Booster shot mania: A sign of ego boost policy failure

27 Sep 2021

Booster shot mania: A sign of ego boost policy failure

27 Sep 2021

By Rajpal Abeynayake Both the Army Commander and State Minister Channa Jayasumana have said that Sri Lanka will administer vaccine booster shots – a third dose – in the near future. The story of this booster fancying is not as simple as getting jabbed on the bicep of your upper arm; these jabs are expensive. Do they protect to the extent they are supposed to with Covid-19 mutating rapidly, which is supposed to be a rather unsurprising phenomenon? “Drugmakers Pfizer Inc., BioNTech, and Moderna Inc. are expected to reap billions of dollars from Covid-19 booster shots in a market that could rival the $ 6 billion in annual sales for flu vaccines for years to come, analysts and healthcare investors say.” That’s from a Reuters news story on the booster shot market. In a viewpoint published in The Lancet meanwhile, leading health officials from around the world say booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine aren’t necessary yet. “Current evidence does not...appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which (vaccine) efficacy against severe disease remains high,” the authors wrote. If the elite medical community does not see the need for Covid booster shots, and even the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided against such booster doses, why is the current administration touting booster shots before the booster regimen is out of the gate even in the developed countries that manufacture these vaccines? The fact that those such as Jayasumana are ever ready to go public with this “will be ready with boosters” story gives a valuable insight into the general mindset of the technocratic Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) administration. The dispensation’s leading lights, including the President himself, are so technocratically out on a limb that they seem to unquestioningly accept anything that is touted in the west as the next wisest thing. That would have been fine if it wasn’t known that there are several vested interests behind various projects that are touted in the developed world from time to time. Accepting every “trend” in the west seems to be a mania with this administration, which, ironically, touted itself as a nationalistic force that was an antidote to the previous regime which was seen as far too much in troth to foreign powers i.e. the western nations. But the current administration is so westernised that a separate analysis is required about how a technocratic mindset can lead to a type of slavishness that leaves all rationality behind in the pursuit of some imaginary “science”-based moksha. It is suspected that it’s a general lack of reading and education that steers the current crop of policymakers towards this type of totally unquestioning acceptance of everything doled out in the west as the “next shiny thing in science”. These policy czars do not seem to have the ability to take the wide-angle view of anything because they are under the impression that they are “modern” and “hip”. If that’s so, some may pipe up to ask how it was that the same dispensation became enamoured with the Dhammika Peniya, etc. that was the work of some charlatans who were out to make a quick buck? It seems the regime operates at different levels, but that at its core it seeks to portray itself as being fully immersed in science, as opposed to the rabble out there who are not so “viyath” (erudite). It’s this same technocratic gung-ho chutzpah that seems to have sent the Government in the direction of an organic fertiliser project that seeks a transition from chemical fertilisers without so much as a polite by your leave. Transitioning to organic fertiliser is good, and this writer has indeed written several pieces on the subject stating that the Government’s decision was the correct one. However, the abrupt change of gear is bound to not just cause shortages in some areas of food supply – which presumably can be tackled – but also would disrupt the livelihoods of local cultivators. Those that are so eager about the touted “science” that they throw caution to the winds can, these days, be rewarded by certain leading actors in the global establishment. It seems the current administration is particularly susceptible to such blandishments. This is why this administration’s health policy czars are prone to touting “we are the fastest to advocate booster shots”, etc., which have become the slogans they live by. However, transitioning too fast can be calamitous to economies, which is why no nation is too enamored with the thought of 100% ditching fossil fuels immediately, for instance, no matter how urgent the cause of climate change may be. When it comes to pet schemes of vested interests, the avowedly “technocratic” GR regime it seems can easily be suckered. But, to be enamored by the “shiny new thing in science” is not an educated response at all. An article in The Atlantic notes: Medical science never minds are hardly a secret...(as when) consensuses of researchers concluded that mammograms, colonoscopies, and PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests are far less useful cancer-detection tools than we had been told; or when widely prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil were revealed to be no more effective than a placebo for most cases of depression; or when we learned that staying out of the sun entirely can actually increase cancer risks; or when we were told that the advice to drink lots of water during intense exercise was potentially fatal. All of the above are instances when the “science” was proved to be wrong, especially when the “scientific facts” as we were told were embraced far too soon without rigorous application of research method. So, when the current administration out of a fashion chases the science, just to show off that the policymakers are impressively clued in with the “latest”, that entire unholy frenzy can be rather ignorant. The indecent hurry that’s being shown in the matter of embracing the booster shots shows the ridiculousness of the Jayasumana/GR type of inability to be more inquiring about the so-called shiny new thing in science. Here we have the US FDA voting against booster shots but the Army Commander and Jayasumana, etc. are talking about the possibility of booster jabs for everybody in the near future. To some extent it seems the administration has already been suckered on the organic fertiliser issue. Admirable it may be to switch to organic fertilisers, but when a lot of the interested observers outside the country are applauding an instant transition the regime has to ask itself, why are these outsiders so happy? Which vested interests have we appeased? But in the GR mindset, it seems to be highly taken by the blandishments especially if they come from the direction of the west. Maybe on the one hand it is a desire to overcompensate for being demonised by the west after the former Rajapaksa administration, including the current President, were faulted for the war victory, especially in the western world. But it also seems that this administration is narcissistic, plainly put. It’s leading denizens want to show we are clever, and what more clever way to show that than saying we are in tune with science? But being so over eager about the “science” as to accept it even before the US FDA does, and crow about booster shots before even the US is out of the gate on the matter, is to set yourself up to be suckered. There would be enough vested interests now lining up to dupe a Government that has shown it is willing and eager almost, to be duped with quick dispatch. This may be good for egos – this recognition by a horde of vested interests – but it is extremely bad for the country. We stand to lose, mostly in dollar terms each time we are duped – and in the throes of a struggling economy, that can indeed be fatal. (The writer is a former Editor-in-Chief of three national English language publications and a practicing Attorney-at-Law. He is an Editors’ Guild award-winning columnist, and contributing writer and columnist for the Nikkei Asian Review and South China Morning Post, while his editorials have been published in The Australian) The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.

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Booster shot mania: A sign of ego boost policy failure

Booster shot mania: A sign of ego boost policy failure

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