According to the Director General of Health today, from the 5222 Covid deaths, 5022 so far have not been vaccinated. (https://www.helakuru.lk/esana/83035)
We are not unaware that the Director General of Health is making this statement to encourage the public to get vaccinated. The government’s focus on vaccination should be commended, especially chased after honey and the water pots.
Although the Director General of Health’s statement was made to encourage the public to be vaccinated, this statement contains the nudity of the Sri Lankan government and government policies that are not directly disclosed to the public. In particular, we can see how selfish and opportunistic government policies in Sri Lanka are when we look at the Covid deaths and the vaccination process that led to this statement.
According to the Director General, we need to ask the Director General of Health how many of the 5222 dead over 60 years of age are. Inevitably it exceeds the 75% limit. At the time of writing, this week’s July 23-30 article is the final analysis of the Epidemiology’s weekly analysis of Covid deaths. According to that analysis, out of the 4002 Covid deaths that occurred on July 23, 3072 were over 60 years of age. It is 76% as a percentage.
For the report visit >> https://www.epid.gov.lk/web/images/pdf/corona_virus_death_analysis/death_analysis_from_24.07.2021_to_30.07.2021.pdf
According to these statistics, the majority of deaths due to Covid are in the adult population. According to the Director General of Health, 96% of deaths due to Covid are not related to vaccination. The apparent equation here is that the vast majority of adults over the age of 60 who die of Covid are those who have not been vaccinated. Who first stopped the introduction of vaccines to our adults over the age of 60? We as a society must raise the question. We need to ask on what basis adults older than 60 years of age, especially those at high risk for Covid disease, were excluded from vaccination. Unfortunately, the Opposition and other civil society groups have not come forward to make any sense of protest against the vaccination of people over the age of 60 who are at high risk for the disease. It seems that the Leader of the Opposition, who has been issuing various views on Covid since the introduction of the drug, has also forgotten to raise his voice in this regard.
The circular on the first AstraZeneca covieshield vaccine in Sri Lanka clearly states that the vaccine should be given to people over 60 years of age, but later circulars did not state so. In particular, covieshield was unable to deliver as stated in that circular, and in the end it was seen that it was divided into many different forms. Also, government circulars stated that vaccinations would be given only to those between the ages of 30 and 60. It closed the door to vaccination for adults over 60 years of age. According to the current Covid death statistics and the Director General of Health, it appears that the vaccination of the elderly and the rescue from death were deliberately or unintentionally neglected.
Even though the adults were not vaccinated, the medical professionals forced their families to get the vaccine outside the proper procedure, without fully respecting the value of vaccinating these adults. The Government Medical Officers’ Association did not comment on the exclusion of the elderly from vaccination or on vaccination issues in particular.
However, we are now getting the consequences of not giving vaccinations to adults as a priority. This is evident from the fact that the majority of these deaths are in the elderly, the vast majority of whom have not been vaccinated. People between the ages of 30 and 60 should also be vaccinated. But adults should be thinking about vaccination now as well as in the early days. So my feeling is that we could have reduced this death toll. Ignoring the elders of their state at risk is not enough for a civilized state. This is how the elders were treated in a dangerous situation in Sri Lanka which boasts of being a Buddhist state. It is important as a nation to give some priority to adult vaccination as it has started now.
-Dulan Dassanayake-