COVID has taken one of the most enjoyable parts of my life away from me. Carnival.

Even a potential return to normal via vaccination is rife with unpredictability. It’s hard to plan ahead for a carnival when one month before mas a surge of cases could have you locked in your house instead of revelling on the streets.

Well, my camera is slowly rusting in a corner of my bottom drawer…. I’ve had a lot of time to think of some ways out (for some of us at least).

I think a full fledged Jamaica carnival is impossible in April 2022. Our vaccination rate is abysmal and the unvaxxed must be protected or our hospital system will collapse (again). This makes the usual road experience impossible, as all and sundry (and unvaxxed) would be mingling uncontrollably and surges in hospitalization and deaths would follow. The uncertainty of covid times also makes it impossible for bands to commit to finishing production when it may be cancelled close to the date.

So if we let go of the thought of a full costume carnival experience on the road, what are the alternatives?

Hear me out.

Make the entire Jamaica carnival experience fully vaxxed and tested negative only.

Fetes: All the events would have ministry of health representatives to ensure the status of all patrons. By this time a QR code system will hopefully be fully rolled out in Jamaica. Vaccination status will be confirmed at entry at the gate. All patrons will also need proof of a negative test less than 72 hours old.

The option is also open to have persons who are confirmed to be recovered from covid included as well as recovery is as good as vaccination in many cases.

Obviously, most events will be a little smaller and there will be fewer. This may however facilitate them being held on dates closer together and closer to the parade to allow one covid test to serve for as many events as possible.

Road parade: For the road experience the bands could share a communal “road march” in the national stadium park. Something similar but smaller has been done before

With a large fenced route and adequate security the same rules would apply. On entry your vaccination status and test status would be confirmed. This would allow you access to a parade where the bands share the cost of the infrastructure such as trucks and a stage. The bands could decide if they want to share all expenses and revenues equally or if they want some other plan.

Revellers would preferably bring their own monday wear and just come out to have a good time. If the covid landscape looks stable enough in the month before the event the bands could possibly sell Monday wear as well (obviously masqueraders who have already paid something for 2020 carnival would be credited that amount).

After the parade, just like in Miami, encourage all revellers to test a few days later as well.

But why?

This plan keeps the unvaccinated, who are the ones who fill hospitals in numbers high enough to collapse even first world hospital systems, safe.

“The vaxxed cant still test positive!” You may say. Sure. But at a much lower rate and for a shorter duration, decreasing their ability to spread disease. Most importantly vaxxed persons rarely get sick enough to go to hospital (especially the majority of the carnival age group) keeping our health sector safe.

The marketing would have to be strong to ensure the revellers test 5 days post parade to ensure they are covid free, to avoid spread to the unvaxxed.

The Backlash

i know many of you reading are either angry or dismissive of this plan because you personally refuse to get vaccinated for whatever reason. I’m not mad at you. You have to live by your principles and it’s ok. Eventually we will all jump together again. But for now, I think this plan keeps most infections that may come up as a result of carnival confined to the vaxxed where it does the least damage.

What are your thoughts?