their US counterparts to identify the sender of the barrel, which was shipped from Florida. They have also launched a search locally to locate the woman to whom the barrel was shipped.

Within recent years, the Montego Bay port has been targeted by criminals seeking to import illegal guns into the island. Three years ago, two barrels containing 119 guns and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, which were destined for the Montego Bay port, were intercepted by US Border Patrol at the Miami International Airport.

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