Barbados drags Deyalsingh after error: ‘Send back our vaccines’

A number of Barbadians have taken to social media to express their displeasure at an inaccurate statement made by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh.

He has already apologised for it.

Last Wednesday, Barbados donated 2,000 AstraZeneca covid19 vaccines to Trinidad and Tobago. This was from 100,000 doses of the vaccine that India had donated to Barbados.

A hundred frontline medical workers received these vaccines at the Couva Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

But while there, Deyalsingh sought to – or so he thought – correct the media on how they have been reporting which government donated the vaccines.

Asked if Barbados had donated them, he said, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no...the government of India made a gift to the region, using Barbados as a central depository. From that, we got 2,000.”

But in a release on Wednesday evening, Deyalsingh said he had been misinformed and apologised, saying they were in fact a donation from Barbados.

He also offered his “deepest gratitude to the people of Barbados for this kind gesture of regional collaboration.”

This led to a number of Barbadians taking to Twitter asking for the 2,000 vaccines to be returned to Barbados as TT is “ungrateful.”

One person said, “That’s on top of Barbados hosting their citizens last year, who they didn’t allow to get home at the beginning of the pandemic. That government soo (sic) uncouth.”

The Prime Minister's Office later posted a photo on Facebook of Dr Rowley with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley with the caption, “Today our frontline workers began receiving vaccines courtesy the generosity of our neighbour Barbados. I want to thank Prime Minister the Hon Mia Mottley for sharing her precious gift of covid19 vaccines with the people of TT.”