SEYCHELLES
Worry and Leisure
Americans Shivani Pathak and Bo Sutton were both vaccinated when they went to the Seychelles for a vacation. But, as the Denver Post reported, the married couple recently had to go into quarantine after they tested positive for the virus.
Their plight and the experience of other tourists led the World Health Organization to launch an investigation into coronavirus data in the Seychelles after officials found that 37 percent of those who tested positive for the virus in the country between April 30 and May 8 had been vaccinated, Reuters wrote.
The numbers are concerning, to say the least. An island nation in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, the Seychelles has one of the highest rates of vaccination in the world – more than 60 percent have received two doses of vaccines while more than 70 percent have had at least one shot, according to CNBC.
Yet the country with a population of less than 100,000 has seen a surge in cases this month, raising additional questions beyond the data, like why its vaccination efforts have not yielded better results.
“It is providing a critical case to consider the effectiveness of some vaccines and what range we have to reach to meet herd immunity,” Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Global Health Yanzhong Huang told the Washington Post.
Experts are wondering about the role of the Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, whose vaccine has been used to inoculate almost 60 percent of the Seychelles’ citizens who have had a jab, in the country’s experience, the New York Times added.
Many observers were already raising questions about Sinopharm’s late-stage clinical trial data. Now they are wondering if Sinopharm executives oversold its benefits. China donated 13.3 million Sinopharm doses to countries as part of a “vaccine diplomacy” policy designed to improve China’s global relations.
Researchers need to figure out who is truly coming down with the virus, whether they are vaccinated and when they might have been infected because, even if they have both vaccine shots, immunity doesn’t occur immediately, explained BioWorld.
On the positive side, few people are dying from Covid-19 in the Seychelles, CNN reported. It seems that the vaccines might not halt the spread but they could dramatically improve the chances of survival for those who are sick. Chinese state news service Xinhua made a similar point in a news story.
Meanwhile, the country’s economy is reeling due to a decline in tourism, the government-controlled Seychelles News Agency reported. The country’s leaders keep stressing that they want tourists to come despite the uncertainties over the virus.
That’s a hard sell. If people want to relax, they’ll need to know for sure whether they are safe from Covid-19.
