Brave Up, Vaccinate!

Dinesh Jamnadas, Lautoka

I feel ashamed that a small country like ours, with a population of about 900,000 of people, continues to report a daily record of COVID-19 cases in the three digits - the highest on Tuesday morning; 636 new COVID-19 cases!

To date, we have close to 6000 active cases. Compared to Sydney in Australia with a population of 4.9 million people, they have recorded only about 29 cases - all because of people heeding medical advice and health regulations.

There has been a lot of unnecessary worry about the COVID-19 vaccine (AstraZeneca) and its side effects. I met many vaccinated people who said they have had just slight side effects after taking the vaccine.

I personally felt tired, my mother who is 91 years old did not feel much, my son experienced a slight fever only, so the side effects are not something to worry about.

If you have children, you would know that from birth they have received all kinds of vaccinations. You allowed your young children to get vaccinated without worrying about its side effects then, let alone asking the doctor about the side effects.

So what difference does it make now?

As long as a good number of our population are not vaccinated, no tourists will come to Fiji and no sports people will come to play here. There will be no jobs for those who rely on the tourism industry and the airline company, and no sports for our players.

This is among the many reasons why we need to get vaccinated.

Please worry about your people. How will they survive if this continues?

If you catch the COVID-19 virus, you can die a horrible and painful death and even if you survive, there may be long-term side effects affecting the brain, lungs and heart.