UPDATE July 1. 7pm. There are now 19 confirmed cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Secretariat of the South Pacific (SPC) , with financial help from AUSAid and NZAid and manufacturers Roche, have donated 167,000 capsules of Tamiflu, enough to protect 2% of the population, and surgical masks and other protective apparatus to Fiji. Tamiflu is only used for severe cases. Fiji Sun.Coupfourpointfive is one of the few rational anti-government blogs. Its particular strength is that it publishes information from "insiders" that is not, and at present cannot, be published by the Fiji media. Its comments (and presumably posts) are vetted by an Auckland-based panel before publishing. I have no problem with its anti-government stance; its insider information (necessarily anonymous and for the most part unverifiable) or its vetting of material submitted for publication. I do, however, think too many racist comments and unreasoned postings pass its censors. Freedom of the press is not compromised by censoring scurrilous and misleading reports.
Monday's post (June 29) that blames the Government for the spread of swine 'flu is a case in point. It seems to have escaped the writer's reasoning that if Government is responsible for swine 'flu (and all the "bad" things that happen in Fiji) it is, by the same logic, also responsible for the rugby wins over Samoa and Tonga! How silly can we be!
Here's the posting:
"Regime's anti-proof plan for swine flu fails. Fiji has now got ten cases of the swine flu virus. Six of them are employees of mobile company Digicel.The workers contracted the virus via a PNG national who can't be traced. Two weeks ago the interim regime said their contingency plans for the virus was foolproof. [There are] concerns over whether people will be able to afford a packet of Tamiflu to treat the virus. A packet of Tamiflu in Fiji costs $90."
Comment Late June 30 there were 11 confirmed cases. Tamiflu is issued free after check-ups at health centres. NZ's "population clock"at 11pm last night (Monday) gives NZ a population of 4,313,604 people, a little over four times Fiji's estimated population. As of today we have 587 confirmed cases of swine flu, up 64 since yesterday. Fiji, on a per capita comparison basis, should therefore have about 120 cases -- not ten! The later arrival of the virus probably accounts for the lower figure but at this stage the figure is neither a failure or a cause for alarm. Fiji should endeavour to contain the number of cases as long as possible, but there could come a point, as it did in NZ two weeks' ago, that health authorities switch from containment to management.
Rather than gloating that the Government's health plans were not "foolproof" (and only a fool would made such a claim. I doubt that "foolproof" was the actual word used) everyone with friends and relations in Fiji should be worried that the 'flu may reach pandemic proportions.
New Zealand has a far better endowed health system than Fiji, but even here authorities predict the numbers affected will run into thousands, with more than a few deaths. The 'flu will also have a major economic impact due to absenteeism, loss of production, fewer travellers, and a slump in demand. The NZ Treasury estimates a worst case scenario will result in a 75% reduction in business for accommodation, restaurants and bars, and 25% drops in retail and transport business. Economists predict our GDP would fall by 1.4% in a "mild" pandemic, and 5 to 18% in a worst case scenario (NZ Listener June 27-July 7). Let us hope and pray this does not happen in NZ - or Fiji. World-wide, laboratories are working in a race against the virus to produce a vaccine to replace Tamiflu.
Footnote (not to alarm but as an historical record). The 1918 Spanish 'flu pandemic is the worse recorded. It killed nearly 9,000 NZers, with Maori dying at seven times the rate of Pakeha. Nearly one-quarter of the population of Tonga and Samoa died. In Nuku'alofa the dead were buried in several mass graves by sailors from a visiting warship. There were too few healthy Tongans to perform this task.
As for Fiji, about 14% of Fiji's population died within the first two weeks (further records were not kept!), and an estimated 85-90% of those living in Suva town and district were thought by authorities to have been infected.
Unless the virus mutates, 2009 should not be another 1918 but it is faulty logic and exceedingly poor taste to exaggerate and put blame where it does not belong. Political capital should not be made out of a serious health situation. Fiji's health services are not perfect now, nor were they before 2006. Photo:Fiji Live.
3 comments:
I agree that, Coupfourpointfive, allegedly produced by local journalists have recently replaced their normal style of persuassion with the bad habits from rawfijinews, solivakasama etc; with the liberal use Ad Hominem attacks and the conservative application of proportional context.
Thats probably the first thing to turn off well-intentioned and unbiased readers.
How silly people can be, to blame Bainimarama for not being able to contain swine -flu. Has John Key been able to do that? Bainimarama must be responsible for flooding and landslide in Gisborne and for the bad weather here. He must also be responsible for the crashing of Airbus A310 in Indian Ocean, and he must have caused the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett. That is, if we follow the reasoning and rationale of certain anti-Bainimarama blogs.
"Forty People a day could die by the end of summer in the UK". (Daily Mail Online).
This is a scientific projection by the UK government.
Up to 100,000 new cases a day. The death rate being projected at 1 per 2,500.
Sir Liam Donaldson, the UK Government's Chief Medical Officer warned that "the actual figure could be lower - or even higher".
So who is applying faulty logic in Fiji and laying irrational blame?
The brucellosis outbreak is also one to be careful about. Had it taken place a year or so ago, we might never have heard of it. Just like the typhoid and leptospirosis outbreaks. No Freedom of Informaton Act was ever put in place in Fiji. Fiji is inclined to shun dissemination of free information. Even the media has itself propagated this disgraceful conduct over many years of partiality. All of the media. No medals for Freedom of Information in Fiji since 1987 or thereabouts.
That is where the blame lies. It is an 'abuse of office' to keep your population in ignorance of all that might threaten their lives: either through an outdated, outmoded education system or through sheer laziness and incompetence.
Mind you, some smart application of logic and rational thought would not go astray still. Who is responsible for this?
True Pale Blue
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