Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has expressed his disappointment with the vaccine hesitancy being displayed by some doctors and nurses.
The Vice President shared this during an interview on Wednesday.
“Doctors and nurses are in a science-based field. How could you be in a science-based field and then have these weird views about vaccines? It is almost unacceptable. And teachers, of all, they should be teaching, they should be educated, reading, and then they succumb to rumors and unsubstantiated views.”
The Vice President said the Government is expending billions of dollars to procure vaccines to achieve herd immunity and is appealing to persons to get the jab.
“This is a struggle. What bothers me is that we are trying to save lives; imagine they are protesting a Government trying to save lives; trying to get you immunised so that you don’t die.
We’re saying please get your vaccine. It costs us money. We bought the vaccine. People are struggling around the world to get the vaccine. We bought it. Just take the vaccine so that you can protect yourself and your family.”
Dr. Jagdeo also addressed reports of patients being denied access to hospitals. He emphasised that vaccinated or not, patients should not be denied access from entering a public hospital.
A notice from the Ministry of Health stated, however, that any person accompanying a patient to a public hospital must present their vaccination card or a negative PCR result.
More than 50 per cent of the adult population has taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while some 30 per cent has been fully vaccinated.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony MP, says in a few weeks’ time, Government should procure COVID-19 vaccines for children. As he delivered the feature address Wednesday morning at the St. Ambrose Primary School in Georgetown, Minister Anthony said to roll out the plan, the support of both parents and teachers is vital.
“We are also working to make sure that we provide vaccination for children between the ages of 12 and 18, right now we don’t have those types of vaccines in Guyana but we are working to make sure that we could get those vaccines for children.
We anticipate that in another couple of weeks we will get those vaccines and when we get those vaccines, we would require the cooperation of both parents and teachers so that we could get those vaccines administered as quickly as possible.”
The only vaccine granted authorisation, so far for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15 is the Pfizer vaccine.
Jagdeo disappointed in healthcare workers for hesitating on taking COVID-19 Vaccines
