The War against the unvaccinated
The war against the unvaccinated continues.....Mr. Higgins writes for and supports the existing political establishment with a bias towards the JLP. That alone means that he has little credibility with me. It would be better if partisan political pundits like him shut up and leave the vaccination marketing to the public health experts. People like Mr. Higgins and the politicians have so dominated the Covid vaccination narrative that there is no space left for the public health and infectious disease specialists. Here in Canada, vaccination is mandatory and so I am fully vaccinated (3 shots: two Pfizer and one Moderna). However, I remain uncomfortable with mandating vaccination. Polls show that 4 out of 5 Jamaicans are hesitant or against the vaccines and in the US, polls show that 2 out of 3 people are against mandatory vaccination.
This is not our first pandemic. I am old enough to remember the polio and TB pandemics of the 1950s in Jamaica. Even though polio and TB at the time were way more serious than Covid, at no time were vaccines mandated. People avoided crowds and vaccines were made readily accessible but schools did not close, there were no 'No Movement Days' or curfews. Somehow, we got through those pandemics without infringing on people's rights to go to school, protest, move around or trade. I have listened to the anti-vaxxers and a lot of what some of them say is garbage just like some of the things some pro mandatory vaccination proponents say is garbage. However, there are some concerns which the anti-vaxxers have that are valid. I am no public health expert so I have some questions to those who are public health/infectious disease experts and who are for mandating vaccination. Why is it that vaccination is seen as the ONLY way out of the pandemic to the point where if you don't take the vaccines, you cannot go to school, go to the gym, go to university or college, go to work or go to entertainment or dining venues? Previous pandemics also focused on treatment and we now have adequate treatment for TB. I know. I had TB, was treated for a while and now I am fine.
A second concern I have about the vaccines is that pro-vaccine people continue to insist that the vaccines are completely safe. If that is so, why did the vaccine makers seek and get complete relief from legal liability? I got sick for a few days each time I got a shot and once I had testicular pain. I ask the public health experts: Why is it that some have suffered much more serious reactions and a few have died from the vaccines? What is the vaccine measure of 'safety'? I know, the numbers are small but if it is your life (and you have only one life), should you not have a choice? Public health experts/infectious disease experts please feel free to reply. The rest of you shut up. I don't want to hear from someone who knows no more than me about public health of infectious diseases.
Healthy Children and healthy young people have almost zero risk when it comes to Covid. I ask the public health experts: Why impose vaccination on children - without parental consent? To prevent infecting the old? The vaccinated are still able to infect others. I repeat, just because I am vaccinated, I still have to wear a mask in public so that I don't infect others. The vaccinated can spread Covid.
I am yet to receive or find a reply to these questions from any expert in public health who is in favor of mandatory vaccination for Covid. Yet, all these non-experts such as Mr. Higgins are fiercely pushing for mandatory vaccines and those who say no and dare to protest are pepper sprayed by the police and carted off to jail. Mr. Lloyd D'Aguilar was at the UIC protest just as a bystander watching when he was pepper sprayed even though he was not armed, not attacking or obstructing the police. Why is that necessary?
Canada had protests against mandatory vaccination but things have quietened down now except for the odd fight at restaurants when the unvaccinated are prevented from entering. The proponents of mandatory vaccination have won the battle - in Canada - although some court cases are pending. However, in other parts of the world, people continue to rage against mandatory vaccination. In Jamaica, where the majority start out by not trusting the politicians and are against the vaccines, making the vaccines compulsory will be a hard sell and possibly a recipe for social chaos - not to mention reducing Brogad's high popularity.
Smokers, the obese, people who eat bad food, people who abuse alcohol clog our hospitals too but no one is saying they should not have the right to travel, study, work or eat in a restaurant. The argument that the unvaccinated are filling up the hospitals is accurate but what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. You smoke and get cancer, too bad, no hospital for you; go out and die...No vaccine? You can't go to school, participate in sports, work, study, go to the gym, a restaurant or a place of entertainment. That is how it is here in Canada. Is that the kind of society we Jamaicans want?
I had to submit and be vaccinated if I wanted to have a normal life in Canada or travel to the US which I do pretty regularly as most of my family are in the US. I am pretty old with comorbidities and I urge people in my category to consider getting vaccinated but I still believe that should be your choice. If you are young and in good health it should also be your choice whether you want to get vaccinated or not as you are at very low risk from Covid. Follow the public health measures such as mask wearing, hand washing, social distancing and avoid crowds. However, when it comes to vaccination it should be: your body, your choice.
Raymond D. Grant
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