The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago turns 59 tomorrow, August 31st, 2021. On a global level, that makes us a pretty young country; there are obviously Trinbagonians who are older than their nation’s independence.

From the human perspective, though, we are collectively a year away from the age of retirement (for now, anyway). We’re big and we should have sense by now. After 59 years of independence from the coloniser and with the benefit of countless glaring examples of what not to do, we should be able to manage our affairs in a way that makes basic common sense. We should be able to put two and two together.

And yet.

On the eve of our national birthday, I find myself staggered by our seemingly unshakeable commitment to ignoring sense and doing exactly what is clearly not working for other nations.

In an effort to preserve what remains of my sanity in the midst of a pandemic, I have generally avoided the (somehow) controversial subject of vaccination. I’ve settled for confirming that the people in my tiny circle are doing what needs to be done to keep each other safe and avoiding the anti-vaxx crew like the plague (pun fully intended).

I took this approach because it became clear early on that, while the vaccine-hesitant can be reached with clear comms addressing their (not unreasonable) concerns, the 5G, DNA-changing, mark of the beast, “free-thinking” crew don’t want to be reached. They don’t want to understand the innumerable resources refuting their chosen conspiracy theory and they don’t want to hear about the deadly effects of their refusal to do what’s required to finally get this situation under control.

What they want is the freedom to do what they want to do without personal consequence, regardless of the effects those “freedoms” would have on others. Why they feel this way is up for debate (though I’ve come across some convincing arguments that plain old fear is at the root), but I’d argue that the why is fairly irrelevant. It would be one thing if they were the only people who’d have to pay the price for their stubbornness, but by now we all know that this is, by definition, not how a pandemic works.

The virus doesn’t discriminate and (despite claims to the contrary), the scientific reasoning behind why some seemingly healthy people end up on ventilators (or worse) while others don’t remains very complicated.

We know by now that failure to properly wear masks, socially distance, sanitise and vaccinate leads to huge surges of infections that flood hospitals, leaving patients (pandemic-related and otherwise) suffering without the necessary resources for their survival. We also know that the vast majority of people who end up hospitalised with this virus haven’t been fully vaccinated. Even worse, despite the fact that the delta variant doesn’t attack children as severely as it attacks adults, it is so contagious that more children are getting it and their hospitalisation rates are rising, too. What we still don’t know is nearly enough about the long-term effects the virus can have on children.

With all of the above plus the fact that the vaccines haven’t yet been approved for children under 12, you’d think it’d be obvious that in-person schooling isn’t a good idea right now, but, thanks to the US’ willingness to sacrifice its children on the altar of Capitalism, we also have alarming examples of what happens when the authorities decide to put unvaccinated children in enclosed spaces with adults who may or may not be vaccinated and without clear mask mandates.

For those of us who are fed-up with the SOE and its constant closures and reopenings, we have the example of Sweden, where the powers-that-be opted for the herd immunity approach and are now learning the hard way that it wasn’t the best choice (though as a relatively sparsely-populated country with a particular type of culture, they got off easy).

As if all of that wasn’t enough, we have clear examples from countries like Singapore and Denmark, which have managed to fully vaccinate 80% and 71% of their adult populations, respectively, and are now preparing to relax or eliminate restrictions within their borders. They managed this voluntarily, by the way.

So.

Given all of this, I have to ask what it is Trinbagonians really want at this point of the neverending shitshow. The hard truth that our big, hardback, 59-year-old nation needs to fully face is that this is a PANdemic and it is not over.

I know, I know, it sucks.

But, as a wise woman once sang, it’s not over just because you’re over it.

So, what do we want? Do we want to resume our lives? Do we want to be able to earn a living? Do we want our children back in school and our beaches reopened? Do we want to eventually, maybe cross the Savannah stage once again?

Well, then we’re in luck! We have a FREE vaccine for almost every brand preference, including the “premium” one, which is set to expire in just a few months. We have a plethora of examples of what is working to get some countries to the light at the end of this long tunnel and what is dragging others back to the depths of pandemic hell.

Surely a nation of adults, the majority of whom are heavily vaccinated (because it has been legally required for decades), can figure this sum out.

After all, ent common sense make before book?