Delta variant in Cayman, Dr Lee confirms
(CNS): The Cayman Islands has now received confirmation that two travellers who arrived here from Miami over the last week were infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee said local lab technicians who run the genomic sequencing of selected test results confirmed last night that these two samples, which were from travellers who were both fully vaccinated with the Pfizer shots here in the Cayman Islands earlier this year, were the Delta strain. One of the patients has no symptoms while the other has very slight symptoms and both are in quarantine. But Dr Lee warned that the risk of the virus coming here is increasing as we move forward with easing restrictions. (See video below)
Another three travellers tested positive among the results released Thursday, bringing this week’s total to ten positive results so far. There are now eleven active cases of the virus among those in quarantine and isolation. Only one person who is one of the two that tested positive for the delta variant has symptoms.
Doctors around the world agree that the Delta variant, which is now the dominant strain in new infections in the UK and the US, is highly transmissible but vaccines do still offer significant protection. Delta produces higher viral loads earlier in infection, making it more infectious during the period before people realise that they are infected. It is also the cause of many breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, and while they remain vulnerable to catching it, most fully vaccinated people do not get ill.
“Given the prevalence of the Delta variant in the United Kingdom, it was only a matter of time before it was detected in the Cayman Islands,” said Dr Lee. “It will also be of concern that both these people were fully vaccinated… For me, this reiterates and reinforces the need to be vaccinated to benefit from protection against serious illness and death, even with these more infectious variants.”
He said that Cayman Islands’ testing and quarantine process greatly reduces the risk of community transmission of all variants of the coronavirus, so while there is currently less risk of the Delta variant spreading to the local community, the risk is increasing. He urged people to get vaccinated because this greatly reduces the risk of a serious illness or hospitalisation.
70% of the estimated population has now had at least one dose of a vaccine, with almost 47,000 people, or 66% of the population, having completed the two-dose course.
Dr Lee said this will help keep Cayman safe from the virus if it breaks through but the rate needs to increase to protect the vulnerable and unvaccinated. He outlined precautionary measures that people can take as Cayman moves towards opening the borders.
“If you are eligible then you should get vaccinated. Secondly, you can follow the basic precautions against transmission of COVID-19, as recommended by the World Health Organization, including proper hand hygiene, social distancing, limiting your attendance at large gatherings, and wearing a mask in enclosed public spaces,” he added.
Minister of Health Sabrina Turner also implored everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated as a matter of urgency to ensure their personal safety against contracting the disease, and to protect loved ones as well as the community as a whole. Turner also warned that while border entry restrictions and quarantine measures currently protect against community spread, the level of risk will rise as phased reopening begins.
“We are preparing to gradually reopen our borders beginning in mid-September. While the government is committed to reopening as safely as possible, there is an element of risk of community spread involved. Guarding against this risk through vaccination is our best preparation ahead of time, and following community health mandates at every step of the way will be essential.”
COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics remain operational throughout the Cayman Islands.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
Rely on the UK stats ! Now that’s a real joke and a real bad idea ?? Keep this place safe please. we did not follow their dangerous pandemic advice and disastrous ideas why start now? These folks with their open at all cost don’t give a $#!@ about this place are only looking to bring chaos and mayhem to these shore GO Home! Our lives are more important than your very selfish ideals! I encourage all those who can get vaccinated to do so to protect yourself and love ones!
But you assume covid will go away. It won’t. It will be here in 2, 5, 10 and 100 years.
If enough people do not get vaccinated COVID will be here forever. We will never get herd immunity and the virus will just keep mutating every year.
That basically is the crux of the problem in Florida.
Thanks for your forecast, Nostradamus. Can you please tell me who will win the next World Cup? I’d like to make some bets.
For those of you who have made the choice of not getting Vaccinated especially the (Anti-Waxers) you all should be ashamed of yourself. You should be made to show your HSA cards wherever you go as proof of COVID health status especially when you enter such establishments as Bars, Restaurants, Supermarkets, Cinemas etc, That would make you all wake up from your fantasy world and get vaccinated. It’s time for Cayman to fully reopen it’s Borders. We cannot stay in this tiny bubble forever. We have to learn to manage the situation and move on.
From today: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/u-s-won-t-lift-travel-restrictions-citing-spike-covid-n1275014
“The U.S. currently bars entry for most noncitizens who within the last 14 days have been in the U.K., European Union nations, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.”
So… not really largely opened if 80+% of the world’s population can’t entre.
If the new US administration (buffoon biden) was truly worried about new variants, their border would be closed too. Right?
Change my mind.
The new variants are a result of not enough people in places like Florida not getting vaccinated. The real buffoons are the people who do not take Biden’s advice and don’t get vaccinated.
Don’t kill the messenger.
Sorry none of the new variants came from Florida or any lace like it. Try again.
I commented last week to say sajid javid, the uk health secretary in his 50s, has contracted the delta variant after two Pfizer doses but I bet he wouldn’t be ill or be hospitalized. And great to read a week on in the Sunday times today that he has fully recovered with only mild symptoms earlier in the week due to the vaccine. Meanwhile multiple countries reporting a spike in deaths amongst healthy young people in their 20s and 30s who are unvaccinated. The choice to get a vaccine really is as simple as putting up hurricane shutters or wearing a seatbelt. Also great to read in the Sunday times today that uk cases have likely leveled off and have halved in the last week,,, just goes to show the vaccine also helps greatly in reducing viral load and transmission, a way to go yet but looks like the uk great reopening risk is working. Time to open up cayman… we must look after the people who genuinely cannot take a vaccine for medical reasons here with all we have (can’t be more than 100 people maximum as allergies to the vaccine ingredients are very rare indeed), and make sure we introduce vaccine passports to keep residents and visitors safely enjoying their lives with those who refused a vaccine restricted to certain times and banks and supermarkets only, not public events or bars and restaurants.
Are you saying it’s working because the number of cases is fallen?
If could be fallen because the people are deleting the app and is not getting tested. Getting tested doesn’t stop you from getting and spreading but it may prevent you from getting seriously ill and needing hospitalization.
There’s no “may” about it. The vaccine is highly effective at stopping people getting seriously ill. Just look at the UK figures between now and November; roughly the same 40,000 cases a day with 60 odd deaths today vs. 1000+ deaths a day in November.
Cayman is a tiny country and can no way follow that of the bigger countries. The only strategy that works is to keep the borders closed, allow people to travel and quarantine on return because the vaccinated can catch and spread the virus.
For how long? Covid isn’t going anywhere. Cayman can’t afford to stay closed indefinitely. Panton knows this.
9:13, Until 80% of the population here is vaccinated. Then start opening up.
Except they are not allowing people to travel and quarantine on return – you don’t get as far as the quarantine part of you cant actually travel because of the flight restrictions.
You are not a country. You are a British Overseas Territory.
CNS Warning: Conspiracy theory bollox ahead.
Its always nice when a part of the population want to introduce a second class of citizens. When you people realize this has nothing to do with safety. If we get to 80% vaccinated there will be another moving of the goal posts and another reason why we can’t open.
But what I’m truly waiting to see, is when the government measures turn from COVID into something else being the reason why they need more control. When the measures are then applied to something else, and more people are affected. When bank accounts have been locked, when land has been seized, I want to see the faces of those who let fear and a desire to be a part of the majority that asked for harsher, more dictorial measures on those who didn’t comply when the tables turn against them.
I would love to remind each and everyone, you get what you ask for.
Just remember, no government around the world ever gives back power. They take and keep it, only expanding more on what they take.
@1.59pm..you are full of doo doo..
*bollocks
CNS: Acceptable alternative spelling in this context.
Those that don’t want to take the vaccination, that is your choice, it is also our choice to have taken it, over 70% over the island has had it, so let’s open up.
Unfortunately covid isn’t going anywhere for the near future and we will have to live with it, if those that haven’t taken a shot are willing to risk their life that’s their choice, simple.
We are going to see deaths here and we just have to deal with it.
Seeing the efficacy is diminishing, should we try to boost our own immunity.
Reduce your risk factor…lose weight.
Too many people traveling overseas totally unnecessarily.
If you are vaccinated and an expat here who contributes hugely to the cayman economy, then wanting to get a bay flight to Europe to see loved ones for the first time in over a year and to get a break from the hot season and this Little Rock is an entirely reasonable and necessary travel right.
It’s your right to get vaccinated to travel and to protect everyone else who didn’t travel, including the vaccinated, you need to be quarantined until a negative result is obtained.
Happy to quarantine for 5 days, that’s not an inconvenience
Go find a bigger rock.
Ok…so just to be clear, you did get vaccinated to travel and go on holiday but yes, those of us who cant or wont take the vax are the selfish ones.
But can’t, just won’t
‘Not’ can’t
Unless its you. Disrespectful lives matter.
Imagine you are vulnerable and not knowing. If we stop being politically correct and tell the truth they may understand. No one is an idiot.
The great experiment that every nation is watching worldwide is the UK. An incredibly bold decision by Boris to fully open up on July 19, but you can’t stay closed forever, and the latest evidence shows cases may have peaked at a lower bar than fort feared. Further, of course deaths have risen since lifting lockdown but it’s clear they are nowhere near the first two waves due to vaccines, or anywhere nearer the fourth and fifth waves hitting some countries with lower vaccine rates. We will see what happens in September as the weather turns and kids go back to school, but the riskiest political move of Johnson’s career which every other country is monitoring and thinks is crazy may actually be a master stroke. I think with the current vaccination rates we have in cayman and the fact everyone has access to the best vaccine out there, we can safely open up and limit unvaccinated cases and deaths to being manageable as long as the field hospital is open and perhaps a few more ventilators are sourced from the UK. I would estimate when we open the borders caymans first wave will be maybe 200 cases a week, maybe up to 5 deaths a week… but we would quickly move on and likely have no second wave once everyone has been vaccinated, caught Covid and recovered or sadly succumbed if they refused a vaccine.
US and Canada have largely opened us as well. Regions that have high vaccination rates have minimal spread.
Also note that Cayman’s vaccination rate exceeds the US, UK and Canada.
Very true. The eighty per cent as we all know is unachievable so realistically in cayman we need and will see vaccine passports. I wouldn’t ban unvaccinated from banks and supermarkets… give them set alphabet and times on certain days, but by Christmas I guarantee the unvaccinated rightly won’t be allowed in shops, bars and restaurants or to travel, which is the only way to maintaining a fair open society and should really already be gazetted.
Canada will not let Caymanians in. Hardly “open”.
Not true.
Unless that Caymanian is a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or student, is is still true. The same goes for Americans married to Canadians.
UK seems to have handled this terribly from the very beginning.
2 points to that; London is the air travel hub for half the planet, short of locking down before everyone else it was always going to be impossible to control. Secondly, vaccine production and roll out has probably been the best in the world.
Something Caymanians take for granted. TAKE THE BLOODY VACCINE IDIOTS!!!
“Also note that Cayman’s vaccination rate exceeds the US, UK and Canada.”
Yes. Also note that we remain closed, unlike the US and Canada.
Some states in the Northeast, US have 70% vaccination rate, I believe.
And then there’s the red states.
Not true Uk has double vaccinated at least 70% of their population as of yesterday that’s 45 million people at least
Who presses dislike on such facts!
What a drama queen.
You need to look at the whole parts. Many have deleted the ‘Ping’ app, therefore stop testing, ‘cases’ are going down. What if they all get rid of the app?
History will record that Boris (and other politicians of his ilk) killed thousands of voters rejecting science via messy and dangerous populist post-truth pro-economy narratives; and that in the end, those decisions bore a price many times that of an unpopular temporary emergency lockdown. Even now it’s so wildly off-brand for Cayman to have lead the world in clinical prudence, via Dr Lee and Governor Roper, that we can’t even recognise our own success – even in relation to others’ blinding failures. Statues for both of them in Hero’s Square when this is done.
The Pfizer vaccine wanes significantly after 6 months, even our new lord Fauci is admitting it….so, i’ve had 2 shots….am i fully vax’d? When am i not? How long will a booster last? How many will i need? Is there any science to any of this at all? Am i better off just getting the bug and getting natural immunity?
I think an annual booster is likely. Hardly an inconvenience to drive 5 mins on this island for a free jab! Count yourself very lucky compared to a lot of countries.
Source please?
Research yourself.
Based on the UK experience, community spread of the delta variant is 100% inevitable and the virus will rip through the population once started. The only way to prevent this would be never ending lockdowns.
This is a horrible choice between two bad options but we simply can’t keep the island closed forever to prevent anti-vaxxers getting sick. We just have to vaccinate as many people as possible (yes, it should be made mandatory for WP holders. Why? Because we can.) and prepare to get a little sick.
Why mandatory for wp holders and not caymanian s employed and sharing the same workplaces? Makes no sense.
Hear hear – our Govt has offered huge perks for civil service employees; the least they can do is get vaccinated or get contract canceled. We are a too heavy civil service for sure!! Forget your jab, I would love your job thank you.
Regards,
Private Sector Caymanian
Because we don’t get a vote in parliament.
The clue was in the post. We should force work permit holders because we can. We should not force Caymanians because we cannot.
You can make stipulations on immigrants. If they don’t meet them they don’t get a permit. There is no equivalent for Caymanians. You’d have to fine or arrest people if they didn’t get vaccinated. The country would (rightly) never stand for it and it would only increase anti-vac indignation.
It would be very simple to mandate vaccinations indirectly for those without a medical exemption; simply make it a condition of working in an office with more than x people, or entering a public building, supermarket, restaurant, bar etc… Starting to happen in Europe now.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/26/covid-more-eu-states-restrict-venue-access-unvaccinated-people
Because no main stream media is reporting this, all over the UK, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are protesting the idea of mandatory vaccines and vaccine passports.
Most people believed what the government said and took the jabs, only to be told to sit and wait then got the news that even though you have taken all measures to protect yourself, its not enough and need to remain locked down.
When you people realize this is not about the vaccine, the sooner we release ourselves from this.
CNS: You’ve read somewhere (social media?) that no MSM are reporting on the protests but if you actually read any MSM you’d see this is not true. Here’s just one example. The protests are a clear sign that hysteria, disinformation and conspiracy theories have no international boundaries.
Its our home, you dont get any say.
Why do we always promote division. Covid spreads to everyone SO EVERYONE should get the vaccine. And if you don’t? Then you get locked down until you do. It’s for your own good.
The time to stop Covid has passed, it is endemic now. Maybe we can gain some immunity from unvaccinated infected persons, but we won’t reach herd immunity given those that are too foolish or selfish not to take the vaccine.
So now we have to decide how to move forward. Do we remain closed forever? Do we open up to some but not all? Do we deny freedoms to the unvaccinated? Do we mandate vaccinations for foreign workers? Do we just stay closed to protect the foolish until the money runs out? These are not easy questions.
Personally, I think we need a realistic plan. Our current one is just ridiculous. Of course politicians love to avoid anything that might lose them votes. Maybe their base is uneducated. But true leader would not be a coward, and would take real steps forward.
The leader has to decided what’s best for everyone. The efficacy of the vaccine is dwindling but still provides protection against severely ill and hospitalization for now.
The leader might not have to do anything if all the borders are closed again.
Delta dawn:
I am not taking the shot and I am PRETTY fine with that fact. MY BODY MY CHOICES.
Since you had the shot, why are you so afraid ? Don’t you believe in the science?
LOL
By the way, deal with the fact that vaccinated people are bringing the new wave
That is a lie. It has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
Reinstate the arrival PCR test. It makes no sense to require the 72 hour test. Get rid of that for vaccinated persons. I went to get my kid, total trip was 75 hours. No use in wasting time on a test that was done a few hours after arriving in the States. Maybe, if persons are outside of Cayman for a week or more, but otherwise this is just bureaucratic silliness.
Someone please do some research. Take a look at the CDC website. CDC is no longer counting post-vaccine cases –
“Despite” and I quote, “the high level of vaccine efficacy, a small percentage of fully vaccinated persons (i.e. received all recommended doses of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine) will develop symptomatic or asymptomatic infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.” CDC said this in May.
So, the health oversight agency added that it would only be counting COVID-19 cases and infections after vaccination that resulted in patients being hospitalized or dying from May 1 onward – discounting almost 90% of cases of vaccine failure.
I hope I am not the only one who sees that such a policy leaves a gaping hole in data collection on vaccine effectiveness. What’s more, since only 27% of the reported cases were asymptomatic, it also leaves a bulk of vaccinated people who are symptomatic – more than 60% of reported cases are actually ill with COVID symptoms – who are perhaps unwittingly spreading the disease because they do not suspect themselves of having a COVID infection because they have received their shots. But the CDC is no longer counting them.
I respect people’s choice not to get the vaccine. They should respect my choice to get the vaccine and not spout conspiracy theory rubbish at me. However, the government needs to set a date – no later than September – to open the borders. People who aren’t vaccinated by then will have to rely on their immune systems and their health insurance coverage. Some won’t make it, but they take the risk. The entire country can’t be held hostage by those saying, “I’m not getting the vaccine but don’t open the borders because I might get sick and die.”
I don’t think nobody unvaccinated is saying that. Stop spreading lies! Alot of unvaccinated people I know have SO MUCH FAITH in God, they have placed their lives in His hands! Not one I spoke with are scared of the borders opening to save “self.” Don’t know who you bumped into! I for one am ready to meet Covid face to face. No vaccine coming from bloody abortion satanic labs is entering my body!
Ridiculous. The ‘my body my choice’ argument to not getting a vaccine, but then you oppose abortion which is saying women don’t have a right to choose what they do to their bodies. Makes no sense. My body my choice to not get vaccine should mean my body my choice to have an abortion. Good luck with your god curing covid… god has never cited any disease in human history so far!
There is no God.
There is a God, but not the one that is being preached to us but the one that we discover ourselves, and is not attached to a religion. A God that will protect us from nature and man, if we have truly found god.
My god is called willy wonka. He is the god of chocolate. I pray to him every night at the foot of my bed and i just know he is listening. But maybe me talking to a celestial chocolate god means I am worthy of a mental institute. Especially because, you know what, I think he might be deaf because he never talks back – or maybe he’s mute…
So much faith in God to do what? You think your faith makes you invincible? How do you know that your mysterious God didn’t send the vaccine and now you’re just spitting in your imaginary gods face? I don’t understand religious aversion to vaccines. You think God is anti health care?where in the Bible does it say thou shalt not be vaccinated? Nowhere. Ffs
Why am I trying to use logic to understand illogical behavior… It pains me to see people spouting nonsense. Either your God is almighty and omnipotent or it’s not. I know it’s unpopular in the abrahamic traditions but I suggest you find the god of critical thinking and start praying to that one. ASAP.
Maybe the virus was sent to fix the world and it’s problem.
The vaccine is to carryon as normal.
This is an insult to every single person that has died from covid. And their families. You should be ashamed of yourself.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-39percent-effective-in-israel-prevents-severe-illness.html
Different countries, different stats, but one thing in common is that you are much less likely to be hospitalized or die after being fully vaccinated.
If you want to reduce risk from COVID-19 as much as possible in addition to getting fully vaccinated, take appropriate precautions including wear masks, wash hands frequently and social distance.
This is going to end in one or two ways.
In the good way, the holdouts will see the rising death rates, get scared and take the vaccine. In the bad way, they’ll all get COVID, and those that survive will have natural immunity. Either way, herd immunity is coming.
DING!
Unless if course another even more variant comes around and our vaccine can’t protect us from THAT one.
Yes, it is a requirement to fly. Most tests are self administered so you are hardly going to stuff the qtip all the way up your own nose.
It’s a shame cayman didn’t copy the Uk and leave up to 12 weeks between doses and only 3. It’s been proven yesterday that 8 weeks between doses is the sweet spot for the most protection. Given a lot of us got our second jab in feb or March and did our part so early, thinking we would be able to travel by now, surely it’s time to offer us a third shot as a booster given we have supply and clearly there are people that for some bizarre reason don’t want the vaccine and are happy to end up in hospital when we open and the virus is spreading here.
There was really no way to know. The phase 3 trial dose interval was 3 weeks and results showed 95% efficacy. This is why we all had the 3 week interval when the vaccine got here.
Some people seriously believe that jab after jab is going to them into immortal super beings …..
It’s much easier than eating well, exercising and trying to live a clean life.
But this is what we need to do as this is the change that is needed.
Original poster here – we don’t think we are invincible… we just read the scientific facts. A double jab of Pfizer reduces your viral load if you catch it, massively reduces your chances of transmitting it, and provides over 90 per cent protection against serious illness and hospitalization. These are scientific facts. There are two options for the Cayman Islands… stay closed forever and cease to exist as a developed Island with no Covid, or open up with Covid and look after the unvaccinated as much as possible.
Science is not a fact. We are all going to die 100%, that’s a fact
Well … hon… you placed your trust in man and their magicians, and now you complaining they haven’t delivered 🤷🏽♂️ like.. ???
Who is the Lord you are getting unvaccinated for? I assume the Lord of wanting economic disaster and closure of Cayman’s airport forever? Not a very nice Lord.
You are pathetic. Unvaccinated people are more likely to catch and spread covid. You could spread it to a vulnerable person that can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons. You could be responsible for their death. Is that really what the lord wants?
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vaccinated-people-singapore-make-up-three-quarters-recent-covid-19-cases-2021-07-23/
And this ladies and gentlemen is a game changer. The fully opening Cayman case was based on a premise of the Pfizer vaccine having 80%+ effectiveness at preventing you from catching COVID. In Singapore it barely does anything, other than reducing the severity of the disease.
*CNS: It’s worth reading the second part of that last sentence a couple of times before going on. The other way of putting this is to say that the vaccine worked as intended. It’s also worth reading the whole article linked above to get a better perspective.
The same will be true very soon in Israel (which reported a 39% effectiveness of Pfizer, slightly better than in SG, for now). Come around the next mutation and Pfizer might not stop infections at all.
This means if you open the border as so many “reasonable” people in Cayman are calling for you’re almost guaranteeing that the entire population, including ALL unvaccinated children, will catch covid. It’s pretty clear by now that the best immunity to covid is prior infection which hasn’t changed with the variants (unlike the vaccines waning effectiveness) and Cayman based on a few estimates only has 3% of natural immunity.
A renewed lockdown from an inevitable surge in COVID if borders open would be worse for the economy (and image of Cayman as safe haven – very important for foreign direct investment) than any uptick you will get from tourism.
You are missing the point. Covid will never go away. These vaccines keep people from dying and for the most part being very sick. We don’t close the boarders every flu season. With a vaccine Covid is less dangerous than the flu. You can’t eliminate 100% of risk in life. A free and open society accepts a certain level of risk.
Can someone tell me if you are required to get a test 72 hours before coming to Cayman were the travelers infected during that 72 hours?
Perhaps the good Dr Lee could explain how travelers can test negative in the states on way to Cayman then test positive in Cayman but have no antibodies when testing for them.
My understanding is that no IgM antibodies within 3-4 weeks of supposedly testing positive for virus means the person never had virus and this is plausible if PCR cycles were over 28 as recommended by CDC from Jan 2021 because that just spits out false positives. Dr Lee just said this week that they are still running the PCR tests up to 38-40 cycles.
The danger with all the false positives in the past year is of course people now thinking they have natural immunity when they possibly never had the virus.
I don’t believe that the serology test is incorporation into any of the entry/stay criteria for the Cayman Islands.
wrong – it will go away soon enough, once enough people in the world develop NATURAL immunity. Recent serology studies show India at over 60% of natural immunity, Europe and US in the same ballpark. And with delta that process of infecting the final ~40% will happen very fast. Therefore, the optimal strategy is to let the virus naturally burn out in the rest of the world before any opening.
Unless you’re saying it’s worth it for the entire population of Cayman, including unvaccinated children, to catch covid in order to save tourism. It’s not, Cayman will make up the temporary loss of tourism business by attracting more businesses and high net worth individuals locating here to benefit from such a nice, safe bubble.
And one more thing, that Pfizer vaccine is already LAST gen. They already have more effective jabs in the labs but none of us in Cayman have those yet. Wait a few months and you’ll get those too as a booster if need be.
Thanks scientist bob
Covid is in the coronavirus family along with the common cold. There are no long lasting vaccines for any corona virus, and the common cold has not gone away even though practically everyone has had it before.
This coming from someone that can’t spell border.
Borders
1. The extreme “never going away” thesis does not have the support of history. Eventually, every pandemic burns itself out when the virus no longer has new hosts to infect, and the only examples of them remain frozen in scientific deep freeze.
2. Burn-out ordinarily would take years without the effective vaccines some of us (privileged first world) actually have for this one.
3. Risks to personal health from COVID are varied and hard to predict, without regrettable firsthand infection.
4. Over 4mln deaths and millions of other complications demonstrate it’s not a flu.
5. With a multitude of possible serious health consequences, death shouldn’t be the only clinical yardstick, and I’m okay with Cayman being cautious with a mutating virulent “novel virus” while effective vaccines are slowly being deployed globally. We should, by now, have high confidence that the successful and under-reported Cayman Islands policy test-case is effectively keeping the virus out. I can do 5 days in-bound quarantine.
Telling someone not to take a vaccine is quite dangerous, if they are not doing what is required to boost their own immune system. Therefore each person has to asses their own health then make a decision.