TWO news headlines grabbed world attention last week: ‘The Queen Tests Positive For COVID’ and ‘PAHO Head Says Complacency Contributed To Deadly COVID-19 Surge In The Americas’.

The first was a brief BBC item confirming the virus had penetrated Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace — and the Royal Household was on full-COVID-alert.

The Queen was experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms” but would continue with “light duties”; and she “will continue to receive medical attention” and “follow all the appropriate guidelines”.

And Her Majesty’s “eldest son and heir” (Charles, the Prince of Wales) had “tested positive on February 10, after meeting his mother on February 8” and that “other palace staff also tested positive”.

The second headline was about Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Director, Carissa Etienne saying the continuing spread of COVID and increasing deaths were preventable.

She told her latest weekly press conference in Washington: “Complacency around mask wearing, travel and indoor gatherings created a perfect opportunity for the new Omicron variant to spread rapidly throughout the region and increase deaths.”

Dr Etienne warned that “Reduced public health measures were insufficient to reduce the scale of this wave and now we’re dealing with the consequence: a rise in infections is driving a surge in deaths.”

COVID-19 infections declined by 31 per cent last week (across the wider PAHO region), but deaths continued to rise by 5.6 per cent — and more-than-half who’ve died (in PAHO member-states) were over 65.

But many other deaths occurred among those yet to receive COVID-19 vaccines; and unvaccinated people — of all ages — still fill-up hospitals and ICU beds.

“Undoubtedly, Omicron overtook us,” Dr Etienne noted, “and right now, we’re losing far too many lives because we didn’t use all the tools we had developed, to slow the spread and prevent infections”.

She indicated: “Omicron has shown that the vaccines we have at hand can protect most of us from severe illness and death” and warned PAHO member states to be vigilant about implementing public health measures too quickly.

“We need to activate our responses more rapidly to keep pace with the current wave and stay ahead of future surges of this very fast, very serious virus,” Dr Etienne added.

The two items grabbed global attention because, in the first case involving The Queen, it all boiled down to the complacency the PAHO Director has long been warning about.

London is as guilty as many PAHO member-states when it comes to the complacency Director Etienne worries about – and it’s all happening at the worst time for the queen’s kingdom.

The supreme monarch’s eldest son and heir (Prince Charles) contracted COVID a few days after her 70th year on The Royal Throne, just days after his younger brother, Prince Andrew, settled a sleazy sex scandal out-of-court.

And just as the UK press started blaming Charles for adding to his mother’s 2022 royal blues in her Jubilee Year, up came a new headline about him also now being investigated for an alleged ‘Cash for Honors’ scheme involving a billionaire foreigner who funds his charities.

But while the British public is being encouraged to try to figure-out whether it’s time for the queen to bow-out or whether she should continue to stand taller than her closest royal subjects, the silent but throbbing thought on many minds worldwide was: What could have been, had the Queen and the Prince not been vaccinated?

A fortnight earlier, when the Omicron Variant started metamorphosing and cloning itself into new sub-variants and scientists were prematurely predicting it may mark the beginning of the end of COVID-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General warned it was too early to dream of the end of the pandemic and discouraged easing of restrictions too early.

But Caribbean countries are differently selective in which measures governments will adopt from the experiences of Europe and North America, with some going the UK way (relaxing and removing restrictions) and others opting for more cautionary approaches.

Despite the PAHO Director’s widely-publicised warnings, however, there are still several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations relaxing COVID protocols to facilitate the likes of holiday partying at home and “approved locations”, while others restrict all public national celebrations – including Carnival, Independence and Republican anniversaries – to virtual, online features.

Fact is: In the UK case, the Palace’s COVID fighters dropped their guard, overestimated their defence capabilities and underestimated the capability of the virus to overcome and penetrate even their best defences, drawbridges raised or not.

At a time when Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Downing Street officials were being accused of partying with Wine and Cheese late last year while the nation was under lockdown and The Queen was mourning the death of her husband (Prince Philip), she was shown on TV conversing happily and shaking hands with visitors and cutting her Jubilee Cake — all with no mask and at no social distance.

Just days before, the Duke and Duchess of York (Prince Charles and his wife Camilla) were shown doing the very same at another function attended by Chancellor Rishi Sunak (who’s currently being fingered as a possible heir to the Prime Minister’s Throne, should his detractors throw the British Boris under a London bus over fears he’s become a liability to their re-election chances).

However, The Queen and the UK PM and Downing Street’s common experiences have again underlined that laws and protocols should always apply — and be seen to be applied – equally and across-the-board; and The Director reaffirmed that Omicron is not a variant to play games with, whether in palaces or parliaments.

All that royal sauce aside, though, like the Queen, the Prince, Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre (who recently tested positive despite also being vaccinated and boosted) and all other Heads of State and Government who’ve contracted COVID-19 – and they’re all living proof that none shall escape the virus’ final judgement.
And that being vaccinated does save lives.