Dear Editor,
I thank Minister Frank Anthony for stepping forward, removing the trash talk, and clearing the air on vaccines and children, and immunization interval necessary. I wish that Minister Anthony’s information was earlier, but it is welcomed, nonetheless. In sum, I gathered this from the Hon. Minister of Health recent media release. Schools cannot be reopened in September, since vaccination is a must. The period between doses alone prohibits that, and when one attaches the post-second-dose interlude, it confirms that September is lost for students. So, all this hullabaloo about schools reopening on September 6 could have been avoided. It resulted in what the Americans call a cluster (add four letter word) of a situation. The Minister of Education had her job to do and a mess was made of it, through her emphases on politicking and belligerence; in efforts to prove that she is in front of things, only for her to end up under the bus. When she jumped in front of her colleague at health, we have what we have.
Editor, parents and students would have been better served with the understanding that there is some additional time (Sep-tember, from calculations, for all intents and purposes) for them to weigh the risks and appreciate the pluses and minuses. Minister Anthony did that, and I did not fail to observe that, in this instance, his comrade at Education was content, or compelled, to let the Ministry of Educa-tion (and not herself) be the messenger of what pertains and where things stand. I congratulate her for a sensible face-saving retreat. On another note, it is my position that every additional day away from reopening, a gain and a loss, would have afforded the opportunity to work diligently at partnering with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU). It is easy, may even be on the money, to label the GTU political and oppositional, but it does not yield movement. Having started with the disengaging and confrontational, the usual hardening of positions and dispute-riddled public back and forth results. Indeed, both sides end up resorting to one action: digging in heels. We have to learn in this delicately balanced (and unbalanced) society that any unsoundness of mind in vision, strategy, and approach provides the fuel for controversy and resistance.
I think we could have spared ourselves a host of anxieties, unnecessary trouble and intensifying division. It is better to work tirelessly at winning minds than marshaling strength to stuff things down the craw of those held as adversaries. How many unions are going to be overpowered into submission? How many dissenting silenced? How many conscientious objectors and honest citizens-even frightened and concerned ones-are going to steamrolled? I close with this simple thought. When we seek opportunity in a polarized society, where everything inevitably degrades to race and politics (brawling), to remove fences, we start the process of building bridges. Reopening and vaccination should have furnished such a lesson, with much learning accompanying.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
