While the islands await word on when there’ll be another carnival in these parts, Caribbean people around the US are feting like there’s no tomorrow. This past weekend, Atlantic City was a whole vibe with several of the Caribbean’s best entertainers gathered for non stop enjoyment at the Beach Roadtrip weekend. Among the artistes promoted for the weekend were, Dexta Daps, Bunji Garlin, Alkaline, Problem Child and Grenada’s Mr. Killa.

Problem Child is one of those artistes who’ve seemingly started the madness that usually makes its way into T&T’s carnival, annually. He’s been mashing up fetes with a song called ‘Crocodile’ that’s gaining momentum and, with hopes that T&T’s government will ease up on Covid restrictions, maybe we’ll see just what that track can do in the months ahead.

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HEALTH BUZZ

Despite all that’s happening internationally however, there’s still apprehension over whether “normal” will return to T&T anytime soon. In case you haven’t heard- any non national wishing to enter Trinidad and Tobago’s borders, must be fully vaccinated with a PCR test in hand, to prove they’re free of the virus. Even nationals who wish to enter and haven’t been vaccinated, must present their negative PCR test and added to that, upon entry, they’ll be taken to an official state quarantine facility for a period of 7 days, which they’ll have to fork out the cash to pay for.

There’s still a lot of skepticism surrounding the vaccination, much in part to conspiracies, but there are also legitimate questions facing governments globally. One such question surrounds the fact that several major Western countries have exempted manufacturers from liability in the rare case where a person may suffer serious illness or injury as a result of the Covid vaccine. One may ask, why is this so, especially since up to this time, all COVID-19 vaccines operate under emergency use authorization. In the US specifically, as the Delta variant poses some threat to comfort, there is mounting pressure by some medical experts for the US Food and Drug administration to grant full approval as soon as possible as a way of encouraging those who are hesitant about taking the vaccine, to get with the programme.

Speaking with Politico, Abby Capobianco, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said the agency is moving as quickly as possible on the vaccine makers’ applications for full approval, but she would not tell Politico when that approval might happen.

Trinidad and Tobago’s government has announced plans to push their vaccination programme into high gear beginning this week, with some 800,000 doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccines said to have been making its way to local shores by today.