Over 10,000 Petition for Vaccination Equality in Schools

Chairman of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, (JCHS), Dr. Wayne West, is calling for vaccination equality in schools, as he urge the Jamaican government to source alternatives to gene-based vaccines for parents skeptical of the offerings locally.

This as a petition which was launched on Sunday, August 22, by the group garnered over 10 thousand signatures in less than 48 hours. The group is demanding that the Government, specifically Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Minister of Education, Fayval Williams, roll back plans to restrict face-to-face learning for unvaccinated students. The group also questions the decision in light of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines to reserve vaccination of children, and to avoid vaccine mandates.

Dr. West says while they appreciate the Government’s efforts to make COVID-19 vaccines available to adults who wish to receive them, the Government has given only two options to parents; rush to vaccinate their children without adequate information or be excluded from the much anticipated and desired delivery of goods and services, the return to face-to-face school. He says the vaccination equality is questionable and the move by the Government is simply is coercion.

He contends there is a need for more information, treatment, and vaccination options ahead of the planned face-to-face phased reopening of school in the coming weeks.

More in this CVM Live story from Neika Lewis: