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MEDICAL doctor and social commentator, Dr Alfred Dawes recently stoked members of the Rotary Club of Trafalgar New Heights and other service organisations to view the challenges wrought by the novel coronavirus pandemic as opportunities to address underlying health and social issues.
He said their efforts to address the problems will redound to the benefit of current and future generations.
He was addressing the incoming board of young professionals of the Rotary Club of Trafalgar New Heights in St Andrew during a hybrid ceremony.
Dawes, a former president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors' Association and one of a handful of laparoscopic surgeons in the Caribbean, noted that the crisis has brought to the surface numerous gaps and inequalities in health, health systems and access to social amenities, which should be addressed with alacrity in order to strengthen the fight against COVID-19 and future crises.
He named obesity among the burgeoning issues that have left populations vulnerable to the deadly respiratory illness, noting that obesity has been among the leading contributors to severe cases of COVID-19 in the United States of America, for example. The USA has experienced the highest number of deaths from the disease globally with more than 609,000 fatalities since the disease began sweeping the world in March 2020.
"I spoke with a doctor who does a lot of volunteer work in Jamaica and he was working right at the front line in New York in the emergency department, and when I was asking him what he was seeing there he said it was the obese persons who were more likely to come in," he told Rotarians of the Dr Suzanne McDonald Fowles-led Trafalgar New Heights club.
"The younger persons who are getting knocked down by this virus have one thing in common: it's not asthma, it's not diabetes or high blood pressure. It's always obesity," he affirmed.
Painting a picture to cement his point, Dawes said some patients are so corpulent and heavy, additional manpower has to be employed in intensive care units to turn their bodies in bed.
"I'm sure the local experience is the same, where younger persons who end up in ICU in serious condition are the ones who are more likely to be obese. And, they are also likely to have the diabetes, the high blood pressure at an early age," Dawes said.
He stressed, however, that obesity is a complex issue and is not merely an individual problem, but a societal challenge, noting that much of what is available as food for the vast majority is usually based on ancestral traditions, marketing by super corporates, and price.
Using the example of American Samoa, a US territory in the South Pacific to make the point, Dawes pointed out how inequalities in trade and development can influence lifestyles that lead to disease. American Samoa, which over decades developed a taste for turkey tail imported from poultry farms in the US, now suffers a 90 per cent obesity rate and diabetes rate, Dawes underscored.
"In countries where you have a lot of fast food chains...processed foods and...large advertising budgets aimed at getting people to eat out more, you also have with that a rise in the rate of obesity," he opined.
He said laws are needed to regulate these issues.
"It takes laws for governments to protect their people. It is not safe enough to have jingles on TV to say eat better and don't drink sodas. There must be laws to regulate and guide persons. These are what are needed - strong public health measures," Dawes said.
He said emphasis also needs to be placed on prevention and the curing of obesity through lifestyle modification and nutritional programmes, in order to reduce the health gap.
Beyond the health gaps, however, Dawes also noted the inequalities in education exacerbated by the pandemic, which he said has further marginilised the nation's most vulnerable children. He expects the situation to continue, as he's not hopeful that the nation's schools will be able to open for face-to-face classes in September.
"What is going to happen? How far are marginalised children going to be set back? What is going to happen with a cohort of children with lost years and at best, some optimal education for three school years? That is a challenge we have to look into," he told Rotarians.
Cloaking his charge to Rotarians in the country's history of resistance, Dawes reminded them of their innate strength and natural capacity to overcome adversities and drive social justice and reform.
"Our youth need positive role models and this is where we have to step up as community service groups... and replace the scammers and the dons," he charged.
"Those who share the vision of nation-building must now take our places as the 'area leaders', and that is where we ought to look. That is where I challenge the incoming president to take the Rotary Club of Trafalgar New Heights."
In response to the challenge, newly installed president for the 2021-2022 Rotary year, Suzanne McDonald Fowles, a consultant anaesthesiologist at Kingston Public Hospital, outlined the club's commitment to service and highlighted its partnerships and continued projects in communities, such as Maverley and Seaview Gardens, to support transformation.