Dear Editor,
“Because We Care” takes on a whole new meaning as over two hundred students received their vaccines at the St Stanislaus College. This is a timely humanitarian gesture from the United States Government which donated 146,250 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as our Minister of Education is placing emphasis on the re-opening of our schools. This is the same vaccine which is now being administered to students in the USA and has a 95 per cent efficacy rate.

The current protests by anti-vaxxers must be seen for what it is: it is simply a political ploy which is supported by the Opposition due to lack of any concrete issues to tackle. This was substantiated by a survey done by Dr Vishnu Bisram. The Opposition just needed an excuse and anything is something. At this juncture in Guyana, the Opposition is simply splitting hairs to find issues which can be used and commandeered to their advantage.

Imagine the New York Schools (148,000) has made it mandatory for teachers to become vaccinated by September 27th, a mandate which already applies to City employees and health workers. This mandate will not allow school personnel to even submit a negative COVID-19 test result in place of getting vaccinated. Yet, in Guyana, the government’s guidelines are not so stringent. A teacher can still submit a negative test report and gain entry. We have now seen that the anti-vaxxers have now triggered another wave of infections in the USA. Currently, there is a dramatic surge in the infections among children, especially older teens in the 16 and 17 age range and this is now happening in Guyana as well.

We must not for one moment feel that the surge of infections in the US is not happening in Guyana. The daily infection rate in the US is now over 150,000 with a population of approximately 330 million and for a small population like ours with less than 800,000 persons our daily infection rate of approximately 150 is actually the same (.001%). But whilst this rate of infection causes great alarm in the US, the Opposition and its anti-vaxxers see this as an opportunity to gain political mileage at the expense of our peoples’ lives.

COVID-19 vaccination is a critical strategy to ensure that our children are back in school and the GTU must not be swayed by political considerations. I have noted with interest that the FDA has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine and that the GTU has signaled that some teachers may be inclined to take the US-made Pfizer Vaccines. I do feel that the GTU should advise its members to do so immediately and not to be involved in wasteful obfuscation. Our children’s health and education are of paramount importance.

GTU needs to be reminded that the right to work as guaranteed by our Constitution should not be overlooked by Articles 25 and 40 which state as follows: ‘Every citizen has a duty to participate in activities designed to improve the environment and protect the health of the nation and ‘every person in Guyana is entitled to the basic right to a happy, creative and productive life, free from hunger, disease, ignorance and want.’ These Article spoke about ‘protect(ing) the health of the nation’ and every Guyanese is entitled ‘to a happy, creative and productive life free from
disease’. These are fundamental rights which must be secured and protected at all cost. How can these articles be achieved when the teachers union is frustrating the efforts of the government?
It is time that the GTU sees the benefits of our teachers and our students [being] vaccinated. If the Leader of the Opposition is honest then he should convene a meeting with the GTU and advise them to act in this nation’s interests.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf