Tommy Lee Sparta contemplates taking COVID vaccine
Incarcerated dancehall deejay Tommy Lee Sparta is reportedly weighing his options before taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to attorney-at-law and the artiste’s legal representative, Donahue Martin, “he seems contemplative”, but showed more concern for his family.
“He hasn’t made up his mind one way or the other. His overall mood was very pleasant and was happy to see me (so) he asked a lot of other personal questions, asking how is everybody mostly,” he said.
The Shook deejay, whose given name is Leroy Russell, was arrested last December on gun and ammunition charges, and is serving two sentences concurrently; three years for illegal possession of firearm and two years for illegal possession
of ammunition. Prior to that, while in lock-up in July 2020, he experienced vomiting and was rushed to the hospital where he was treated.
Martin revealed that his client has an illness, but that he did not have permission to provide any further details and could not confirm if this was a reason for the deejay not receiving the vaccine.
“I am not at liberty to say the nature of his illness, but he does have what some would describe as a lifestyle disease,” he said. “Because of this, he has to be careful about his diet etc. Coincidentally, when I saw him [earlier this week], he wasn’t vaccinated for whatever reason but he never made any complaints in regards to his health. He is generally in good spirits, very pleasant and he is not a dull personality, just taking it one day at a time,” said Martin.
It was announced in April that vaccines had been allocated for all adult correctional institutions but, 90 per cent of inmates were hesitant to take it. But despite that, Matthew Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, told the Senate last Friday that within the hemisphere, Jamaica was among the countries with the fewest number of COVID-19 cases in its correctional system.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton has suggested that he would welcome the support of incarcerated entertainers, namely Vybz Kartel, onboard the ministry’s ‘Every Vax Counts’ campaign. The dancehall icon was among 30 inmates of the Horizon Adult Correctional Centre to receive the vaccine
on September 3.