After girl hides from jab, mom wants lobby to target youths
Published:Wednesday | August 25, 2021 | 12:10 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Last Saturday, a family in Trelawny woke up to find their 15-year-old daughter missing.
The usually reserved and well-behaved teenager who had an appointment to get vaccinated on Saturday went into hiding to avoid taking the jab.
Her frantic parents feared that she might have been kidnapped.
“All kind of scary thoughts a run through mi mind. I was wondering where she woulda gone or if she gone a town and somebody kidnap her as she wouldn’t know where to go. I wonder if she was in contact with somebody and I didn’t know,” her relieved mother told The Gleaner on Monday.
But their fears subsided when the mother, who was in the middle of a conversation on her patio, looked on in shock as her daughter walked into the house and admitted that she was scared of getting her COVID-19 shot.
The mother, who has requested anonymity, is urging the Ministry of Education to spearhead an awareness campaign geared towards child vaccination.
“I would suggest that they educate the teenagers more about the vaccine, have more advertisements talking about it, or even some videos of their age group getting it to show them that it’s OK,” she proposed.
Jamaica continues to lag behind the majority of its Caribbean neighbours in COVID-19 immunisation, with more than five per cent of the population fully vaccinated. Hesitancy is rife and has been fuelled by misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Dr Alfred Dawes, general, laparoscopic, and weight-loss surgeon, stressed that adults are responsible for ensuring that their children access credible sources of information.
“We are not looking at the true victims of the misinformation campaign that is being waged against the vaccine,” he said.
“Persons who don’t have access to the information to counteract that dangerous narrative or the children who do not understand when they see adults who they think are supposed to be educated and intelligent speaking against the vaccine that it contains chips, that it’s experimental, that it’s dangerous, that it’s going change to change their DNA.”
Jamaica is in the throes of a third wave of the coronavirus, which is surging at record pace across the island with unprecedented infections, hospitalisations, and deaths.
That spike is believed to be driven by the Delta variant, which was confirmed to have been in the island since at least July.
Delta has not been proven to be more fatal than other variants but its transmissibility – or ability to spread – is much higher.
Dawes insists that there is sufficient evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe. Three brands of the inoculant – Pfizer, Oxford-AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson – are available in Jamaica. Some Jamaicans have expressed concern that the vaccine, which mitigates the risk of severe illness and death, does not prevent infection.
“We need to get the word out there that people need to take the vaccine to decrease their chances of getting serious illness and hospitalisation,” Dawes advised.
President of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica, Mitsie Harris-Dillion, said that there was need for more information as many parents remained on the fence about allowing their children to be vaccinated.
In the meantime, the association plans to host virtual sensitisation sessions with parents and students.
While noting that she has not received any reports from parents indicating that their children are scared of getting the jab, Harris-Dillion said many parents who attended a virtual session on Sunday relayed that they still had reservations.
“They have to look into it for themselves and satisfy themselves, have dialogue with their personal physician, seek information from credible sources, and then they can make a decision and they should also engage their children in that conversation,” Harris-Dillon added.
Meanwhile, Dawes is urging anti-vaxxers to desist from spreading misinformation.
“If you don’t want to take it that’s fine, it’s yourself that you are putting at risk, just shut up and allow those who want to take the vaccine to take it, stop preaching, you are hurting the children and adults who might want to take what you are saying with more than a grain of salt,” he said.