Haiti hasn’t vaccinated a single person — which puts them and South Floridians in danger | Editorial

This editorial has been updated on May 6, 2021 to reflect new information.

Haiti is already plagued by so many issues. Deep political turmoil. Extreme poverty. Armed gangs terrorizing people. A wave of kidnappings for ransom.

And not a single COVID vaccine has been administered in the country.

More than two months after other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean started receiving vaccines through COVAX, a group backed by the World Health Organization, Haiti still hasn’t gotten any.

There are a few reasons. A Miami Herald story on April 9 said factors included the lack of a sufficient health infrastructure, not enough planning, logistical delays and concerns about the safety of AstraZeneca vaccines, which have faced setbacks in the United Kingdom and European Union after blood-clotting worries. More recently, on May 5, a story noted that “legal and administrative arrangements” still must be made.

World events are starting to intervene, too. The explosion of COVID-19 cases in India means that country has halted its exports of the AstraZeneca vaccines. The Serum Institute of India was supposed to send about a billion doses to COVAX, the United Nations-backed alliance helping poorer nations obtain the life-saving shots. Haiti was in line to get 756,000 doses by the end of May but that’s been cast into doubt.

The result is that a country of about 11 million people still hasn’t even begun to vaccinate its population. That’s not good for Haitians on the island, and because of Haiti’s close ties to South Florida, that’s not good for us, either.

So far, Haiti appears to have been lucky. The country allowed the three-day Carnival celebration to go on in February this year, even though the pre-Lenten celebration was barred in other countries across the region because of the pandemic. Many residents still do not wear masks.

Yet the country’s official COVID-19 numbers, if they are to be believed, have been remarkably low. Haiti has registered 13,164 confirmed cases and just 263 deaths since March 2020.

In a country with scarce medical facilities, those numbers are probably far from accurate, but, even so, it seems that Haiti has not been a hotspot of infection. If so, it is truly a blessing in a country that needs every blessing it can get.

But Haiti is going to need more than that. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in more than a year of this pandemic, it’s that the virus isn’t easily defeated. It’s mutating, and some of those variants are more contagious and may cause more severe disease.

Cost isn’t a factor. Haiti is among 10 countries in the Americas that will receive vaccines for 20 percent of its population for free through COVAX.

The responsible thing for Haiti to do is get vaccines into as many arms as possible — quickly — so infections don’t suddenly blow up.

Haiti’s foreign minister, Claude Joseph, told the Editorial Board last month that Haiti wants to recast the prevailing narrative about the country, starting with free, fair and safe elections this year. President Jovenel Moïse has been ruling without a parliament for more than a year. A peaceful and speedy transfer of power would certainly go a long way toward changing Haiti’s image.

But elections are still months off. Vaccines are available now. It’s time for the government to be open and honest about the reasons Haitians still don’t have access to them. It’s time to get vulnerable people vaccinated.

The Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, the WHO’s Americas branch, told Herald Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles this spring that Haiti and the international community have been working hard to get vaccines there as soon as possible. But PAHO also has said that if Haiti rejects its free vaccines, those doses will be sent to another country.

We understand the Haitian government has many problems to solve. But a lack of vaccines doesn’t have to be one of them — and it shoudn’t be. If Haiti wants to change its narrative, it needs to tell its citizens — and the international community — why it hasn’t begun vaccinating its citizens against the terrible scourge of COVID-19.

Joseph said that “2021 is a crucial year for Haiti.” We couldn’t agree more. Getting vaccines to the people now is the perfect place to start — and it’s already overdue.

This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 1:30 PM.