Garth Rattray | Potentially deadly vaccine excuses (Part 1)

If former generations were bombarded with a mountain of opinions from all and sundry, and confused by the cacophony of naysayers, they too would perhaps be distrusting of ‘authority’, and resist or flatly refuse the vaccines that conquered smallpox, polio, measles, tuberculosis, meningitis, some pneumonias, and a myriad of deadly bacterial infections. In fact, there would be billions fewer human beings on the planet, and you and I might not have existed!

Below is a list of several vaccine excuses, and some of my reactions:

• God Himself will have to tell me to take it – I can’t argue with God, so I don’t try to convince people with that attitude.

• I don’t like being forced to do anything; they’re ramming it down our throats – ‘They’ are trying to save you and many others from unnecessary suffering and death.

• I can’t get transportation during the lockdown. Bus service scarce by me – Since the vaccine can save your life, get transport by hook or by crook.

• The clinic far and l can’t afford the fare – Beg, steal or borrow the fare, your life is worth it.

• The vaccine cause clot and killing people – The risk of clots and death from COVID-19 is far, far, far greater.

• Yu no hear the ministry seh the COVID vaccine kill 19 people yesterday? – Somebody told you a big, dirty lie.

• Bill Gates a try kill off people to reduce the world population – Another big, dirty lie.

• I’m watching to see how it affects other people first – COVID-19 might kill you and your family while you watch and wait.

• It seems to me it’s just a matter of time and all will get COVID-19 at some point – Perhaps, and that’s exactly why you need the vaccine to protect you against hospitalisation and death.

• Whether asymptomatic, mild or severe, it’s survival of the fittest – Being fit helps, but being vaccinated helps much more.

• God mek my immune system, so that is all I need for my protection – God also made scientists with brains, and He uses them to protect you.

• Dem a sterilize man wid dem vaccine – Absolute rubbish!

• Government ah pay yuh fi tek di jook, so supp’n must wrong with it – The Government is trying to encourage you to get vaccinated, that’s all.

• Me nah put no RNA inna my body – That mRNA only lasts a very short time, but your immune system will remember what the mRNA teaches it for a long time.

• I don’t trust western medicine – But the Easterners are trusting Western medicine to save them.

• I don’t know what is in the vaccine – Basically, similar things to all the other vaccines that keep you safe and alive.

• Am just scared of it – COVID-19 is much, much, much scarier.

• A plan to kill out black people – That’s another big, dirty lie.

• It was developed too fast. Something must be wrong with it – It was under development since about 2002; it was adjusted to work on this virus.

• If yuh born fi heng, you cyaah drown – You don’t know what will kill you. However, if you take the vaccine, you’ll be safe from dying from COVID-19.

• The vaccine have chip in it – Another big, dirty lie.

• Dem ah use di vaccine fi experiment pon wi – Not true. All medications are used for many years before we know everything about them.

• The vaccine don’t get approval yet – One has been approved, and the rest are waiting on routine submissions. We are in a dangerous pandemic; we can’t wait on routine submissions to save lives.

• Natural bushes work better than the man-made vaccines – That is a big, dirty lie.

These are not innocuous excuses and little white lies; they are uninformed and potentially deadly beliefs capable of causing suffering and deaths. I have seen the end result of that kind of thinking, our morgues don’t lie, which we will look at next week in Part Two of this article.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.