Former anti-vaxer now campaigns for jabs

Suffering from underlying illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes, which run in her family, Fay Matherson says she is still fearful of taking the COVID-19 vaccine due to possible adverse effects. However, she explained that this fear is nothing compared to that of actually catching the virus and the possibility of dying from it.

Once against the idea of being inoculated, Matherson told The Gleaner that her son was also an anti-vaxer. However, after witnessing the sudden death of a neighbour, it drove a fear into her son to take the jab.

With a change of heart herself, she is now urging others to take the vaccine now that it is readily available as “when you miss this time, you don’t know where you a go get it the next time”.

She was among residents of Stony Hill and surrounding areas who turned out at the Stony Hill Technical High School yesterday to take the opportunity to take a vaccine against a virus which claimed 14 lives across the island on Wednesday and 1,268 since it first surfaced locally last March.

State Minister in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Juliet Cuthbert Flynn, who is also member of parliament for St Andrew East Rural, in which the community is located, noted that by noon yesterday, approximately 350 people had shown up.

She, however, noted that it was mainly people 50 years and over who came out, with rarely a young person in sight.

“Hesitancy has not died downed,” Cuthbert Flynn admitted, explaining that misinformation is rife among the population.

Over at the Oberlin High School in West Rural St Andrew, the suddenness of the announcement that the team from the health ministry would be administering jabs there yesterday did not faze residents, who turned out in droves.

“It’s quite smooth for an impromptu event,” midwife Nardia Taylor Jacobs told The Gleaner, crediting community health aides, who went into the surrounding communities on Wednesday to inform residents of the blitz, for their hard work.

Opening the doors at 10 a.m., scores of residents had already shown up, with more than 200 by noon. But afternoon showers by 1 p.m. caused the numbers to slowly dwindle.

It was a different story there, however, as there were many more young people in the age cohort of 20 to 40 years, with a few elderly people showing up, most receiving first doses. Recalling that previous vaccination programmes targeted age groups 50 and upward, Taylor Jacobs said that people were now taking advantage of this opportunity.

With relatives who have taken the vaccine already, 69-year-old Ronald Foster found an extra sense of comfort in being inoculated on Thursday.

He told The Gleaner that despite misinformation swirling about the vaccine, he had made up his mind to take it.

“Mi a get vaccination from mi a youth a go a school,” he told The Gleaner, saying that no one should be forced to take the jab but that people should also get factual information and make informed decisions.

“I have a lot of persons that I interact with,” said Monique Hector, a first-doser, noting that even though one could still contract the virus after taking the jab, the benefits were still worth it.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com