BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Thursday 15th July 2021)- Herd immunity protection for children provided from fully vaccinated adults at a CPL (Caribbean Premier League) mass setting is the level of reasoning as to why unvaccinated minors will be allowed to attend the cricket sporting event in August-September 2021 at the Warner Park Stadium in Basseterre.
“We also know that children cannot be vaccinated but they can go under the umbrella of their parents or their guardians, and so if you have a family of five adults who are vaccinated and there is a child who is 14 and wants to attend the game, they can go and they can obtain the herd immunity protection from the family and other persons who are there who are vaccinated to ensure that they may not get infected.”
Such an explanation has been given by Medical Chief of Staff at the Joseph N. France General Hospital and member of the National COVID-19 Task Force, Dr. Cameron Wilkinson.
He was at the time responding to a question about alleged segregation and discrimination among vaccinated and unvaccinated at entertainment and sporting events while speaking at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing on Wednesday 14th July 2021.
At present in St.Kitts-Nevis, the AstraZeneca vaccine is only given to individuals 18 and over.
About unvaccinated CPL players, Dr. Wilkinson stated: “As it relates to the players, they are in a different bubble, and there would be no communication between the players and the spectators.”
In addressing concerns over discrimination regarding vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, he expressed: “First of all let me start by saying that there is no discrimination against the unvaccinated and we need to stop speaking about unvaccinated as if it’s a race or gender that cannot change. Our fight, as I said all along, has been for the unvaccinated.”
He continued: “We have been trying to get as many persons who can be vaccinated [to get] vaccinated so that we can protect those who cannot be vaccinated, and those who cannot be vaccinated include our young folk who are below the age of 18, and so there’s no discrimination at all. We are encouraging you who are above the age of 18 and can be vaccinated to get vaccinated so that you can protect these persons. Our fight has also been for the pregnant mother and the unborn child who cannot be vaccinated, and so there is no discrimination against those persons at all by us encouraging you out there who can be vaccinated to go forward and get vaccinated is so that you can protect those persons. Our fight has also been for the elderly and frail who cannot be vaccinated, and so there’s no discrimination against those persons. We are encouraging you again who are out there and can be vaccinated to go forward so that you can protect these persons.
In talking about mass events, he pointed out that such can be done safely with vaccinated adults.
“…CPL is a mass event, we know that mass events can be super spreaders, and so in the first instance as we’re moving forward with mass events, we’re saying that they can be safely done with vaccinated adults, and if one wants to go to the CPL and you can get vaccinated then you can simply go forward and get vaccinated so that you can attend the CPL games. There is no discrimination at all, and so by having a crowd or spectators attending the CPL who are vaccinated, we know that the chance of getting a super spreader event from this is significantly decreased.”
Notably, for CPL games, there is a cap of 50 % capacity of fans in attendance to the 8000-seat venue.