Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s frustration with parents who are denying their children the opportunity to take the Pfizer vaccine is understandable. From the figures provided, 22,330 children in the 12-18 category received the first dose. Of that number 35 are migrants, meaning only 25 per cent of the school-age population is vaccinated.
At present ten children have contracted COVID 19 virus—eight are warded and one is in a High Dependency Unit (HDU), another in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh won’t reveal the ages of the children, claiming that would be a breach of patient confidentiality. However, his stance doesn’t help the government’s efforts to convince parents about the importance of getting children vaccinated
Sufficient information must be provided to convince parents and guardians how dangerous COVID-19 can be to children—serious enough that some of them are ending up in ICU fighting for their lives.
The effort now is to vaccinate to educate but for that to be achieved, the authorities must be frank, open and honest.
The fact that so many people do not want to take vaccines affects all of us. As long as vaccination rates remain low we are at risk from the ravages of the Delta variant and any new variant that might emerge.
Citizens now have access to a range of COVID-19 vaccines and the hope is that efforts to get every citizen over the age of 12 fully will be successful. Perhaps there will be a better response to the new initiative to administer vaccines in the safe spaces of schools and to offer the Pfizer vaccine to teachers and health care workers.
It is a positive sign that MPs across the political divide are now rallying their constituents to get vaccinated. Hopefully, the Prime Minister’s appeal to religious and other leaders to get on board and encourage people to get vaccinated will also yield positive results.
This country faces an uphill battle against COVID-19. As of yesterday, 1,274 citizens have died and
297 new cases were recorded. But only 390,380 citizens are fully vaccinated, 503,239 have received the first dose and 1,063 had taken the single-dose J&J vaccine.
Unless and until people get vaccinated T&T will continue to record daily deaths and triple-digit cases.
Dr Rowley describes the current situation as the glass being half empty. He wants schools to reopen for in-person classes by October 1 and has offered a ray of hope that religious gatherings might resume soon. However, the depends on more people getting vaccinated.
The ball is now in the court of every citizen of this country to do what is required, particularly in the interest of our children who have endured hardships throughout the pandemic.
In addition to the problems their families have encountered with loss of income and other financial difficulties, T&T’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens have experienced a disruption in their education for more than a year. No one should want that to continue.