Dear Editor,
BASED on surveys I conducted in November 2020 and in January, March, July, and August 2021, the overwhelming majority of the public applaud the government for steps taken in the fight against COVID-19 and its efforts to protect the public from infection.
The last couple of surveys also reveal widespread support for the Ministry and Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, and the government in re-opening school. However, people have mixed views on mandatory vaccination for children, saying small children should be excluded until it has been demonstrated that the vaccine is very safe on kids. There is wide support for the policy requiring healthcare and education workers to be vaccinated or to exclude them from public facilities.
It is some individuals in the public (perhaps a fifth of the adult population) who are not co-operating with vaccination and the resistance from some anti-government labour unions that are putting the public at risk.
Guyana has among the highest infection and mortality rate per hundred thousand of population. Infection and mortality rate among the vaccinated is very low, especially among those who received double doses. People feel that vaccine mandate has become a necessary and reasonable move given the danger posed by COVID-19. It is the State’s duty to protect the nation from health complications linked to COVID-19. In the US, the national and State as well as local governments are moving towards mandatory vaccination.
The opposition takes a political position without paying concern to the enormous consequences that would be caused by a fourth wave of or a prolonged pandemic. Too many of our people of all backgrounds are dying from COVID-19.
Some educators, supported by their union for political reason, don’t wish to return to school for in-person instruction and don’t wish to take the vaccine to protect themselves, families, and students. They wish to continue teaching from home (a prolonged vacation) even though the science shows that much learning does not occur through virtual or remote or long distance medium of instruction.
The science also says the vaccine is safe. The school break is over. Educators cannot be on permanent vacation. They are not in greater danger than front line healthcare workers. They must return to work, and in fact, most have yearned to return to work. The overwhelming number of teachers are defying the union, not backing the calls to stay home or to shut down the schools or shut down the capital city. Health experts internationally encourage teachers to get the coronavirus vaccine.
Parents in Guyana are wondering whether their child’s teacher has taken the vaccine to help protect the others in the classroom. NY schools have made vaccination mandatory. And public hospitals gave health workers till end of this month to be fully vaccinated or take a daily PCR test. More and more are getting the vaccines.
The teachers’ union, whose leadership is affiliated with the opposition PNC, is resisting the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. All over the globe, vaccination mandates have been issued to public workers and educators. Rare exceptions are granted for religious and health reasons in the US (that must be demonstrated and affirmed by authority). It is in one’s personal health and the public’s interest to become vaccinated. Theirs and our lives depend on vaccination. Why would they want to resist the mandate that seeks to protect them, their families, and us?
I got vaccinated. I’m pro-vaccine. I did this even before my mother contracted COVID-19. It was/is the right thing to do. Infections have shown the risk of being unvaccinated. COVID-19 has rampaged homes, families, and neighbourhoods in Guyana. Almost everyone who contracted COVID-19 was not vaccinated. Every COVID-19 death was of an unvaccinated person. What other evidence does one needs that the vaccine protects lives. COVID-19 is a ticking time bomb. We got to protect the vulnerable – those with co-morbidities.
All healthcare workers, educators, and those servicing the public should be vaccinated unless it can be demonstrated that their health would be compromised by it. In the latter case, they must undergo regular PCR tests. Those unwilling to become vaccinated (without acceptable reason) should be sent on unpaid leave as is now being considered in the US.
The public feels that mandatory vaccination for services and as a requirement for government employment is the right policy to get the public to become vaccinated. Some two-thirds of adults have been vaccinated. The country needs more education campaigns to encourage the remaining unvaccinated public to take the vaccine.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram
