Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment, the Hon. St. Clair Prince, during his appearance on the Shake Up program, discussed the hesitance of frontline workers within the health ministry to get vaccinated, and how the ministry of health is dealing with the issue.
“We’re still dealing with moral suasion, trying to talk to them in small in small groups; the ministry has been doing that. The hierarchy of the ministry in terms of nursing has been talking to nurses one on one and also in small groups, we have been using the carrot on the stick in some cases.” He said.
Minister Prince said that is his hope that with the use of moral suasion that the frontline workers will come around.
He made mention of the excuses that some of the frontline workers had used in order to avoid taking the vaccine; such as expressing preference of the Sputnik V vaccine to the Astra Zeneca, but the health minister noted that he had not seen a significant jump in vaccination numbers with the country’s recent procurement of 50,000 does of the Russian made vaccine, suggesting that those using that excuse might jump to requesting another vaccine such as the Cuban made Abdala.
Minister Prince said “you can’t be at frontline and tell me you are not taking the vaccines, whereas you are giving the vaccine to people.”
