Families piggyback on COVID vax list

Misinformation and anxiety among the elderly have been blamed for a wave of Jamaicans turning up at hospitals without an appointment and disrupting COVID-19 vaccination schedules.

Opportunists have also been cited for piggybacking on qualified recipients.

Regional technical director for the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), Dr Sandra Chambers-Gause, busily fielded questions, in person and on her phone, as she moved back and forth between the vaccination room and the gate at St Joseph’s Hospital on Saturday morning. Out front was a crowd who had turned up on a whim, in the hope of getting the jab.

St Joseph’s and the Seventh-day Adventist-run Good Samaritan Inn are the only two designated sites in Kingston and St Andrew authorised to vaccinate private healthcare workers, Chambers-Gause told The Gleaner.

“A lot of seniors turned up today (Saturday), which created some concern, and I had a discussion with them. They said they heard that the vaccine was here and so they wanted to get their vaccination done,” Chambers-Gause said.

Security personnel and hospital staff were caught off guard, especially after encountering a woman who had travelled all the way from St Ann to get vaccinated, based solely on hearsay.

Chambers-Gause said the widespread misinformation was being fuelled by the “Chinese telephone” - a colloquial term for communication that becomes more distorted as it is passed on by word of mouth to the point that the original version is untraceable.

“So when we ask, ‘Did you have an appointment?’ the answer was ‘No.’ They heard vaccinations were being done, and so they came,” the SERHA regional technical director disclosed.

Charles theorised that families were attempting to take advantage of the teething pains of the vaccination drive, potentially fuelling chaos at some medical facilities.

“Once a person is registered, he or she then turns up with their spouse, their parents, and siblin,g and you try to accommodate one or two, and then you have the floodgates opening.

“There is no need for the rush,” he said, imploring persons to observe core safety measures such as sanitisation, social distancing, and mask wearing.

Despite the pressure, the staff at St Joseph’s were praised by Dr Wykeham McNeill, vice-president of the Opposition People’s National Party and former member of parliament for Westmoreland Western. McNeill, a medical doctor, was seen on Saturday in the waiting area where patients are mandated to rest for a period of at least 15 minutes after being inoculated.

“The process was good, very efficient, and well streamlined and the staff was pleasant right throughout,” said a smiling McNeill.

“You know they say doctors make the worst patients, but in this case, I am trying to be among the best.”

Vaccinations for private healthcare workers will continue at St Joseph’s Hospital on Monday. Among those targeted are nurses and other staff, such as laboratory technicians employed to private doctor’s offices, or at medical and diagnostic centres.

Like Chambers-Gause, chairman of SERHA Wentworth Charles is calling for Jamaicans to be patient and allow for the roll-out to unfold for priority groups, such as front-line healthcare workers, uniformed groups such as the police and soldiers, correctional officers, firefighters, and the elderly.

Jamaica aims to vaccinate 65 per cent of its nearly three million population by March 2022 in its bid to achieve herd immunity.

Healthcare workers Marcia Thomas-Yetman, a public health nurse, and Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer, an expert on ageing, were the first two persons to be vaccinated late Wednesday.

The country will receive its first shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine under the COVAX Facility today. A gift of 50,000 doses from the Indian government arrived on March 8.

As at Saturday, Jamaica recorded 30,499 COVID-19 cases and 485 deaths.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com