Stop blaming ordinary J’cans for vaccine crisis
THE EDITOR, Madam:
I AM glad to see all these questions and issues being raised, highlighted and answered in Garth Rattray’s column ‘ Potentially deadly vaccine excuses (part 2)’, published in The Gleaner yesterday.
Full disclosure, I am fully vaccinated and so are my entire family.
What I find so galling about the vaccine debate in our country is this hypocritical abuse of the media by many so-called learned folks.
Vaccine hesitancy does exist in Jamaica as well as in every country in the world. However, I beg to differ as to the reason for the vaccine status in Jamaica at present.
It seems we always want to focus on blaming ordinary Jamaicans when the issue is the diabolical vaccine roll-out by the Ministry of Health.
Thousands of people have been made to wait for up to eight hours for COVID-19 vaccines, and I personally know of someone who had to wait for three hours at the Portmore medical centre last week only to be told that they were closing and she had to come back the next day!
A week or two before the British donation of just over 300,000 doses in August, there was not a single dose of vaccine in the country. No one mentioned that!
We are now hearing that the reason for dumping over 50,000 vaccines is the fault of ordinary Jamaicans! This is, frankly, disgusting and revolting, a scurrilous scam being perpetuated on the Jamaican people by the elite and their government cronies.
GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE
So, Dr Rattray, I would appreciate if you could write an article that truly expresses the facts on the ground re vaccine roll-out instead of this perpetual badgering of our people.
The sensationalising of hesitancy is just a cover-up for government incompetence!
Vaccine hesitancy is not our main issue. Vaccine availability and vaccine delivery are.
Are we going to blame ordinary Jamaicans for the fact that our schools will remain closed for several more months due to the Pfizer vaccine roll-out debacle?
Please also admit that getting a vaccine is NOT the most important issue for tens of thousands of Jamaicans. Their main issue is survival!
LAING