Prime minister’s plan represents segregation and discrimination, Bahamian Evolution leader suggests
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Coalition of Independents Leader Lincoln Bain yesterday labeled the vaccination day recently announced by Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis a “travesty of justice”.
In an interview with Eyewitness News, Bain, the founder of Bahamian Evolution, said the proposed day perpetuates a forced vaccination policy that amounts to discrimination and segregation among the Bahamian people.
He said the prime minister is “again using duress to force and coerce Bahamians into taking a vaccine” intended for emergency and “experimental” use.
“Instead of them telling Bahamians of the risks involved taking part in an experimental treatment, they are making it seem like it is the only way out,” Bain said.
“I think it is wrong to segregate the Bahamian people in this time of desperation and this time of hurt; to say one set can do something that others can’t do.
“I think it takes us back 50 years, back to an era where Bahamians were segregated along racial lines.
“While this is not along racial lines, it still is segregation. I don’t think it should be tolerated and I think that all Bahamians should stand up against it and reject it wholeheartedly.”
The prime minister announced earlier this month that he will provide details on a vaccination day where he said individuals who have been inoculated against COVID-19 will be able to engage in a host of currently prohibited activities.
These include vaccination parties, happy hours at restaurants and bars, and an adjusted curfew, among other perks that could be announced during the prime minister’s wrap-up to the 2021-2022 budget debate today.
The government has maintained that vaccination is voluntary in The Bahamas.
The prime minister has continued encouraging Bahamians to become vaccinated, however.
Around 72,000 Bahamians have been vaccinated.
However, some employers, including major ones, have introduced policies that incentivize vaccination.
This includes Atlantis and Baha Mar, which have discontinued supplementing the cost of mandatory weekly rapid antigen tests for vaccinated employees — a cost Bain said the government could pick up.
“Companies are forcing their staff, not literally but through economic duress, to take the vaccine or have to pay for their own test on a weekly basis in these hard times,” he said.
“That’s a lot. And so, we think that is out of order, especially because we’re not talking about a vaccine like mumps, measles and rubella, or some vaccine that has been certified…
“We’re talking about a vaccine that is experimental and we don’t know what is going to happen next month.
“We don’t know what is going to happen next year, and you’re forcing people to take it.”
Asked if he was pro-vaccine, Bain said he does not have a problem with the vaccine and that he believes it has been saving lives.
However, he said: “An experimental treatment should be treated as just that — that it is experimental and you tell people what the risks are.”
On Thursday, Minister of Health Renward Wells said delays in uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine by those eligible to take it “will continue to place us all at risk” of more infections, severe illness and death.
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