The principal of a leading secondary school in Kingstown, on Thursday, cried as she met with her staff, more than half of whom had not submitted proof of COVID-19 vaccination, one day before the government mandate came into effect.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is expected to know today (Friday) the extent to which public sector workers have responded to the mandate, which states that a wide cross section of state employees must prove they are vaccinated, if they are to remain on their jobs.
Any unvaccinated worker who has not been exempted from taking the jab will be considered as absent from work, even if they turn up. They will be considered to have abandoned their jobs after being “absent” for 10 consecutive days.
In the case of teachers, they will be marked absent, whether they teach online or face-to-face in a classroom.
In a voice note circulated on Thursday, President of the SVG Teachers’ Union, Oswald Robinson, urged all teachers to go to work.
“Don’t give up, do not resign; go to work,” he said and urged teachers to rally the support of parents, saying that the vaccine mandate may soon affect students.
“… you have to mobilise the parents. Every move we make, we communicate to the parents. We know the ministry, they are trying to engage the parents now but the parents have been affected by all these things.
“So, communicate with your parents, so that we could win them on our side. Let them know that this vaccination thing, they’re coming with the children also. Make it clear that the union and you, you’re not against vaccination, but the mandatory vaccination.”
As of Thursday, 51,288 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the country, even as the government had hoped to have put 50,000 jabs into arms by last April.
Of the vaccines administered, 29,249 were second doses, and 21,500 were first doses.
The number of active cases of COVID-19 across the country was 1,243 and since March, 2020, SVG has recorded 5,359 cases of COVID-19 and 73 people have died of the illness.
Robinson said “the authorities continue to confuse themselves” and that teachers were gaining “the upper hand in this battle.
“We cannot give up at this time; we are going to fight to the end,” he said.
In addition to teachers, administrative and ancillary staff are required to present evidence of vaccination for COVID-19 by today.
Any staff member who does not submit evidence of COVID-19 vaccination will be considered unvaccinated and will not be allowed to enter the school’s compound and should not show up for work, the Ministry of Education has said.
Any unvaccinated staff who shows up for work after today, whether they do so on or offline, will be considered absent.
Schools across the country reopened last month for the first time this year, with a hybrid model seeing students going to the physical classroom on some days, and taking their lessons online on others.
The ministry said that unvaccinated staff will be considered to be on unauthorised leave, without pay.
And, as is the case with other public servants, any staff member who misses 10 consecutive days of work would be deemed to have abandoned their jobs, based on the Statutory Regulations and Order
Staff presently on leave of any kind are not exempt from the mandate, the ministry siad, adding that where exemptions are sought and granted, the exempted staff members will be transferred within the public service, if they can be facilitated.
Where the exempted staff member is allowed to continue to engage with students, they must be tested consistently, based on the prescribed schedule.
Any staff member who was previously diagnosed with COVID-19 must seek a temporary medical exemption which will exempt them from vaccination for four weeks from the date of their initial diagnosis with the COVID-19.
Staff members seeking medical exemptions due to a history of blood clots will be exempted from taking the AstraZeneca vaccine — which is currently unavailable in SVG.
All unvaccinated staff members who have special responsibilities at school must hand over all documents, keys, etc. to the principal or the person in administrative control, the ministry.
I want to know what happened to natural immunity and freedom of choice? Can someone tells me the agenda behind this vaccine? Something is really suspicious.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO TAKE THIS VACCINE WHEN THERE ARE OTHER MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR COVID-19. I AM TALKING FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.THIS VACCINE KILLS SOME PEOPLE AND HURTS OTHERS. THE BENEFIT AS COMPARED TO THE RISK IS NOT WORTH TAKING IT.MANY QUALIFIED EXPERTS ARE SAYING IT.THE LONG TERM EFFECT IS YET UNKNOWN,SO WHY RISK THE ENTIRE POPULATION IN THIS EXPERIMENT?UNLESS THERE IS A HIDDEN EVIL AGENDA AND INTENTION.IF THEY WERE REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT HEALTH AND SAFETY OF THE PEOPLE, WHY WONT THEY ALLOW THEM TO CHOOSE FROM THE OTHER TREATMENTS THAT ARE AVAILABLE AND MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE WITHOUT THE RISK OF HARMFUL ADVERSE EFFECTS? ARE THEY GOD?ARE THEY THE ONES KEEPING US? PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DYING DIRECTLY FROM OTHER HEALTH ISSUES AND THEY SHOWED NO CONCERN.THE HOSPITAL IN ST.VINCENT IS IN A PITIFUL CONDITION.I VISITED IT WHEN I WAS THERE AND STILL HERE OF WHAT HAPPENS THERE ALL THE TIME.WHY HAVENT THERE BEEN MUCH MORE ATTENTION GIVEN TO IMPROVE THE HOSPITAL BY THE GOVERNMENT? A HOSPITAL IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTITUTION TO A NATION.THE LEADERS AND THEIR FAMILIES DONT GO TO THE HOSPITAL IN ST.VINCENT WHEN THEY SEEK MEDICAL HELP, WHY? LET THEM MAKE THE OTHER TREATMENTS THAT ARE AVAILABLE FOR COVID-19 AVAILABLE TO THE PEOPLE! THE VACCINE IS AN EXPERIMENT AND HAS SERIOUS ADVERSE EFFECTS FOR SOME PEOPLE.SOME PEOPLE WHO TOOK IT AND HAD NO ADVERSE EFFECTS IS NO GROUND TO SAY OTHERS SHOULD HAVE TO TAKE IT BECAUSE, YOU MAY HAVE GOTTEN THE PLACEBO AND THANK GOD YOU ARE OK.OTHERS HAVE TAKEN IT AND ARE DEAD,OTHERS STILL SUFFERING.LET PEOPLE HAVE A CHOICE FROM THE AVAILABLE TREATMENTS FOR GOD SAKE!
The first two people leaving comments, so far, are very accurate The fact that natural immunity is COMPLETELY IGNORED is very suspicious at the least. It is claimed that someone in SVG had covid and then got it again a month later, RUBBISH! Obviously that person was misdiagnosed and actually had the flu. Or, has this virus made the flu completely disappear? Any person with two working brain cells can see that the goal has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF THE PEOPLE. Michael Jackson got it right: “They don’t really care about us”.
By definition, It is not a vaccine. Apparently because of this concoction of dangerous chemicals, the definition of “vaccine” is being altered.
If a government knows the facts: Only a demented government would force such draconian measures onto their people, when it is a known fact that these “vaccines” do not work and seem to actually even make the population sicker than if these STILL EXPERIMENTAL chemical concoctions were never introduced in the first place.
Anyone that knows even basic science can see that these variants originate IN THE VACCINATED, not unvaccinated! A virus will eventually mutate when it cannot manifest itself in a host, such as a vaccinated person. In a person with natural immunity the virus is not killed but blocked by antibodies that have developed and learned to shut it down. If the immune system becomes weak in the future the virus can however become displayed. All of us have thousands of viruses in our bodies that are there and alive but just held in check…for now. Since these mad scientists created Covid-19 it is now here to stay, no “vaccine” can get rid of it and at present these concoctions obviously MAKE THINGS WORSE! Eat right, stay physically active and do not take any wooden nickles like many governments are trying to give you!
get your own information! This government is filling us with so much misinformation to fulfil their agenda, (whatever that is) you have to question everything!
Why are these people so afraid of this vaccine? They are so focused on dismissing the medical science it’s amazing. Just about anybody who can use social media or watch youtube videos is medical expert. Morality has gone out the window and people are more selfish than ever but, what do they hope to gain? Would it be better to do nothing about covid 19 and just wait and see what will happen? What agenda is the world powers trying to fulfill? Do these people know something the rest of us don’t? Is this a case of mental health and faculties? We will get out of it but it will come with a price tag.
DO NOT PLAY POLITICS WITH YOUR LIFE. If SVG is doing something different to that of other countries around the world regarding protection against the COVID 19 pandemic, then refuse to follow. To die or not to die should be your decision, We have laws against suicide and attempted suicide which is obviously a contradiction to that belief, No one seems to be against those laws. I believe that the only responsibility of government in this pandemic is to stay out of the vaccine business and grant license to pharmacies for its importation and administering when prescribed by a doctor. This would be consistent with treatment for other sicknesses. It should be that when persons are diagnosed with COVID 19 by a doctor, they are given a prescription to go to the pharmacy for the vaccine at cost to the infected, as it is with other prescriptions. If government’s involvement is to protect the economy of the country, then if there is no financial activities to produce income for government expenditure, then fire all non – essential workers and reduce the number of essential workers to manage the economy of the country’s budget and the matter is solved. NO PROTEST, NO MANDATE, GOVERNMENT WINS AGAIN AND EVERYONE is HAPPY.
How irresponsible of the Union of Teachers to encourage their members not to get vaccinated! Shame on you! Do you discourage them from taking their anti-hypertensive or diabetic mediation of which I am sure that well over 70% of them are taking? Do they know what are the constituents of those medications and their effects?, the insulin that they take daily do they know what is contained in that vial?!
Please stop the nonsense, get vaccinated, protect yourselves, the students and let’s get the economy back up.
Has anyone Listen to Bill Gates alleged speech on zero carbon solution ? Never take advice from those who thinks that the earth is over populated. Has been. alledgedly said that there will be a pandemic at at least 38millions of.people will not exist. , something very very creepy with these. experimental jabs. Who won’t? Principal, don’t cry, so its one’s choice if they want to take the risk or not.