By Alphanso Gomez

Senior Reporter

Some may say it is premature but when it comes to Covid-19 every little bit of success is worth a big song and dance.

It was music to my ears to learn that Jamaica had only recorded 9 new positive Covid-19 cases for the 24-hour period of December 27 and 20 for the 24-hour period of December 28.

These are the kind of figures we were looking at back in March when the Pandemic first hit us. Unfortunately the current numbers being reported also included 3 deaths of persons up around the 80 year old mark.

Where praise is earned it should be given gratuitously and so kudos and big to to the Most Hon. Andrew “Brogad” Holness, Minister of Health Dr. Christopher Tufton, Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr. Jacqueline Bisasor McKenzie, all the staff at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and all the frontline workers who put their own lives at risk daily to contain the Pandemic.

It has been tough going but praises could not be too much for the people of Jamaica (The responsible ones) who faced this disaster bravely and stood as a buffer between complete disaster and a partial recovery.

Now that vaccines are being rolled out in numbers all Jamaica needs now is its shipment so that the situation can be contained at current levels.

There are many Jamaicans who have sworn that they will not be taking the vaccine when it becomes available. One thing we are good at as a country are conspiracy theories.

Why should we be worried? We are in a great position; we are seeing millions being vaccinated before it even gets to us so we will have a a lot of time to make an informed decision. How fair would it be for most of the nation to be trying to protect themselves and the reckless thinking of a few would possibly keep this deadly virus laying latently to mutate and attack again?

It would be a welcome move, certainly by me for the government to make the the administration of the vaccine mandatory (Of course here comes human rights on the soap box). But what about the rights of the rest of us to be healthy and secure from this monster?

Knowing our Prime Minister I am sure he wouldn’t choose that route but he’s going to have to rely a lot on ‘moralsuasion’.

The polio vaccine of the 1980’s was only about 60 per cent effective. These vaccines have efficacy rates of up to 95 per cent.

It is sadly ironic that those who are u in arms about the vaccines still take their newborns to get their jabs to protect them from the myriad diseases that threaten normal growth and development. Do those babies have a say in whether they get MMR and other vaccines? One thing is for sure, they can’t enter school without evidence of having being vaccinated.

Perhaps a similar approach can be thought out around the Covid-19 vaccine. I am confident that the Prime Minister and his erstwhile Cabinet will find the right solution.

Help is on the way…again Yippee Yeah…let’s keep the numbers down.

Stay blessed and healthy.