THE EDITOR, Madam:
Looking at the data on “Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people” in the non-profit website Our World in Data reveals something quite remarkable. Jamaica is now in the category of countries that have less than 10 daily new cases per million. This ranks below several Latin American countries that have distributed and encouraged the use of early treatment kits, including the drug ivermectin, and countries or regions across the world where the drug is available over the counter (without a prescription). There are still a significant number of countries that have fewer ew daily cases per million, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and most African nations.
In Madagascar, a local treatment based the anti-malarial herb Artemisia Annua was developed and actually exported to other countries on the African mainland. Despite the World Health Organization initially warning against use of an untested COVID-19 remedy, Madagascar has not seen more than 23 new daily cases per million for the entire pandemic and has seen less than one new daily case between late June and late November 2021. A mere 3.7 per cent of the population of Madagascar was vaccinated as of March 14.
What is the explanation for the low number of daily confirmed cases in Jamaica despite having less than 23 per cent of the population fully vaccinated? Have Jamaicans discovered the secrets of the African, Asian, and Latin American countries that are doing much better than the developed world? Why is the global media silent about the successes of countries like Madagascar and Egypt where despite having less than 31 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, daily new cases per million have never gone above 23?
ALAN SEARCHWELL
Kingston
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