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Sunday, February 23, 2025

Getting vaccinated is the CPR treatment for sports

by

Brian Lewis
1155 days ago
20211227
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Sports Letter logo

Get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed is es­sen­tial as the sports world seeks to come out of two years of COVID-19 lock­down and re­stric­tions. The neg­a­tive im­pact will be felt for gen­er­a­tions to come.

A lot of fo­cus has been on Pro­fe­sion­al Sports and Leagues that have had the fi­nan­cial re­sources to spend mil­lions of dol­lars be­hind COVID-19 coun­ter­mea­sures.

A re­al­i­ty that is not the same for am­a­teur sport, youth sport, school sport and the sport sys­tem in al­most every Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (CANOC) mem­ber coun­try. The sports ecosys­tem is in deep trou­ble as COVID-19 has dec­i­mat­ed par­tic­i­pa­tion, mo­ti­va­tion and in­ter­est.

As we come to the end of an­oth­er COVID-19 im­pact­ed year and look to a New Year in the midst of yet an­oth­er vari­ant of Covid-19 - OMI­CRON.

Two sig­nif­i­cant events are on the hori­zon for the Caribbean Olympic and Com­mon­wealth Sports Move­ments.

The 1st Caribbean Games to be held in Guadaloupe in June and the Com­mon­wealth Games in Birm­ing­ham in Ju­ly.

Covid-19 coun­ter­mea­sures and an em­pha­sis on safe­ty and health pro­to­cols will be prag­mat­ic pri­or­i­ties. The Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (CANOC) is urg­ing all stake­hold­ers in the Caribbean Olympic and Com­mon­wealth Sports Move­ments to be guid­ed by sci­ence and med­ical ad­vice. WHO, PA­HO and CARPHA and the Pub­lic Health Au­thor­i­ties.

Get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed is es­sen­tial. In 2022 Manda­to­ry vac­ci­na­tion will be­come the norm rather than the ex­cep­tion as Gov­ern­ments around the Globe move to re­quir­ing full vac­ci­na­tion and Boost­er shots as part of Coun­try en­try re­quire­ments.

The oth­er sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges are the eco­nom­ic and fi­nan­cial im­pact of COVID-19. The cost of par­tic­i­pa­tion, events and COVID-19 coun­ter­mea­sures, safe­ty and health pro­to­cols.

The neg­a­tive so­cial im­pact in­cludes the harsh re­al­i­ty that COVID-19 has had gen­der re­gres­sive im­pli­ca­tions in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

Bri­an Lewis

Pres­i­dent

CANOC


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