Carisa lee

Stuck be­tween a rock and a hard place.

That’s how two Gov­ern­ment work­ers said they felt af­ter they took the vac­cine on Wednes­day.

Last month Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced that from mid-Jan­u­ary Gov­ern­ment work­places will re­quire vac­ci­nat­ed staff and un­vac­ci­nat­ed work­ers will be fur­loughed.

It’s the main rea­son why one em­ploy­ee of the Na­tion­al Main­te­nance Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty Com­pa­ny (MTS) who asked to re­main anony­mous de­cid­ed to get vac­ci­nat­ed.

He spoke to Guardian Me­dia out­side the Gov­ern­ment Cam­pus Plaza on Rich­mond Street in Port of Spain.

“I do it be­cause I have a fam­i­ly to mind and if it is I out of a job they will catch their tail to sur­vive,” he said.

The man said his en­tire fam­i­ly is un­vac­ci­nat­ed be­cause they don’t trust the ef­fec­tive­ness of the vac­cine but to pro­vide for them he de­cid­ed to take the jab.

“So I say let me come and do it,” he said.

A con­ver­sa­tion he re­vealed was dif­fi­cult to have with his wife.

“It was tense be­cause and she keep telling me to hold out and hold on un­til the last minute but the way the com­pa­ny push­ing,” he ex­plained.

All COVID-19 vac­cines used in T&T are ap­proved by the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) and have met the nec­es­sary cri­te­ria for safe­ty and ef­fi­ca­cy against the dis­ease.

The MTS work­er al­so did not have faith in the union move­ment.

On Tues­day the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) called on all pub­lic sec­tor work­ers to re­port for du­ty come Jan­u­ary 17, vac­ci­nat­ed or not.

He said he is a union mem­ber but was not will­ing to take that risk.

“At the end of the day they are not putting food on your ta­ble, you can be out of work and they could still be talk­ing,” he said.

He be­lieves this ul­ti­ma­tum will see many pub­lic ser­vants out of work by the 17.

A risk one Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion work­er who al­so did not want to give his name did not want to take, iden­ti­fied on­ly as King took the John­son and John­son vac­cine but af­ter a lot of de­lib­er­a­tion.

He told Guardian Me­dia that he has been em­ployed at the cor­po­ra­tion for over 30 years and did not want to lose his job.

“Af­ter plen­ty thought, you know, not just so, be­ing there for so many years and XYZ have to pay, it does not make sense that you fall out just so,” he said.

He said he hes­i­tat­ed be­cause of his spir­i­tu­al­i­ty but al­so be­cause of “brav­ery and get­ting in­for­ma­tion.”

He took the John­son and John­son vac­cine, while the MTS took Sinopham both men said they felt fine af­ter­wards.

Two oth­er Gov­ern­ment work­ers came for more in­for­ma­tion be­fore get­ting in­oc­u­lat­ed, they said they both felt com­fort­able with tak­ing the jab af­ter speak­ing to the North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NWRHA) of­fi­cials.

They will re­turn on Fri­day.