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Golding wants vaccine audit

Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding is calling for the auditor general to conduct an audit to ascertain if satisfactory procedures have been established by the Government in the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out programme.

Golding, who will make his contribution to the 2020-2021 Budget Debate in Gordon House today, wants the auditor general to examine who has received the vaccine in order to indicate the nature and extent of the procedural breaches.

"It is apparent that citizens without appointments, and who were not within the priority group for vaccination, were nevertheless permitted to receive their first dose of the vaccine," Golding said in a media statement yesterday.

"These breaches violate the principles of efficiency, equity and transparency on which the government had promised that the vaccination programme would be based. They also undermine the Government's stated objectives of 'protecting the integrity of the healthcare system and infrastructure for the continuity of essential services, and reducing severe morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19'," Golding added.

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JDF to limit exposure of soldiers who refuse jab

Soldiers who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine could find themselves in a tricky position, even though the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) said there will be no punitive or disciplinary action taken against any member who chooses not to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The JDF has vaccinated some 1,500 soldiers thus far, with Lieutenant General Rocky Meade, the chief of defence staff, being the first to take the jab. Meade told soldiers that "...by taking the vaccine, we are protecting others by first protecting ourselves. This is what we do on a daily basis as men and women of the JDF."

The JDF said that no soldier is ordered to take the vaccine. However, members who do not wish to be vaccinated must make a declaration which "will allow the force to consider the duties and responsibilities of these individuals in an effort to limit their exposure and manage the safety of all members with a high risk of exposure".

"This is necessary as the JDF moves to protect its service members and others as they go about their duties," the JDF said.

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Bartlett says no to COVID-19 passport

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has cautioned against rushing towards creating a COVID-19 vaccination passport based on the current rate of vaccine distribution.

"When I look at how the world intends to vaccinate itself over the next five years, and with the expectation that a 75 per cent coverage will give some level of normalcy, I can't accept that we would begin to have vaccine requirement as a condition for travel immediately," Bartlett said.

The minister said that having this vaccine passport requirement could lead to severe inequities.

"If this happens, given the disparity in distribution among larger and smaller countries, we are going to find the levels of inequities and discrimination that may be very disturbing, if not disrupting to global peace," Bartlett said.

The tourism minister recently gave the keynote presentation during the largest travel trade show, ITB Berlin.

"This disparity in vaccine distribution is evident as larger and more affluent countries have cornered 75 per cent of vaccines available. Where that leaves small tourism- dependent countries such as Jamaica is in a state where we are going to be left behind. So, if the politics of vaccines is to be played out, then smaller countries are going to be left behind, which will cause disruptiveness not just among these smaller countries, but in the global space," Bartlett said.

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