Barbadians are once again being reassured that whenever a COVID-19 vaccine is selected for use here, it will be safe for use.
Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sandra Husbands, made this clear while speaking in the Lower House yesterday during the debate on the Barbados Humanitarian Service Award Bill, 2020.
She was seeking to calm fears of any citizen who may have doubts regarding the immunisation, suggesting many countries around the world were fighting this battle.
“We have seen across the media that a number of people have been sceptical and we have to take care that this does not grow here, because vaccinations are important to our health and is how the world defeated a number of diseases that used to carry off populations, all across Africa and Europe.
“Vaccinations have saved lives, but there is so much misinformation that is already in social media, and being spread abroad and legitimately persons will have concerns, but I want to assure the Barbadian population that the PM and Minister of Health and team that will be working on our vaccination programme will address it with the same provision as they did with our quarantining and safeguarding our ports and ensuring people had something to eat,” she argued.
Husbands also urged those within the medical profession especially to educate Barbadians on the importance of the vaccine and to calm fears.
“We need to reassure them that we will present them with what is the best possible vaccine that can be used that will be safe and effective and they need not have any fear in so taking,” she stated.
Moments earlier, the minister stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was doing all it could in terms of ensuring the island could access the vaccinations, insisting all countries must do the same.
“We cannot get the economic recovery that we need, so everyone must recover so that the world must go on and people can live their lives and so that battle is still enjoined,” she stated. (JMB)