InvestigationWhile the Caribbean island remains subject to significant restrictions, the authorities are trying to speed up vaccination, in a society that remains resistant to it. Since July, the Delta variant has caused more than 300 deaths.
The volcanic island sounds the gwoka again. The beating heart of Guadeloupe, the drum accompanies the protest marches that leave every Saturday from the Palace of the Mutuality in Pointe-à-Pitre. It resonates loudly, Thursday, September 9, at the entrance of the Lapwent hospital, Creole name of the city, to call for a strike. But the festive spirit which animated, in 2009, the LKP, the collective against the “profit”, flew away. Too many deaths, too many heartbreaks, too much mistrust, too many rumors. The Covid-19 epidemic has taken everything. At the epicenter of this earthquake, vaccination, a source of multiple fractures and a crucial issue in a society which remains resistant to it, despite a “Tsunami” deaths, according to the words of the director of the university hospital (CHU), Gérard Cotellon.
Everything is done to facilitate the famous injection. In Baie-Mahault, Basse-Terre, on the left wing of the butterfly, the Amédée-Détraux velodrome must be transformed, Monday, September 13, into a vaccinodrome. Everything is ready, the boxes, the six queues, the rest room, to accommodate up to a thousand people per day and thus reach the capacity of the vaccine park at Raizet airport.
Five nurses, two doctors, twelve administrative staff are already on guard. Monique Apat, responsible for infrastructure in the region, cautiously hopes for a daily tonnage of 600 vaccine candidates, to start. Will the prestige attached to sport in this “land of champions” (Bambuck, Trésor, Pérec, Flessel, Thuram, Henry, Monfils, Riner, etc.) attract enough candidates, including schoolchildren, to the largest stadium in Paris? the Guadeloupe ?
“The vaccine, here, it’s a flammable debate”
In the parking lot of the velodrome, Gisèle Jasonne, school teacher, took out of her car a bottle of spring water – there are many of them on the island – to wash her hands after shopping at the Gourde-Liane market, located two steps away. This tall and thin fifty-something, equipped with an FFP2 mask, comes there every Wednesday to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables. Here, the pepper is sold by the kilos; when you ask for it individually, the seller laughs and gives it to you, to complement the cod acras offered on a nearby stand. “They give me change, I wash my hands. These basic actions, I did them long before the Covid ”, specifies Gisèle. “I eat local, I take weed grass [plante endémique] and I preserve myself ”, adds the teacher, vaccinated with Pfizer.
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