NATIONALISTS VACCINATE: Pharmacists assoc. president says anti-vaxxers do their families and society an ”injustice”

NATIONALISTS VACCINATE: Pharmacists assoc. president says anti-vaxxers do their families and society an ”injustice”
Caribbean Association of Pharmacists (CAP) President Dr Marvin Smith.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Caribbean Association of Pharmacists (CAP) President Dr Marvin Smith said yesterday that those who choose not to vaccinate themselves against the coronavirus do themselves, their families and society at large a great disservice.

In an interview with Eyewitness News, Smith said: “We have to move towards vaccines for COVID being the normal for us to get back to some sense of normalcy and I think that those who continue to resist and are hesitant about vaccines for COVID, really do themselves, their families and they do society a level of injustice because the risk of what we’re dealing with is not just a personal risk to you.

“It is a risk to everyone around you, it is a risk to the security and the economic activity of the country, so COVID doesn’t just impact you — ‘when I get it, I get it’.

“When you get and somebody else gets it, and somebody else gets it, the numbers grow and the international community says The Bahamas is not a safe place to conduct business; it is not a safe place to vacation; it is not a safe place to invest your money because the businesses may have to shut down and the hotels may have to shut down or the airport may have to shut down.

“It is really in the interest of national development. If you’re Bahamian and you’re a nationalist, you should be vaccinated.

“That’s as strong as I can say it.”

The government has said it could secure up to 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine through direct negotiation with the manufacturer.

Last week, the Biden administration announced it will share 80 million doses of “our vaccine supply to the world”.

At least 75 percent of those doses — nearly 19 million — will be shared through the COVAX Facility, including around 6 million doses for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bahamas Ambassador to the United States Sidney Collie confirmed The Bahamas will be included in that tranche, though he was unable to confirm specifics.

In a separate interview, Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield said the government was pleased with the announcement, noting that relations with the Biden administration could not be better.

“I’m always up for the Bahamian people having a choice

“Different vaccines impact different groups of people in different ways because they’re different.

“And you’re going to get some side effects and some risks with some of the mRNA vaccines that you’re not going to get with some the vector vaccines. It’s just the nature of how vaccines work.

“And so, having multiple choices was always the gold standard in terms of what any government wanted to do.

“Certainly, that was our recommendation from the Caribbean Association of Pharmacists that governments in the Caribbean should attempt to provide as many choices of quality and qualified vaccines to their populations, so I am actually happy to see that — if that is what the government is doing — I think that’s a good move.

“[With] 100,000 doses, that’s going to be an additional 50,000 people [vaccinated].

“We have to move toward a vaccinated society.”

 

About Royston Jones Jr.

Royston Jones Jr. is a senior digital reporter and occasional TV news anchor at Eyewitness News. Since joining Eyewitness News as a digital reporter in 2018, he has done both digital and broadcast reporting, notably providing the electoral analysis for Eyewitness News’ inaugural election night coverage, “Decision Now 2021”.