On a day when the country recorded its deadliest numbers from COVID-19 with 33 deaths and 956 new cases, the Prime Minister held to a commitment he made in an exclusive interview with Guardian Media and announced that he was making the Public Service a safe zone.
It means public officers must be vaccinated from mid-January.
It’s a measure that took too long to come and perhaps had the government acted earlier the death toll from COVID-19 would not now be nearing the 2,600 marker. But that’s now a moot point and finally, decisive action has been taken.
What’s difficult to understand is the Opposition’s continued criticism of measures clearly meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 and reduce transmission and deaths.
In an immediate response to the announcement, Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she was absolutely against “mandatory vaccinations and vaccine discrimination.”
According to Persad-Bissessar, “People should not be forced to choose between feeding their family and taking a vaccine.”
One wonders at her position, given that for months this country has had a variety of vaccines available free of charge to the public, while she has issued no public appeal for citizens to take the vaccine or be in the forefront of the battle to get the unvaccinated to take the shot that the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and other international health agencies say is vital to curbing the spread and reducing deaths from COVID-19.
Persad-Bissessar must understand that as the leader of a party that is potentially the government in waiting, her role isn’t just to criticise and encourage those who don’t want to get vaccinated but to adopt a responsible line and encourage anti-vaxxers and the vaccine-hesitant to get vaccinated.
One can only wonder if Persad-Bissessar were in government now what would be her position? Unlike her, this newspaper does not see this as taking bread out of the mouths of the unvaccinated, but rather saving the lives of the unvaccinated and their families, and giving them the opportunity to be able to live another day to fight and put bread on their table.
Why is it that in this country’s politics must always get in the way of common sense? Across the world, COVID-19 is being referred to as the ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’.
Which part of that does Persad- Bissessar not understand? Her very position on the PM’s announcement could be hampering the good some of her own MPs have been doing on the ground to encourage citizens to get vaccinated.
The choice for vaccination has been there since April and given we’ve not yet vaccinated 50 per cent of the population speaks volumes about the level of vaccine hesitancy. It is time we take the politics out of the virus and focus on the near 2,600 people who have died and the families who have been left behind. Do the politicians realise how many children have been left orphans because of this virus? Does Persad-Bissessar realise many of these children now have no one to even feed them?
We hope in the interest of good sense, citizens go out and get vaccinated. It is clearly the only thing that offers some hope against this virus. This is not the first country to go this route and it won’t be the last.
In this week of Christmas as we reflect on the hope the Christ child brought, let’s also all reflect on what we need to do to bring hope that 2022 could be a better year by doing what’s required.