Dear Editor,
While the Pope urges COVID inoculations, saying “vaccines are humanity’s friends,” Minister Manickchand revealing that 17 schools closed in one week as teachers test positive, Minister Anthony revealing a one-day record of 313 new COVID cases, and the High Court (as expected) denying injunctions against Government’s COVID measures, it is so sad to read all the sorrowful headlines of unvaccinated people gone too soon.
Right here in Guyana, there was a story from Bella Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara – “Mother, daughter die from Covid 7 days apart; family urges vaccination to save lives.” In California, USA, “Five children are now orphans after both father and mother die of COVID.” Daniel Macias, 38, taught middle school math. His wife, Davy Macias, 37, a labour and delivery nurse, died days after giving birth while on a ventilator. Neither had been vaccinated against the coronavirus. The baby and other children, ages 7, 5, 3 and 2, are being cared for by their grandparents. The children are still asking for “mommy and daddy.” “In Alabama man dies after 43 ICUs full of COVID patients turned him away.” The family of an Alabama man who died of heart issues is urging people to get vaccinated after they say he was turned away from 43 hospitals in three different states because COVID cases were taking up all the ICU beds. This could happen in Guyana too.
The letter below from a family friend, Heidi Judd, a US school employee gives some perspective on this vaccination issue: “I’m vaccinated!! And – no, I don’t know what’s in it – neither this vaccine, the ones I had as a child, nor all that’s in my Starbucks coffee, or in the skin care products I love, or in other treatments…whether it’s for cancer, AIDS, the medicine I take for meno-pause hormonal regulation, or the current, routine vaccines for infants or children. I trust my doctors when they say it’s needed. I don’t have the education and knowledge they have. That’s their wheelhouse. I also don’t know what’s in Ibuprofen, Tylenol, or other meds, it just cures my headaches and my pains… I don’t know every ingredient in my soap or shampoo or even my deodorant. I don’t know the long-term effect of cell phone use or whether or not that restaurant I just ate at REALLY used clean foods and washed their hands. In short …There’s a lot of things I don’t know and never will …I just know one thing: life is short, very short, and I still want to do something other than just going to work every day or hanging out in my home. I still want to travel and hug people without fear and find a little feeling of life “before”.
As a child and as an adult I’ve been vaccinated for mumps, measles, rubella, polio, chicken pox, and quite a few others; my parents and I trusted the science and never had to suffer through or transmit any of said diseases … just saying. I’m vaccinated, not to please the government but:
* To NOT die from Covid-19.
* To NOT clutter a hospital bed if I get sick.
* To hug my loved ones
* To NOT have to do PCR or antigenic tests to go out to the movies, go to a restaurant, go on holidays and many more things to come…
* To live my life.
* To help my college-aged daughter have a typical student life.
* For Covid-19 to be an old memory.
* To protect us – me, my family, you and yours.
This is not a political argument. This is not a conspiracy. This is a virus that we can overcome.” Folks, sometimes we have to cajole people to do the things we know would make them better, such as children who don’t like taking medicine or eating their vegetables. Vaccines save lives.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
