October 8, 2021
The cabinet of Jamaica is marching into some really choppy waters now with intensifying movements of bringing to the Jamaican people a form of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. While they have not announced it yet, the pressure is mounting on their health minister from sources very close to the prime minister.
I would have to caution Jamaica and any other Caribbean/Central American country in vaccination mandates- I don’t think doing it is worth the risk head on. I mean to say, making it appear to come from the cabinet/government is not worth it. It’s the quickest way, of course, but it is the more politically dangerous route indeed.
Take for example the massive protest against the mere thought of mandatory vaccines in peaceful Barbados. Prime Minister even had the Muslim community out against her. I know, right, like there is a Muslim community in Barbados?!
Mottley had to back off and say the government had no intentions of mandatory vaccinations for Barbadians. She had better, or else she may have been a one term Prime Minister- and don’t say it can’t happen, because it can.
What we have also seen the more slippery and slithering of our Caribbean brother and sisters doing is they have been getting large private sector employers to mandate that their staff get vaccinated or they would lose their job at the very worst, or be forced to pay for their own weekly COVID-19 testing.
Regardless of any health mandate being against the law, who cares about laws right now anyway, right? The law is for suckers, not the big-shots like us who make the rules!
My humble submission is, why piss people off unnecessarily with the mere hint of a mandatory vaccine? Sad as it is, this type of crisis can only be dealt with through endurance, which means, unfortunately, some people who are hard headed against vaccinations just may have to catch it and face the consequences.