Series

Distrust in Vaccines and Uncounted Deaths: This is the Pandemic in the Caribbean

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The islands of the Caribbean are similar in their turquoise beaches that captivate tourists, but their handling of the pandemic has been full of contrasts. When the Cayman Islands had 81% of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at the end of October 2021, Haiti, with 0.3%, was one of the three countries in the world with the least number of people vaccinated. And in Guadeloupe, despite having doses to spare, most of the population does not want to be immunized.

Islands Adrift

Hurricanes expose governments’ decades of negligence in Caribbean climate change preparedness

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Climate change effects like rising sea-level, more rainfall and stronger hurricanes are quickly eroding the coasts of vulnerable Caribbean islands and actively destroying community life and economic activity in plain sight with little to no governmental or international action to protect citizens. Hurricane’s Irma and Maria terribly exposed this institutional neglect in Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands where infrastructure collapsed, and coastal constructions were destroyed by storm surge and erosion. Politics play an important role in lack of action and visibility of these island-colonies -and about 10 others in the region- in official world global warming efforts because their data is not considered and they are not included in their analysis.

Actualidad

Something happened in Arroyo Barril

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Eight years have passed but Amparo Andújar Maldonado does not forget. She lost her first child while she was approaching the fifth month of her pregnancy. Nor does she erases from her mind giving birth to a disfigured fetus, with cranial malformation, something incomprehensible for a healthy 27 year old woman, counting with quality prenatal care. But Amparo was not alone. From 2005 to 2008, the rate of miscarriages and premature births rose suddenly in the Encantado neighborhood of Arroyo Barril, a working-class rural and coastal town, north of the Dominican Republic.