Watson Duke: Let people choose to be vaccinated or not

President of the National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (Natuc) Watson Duke says he is not supporting a call by a business organisation for mandatory covid19 vaccine laws.

Duke said the Government has so far adopted a "pseudo-position" on the issue while the unions and business chambers will meet on Tuesday to discuss it. Duke said there have been meetings with the chambers with no conclusion.

“They (business chambers) continue to hold this fictitious view that the unvaccinated are a threat to the vaccinated and therefore they only want vaccinated people in their workplace. To me it is a way of creating the biggest industrial rift in this country.

“It is only a matter of time when poor people who can’t get food to eat and buy milk for their children begin to kick back. When they kick back it will be worse than the 1970 Black Power movement and there are many poor people. I don’t know where the Government will go and hide.”

Duke said those who are rejecting the vaccine have read about it and have chosen not to be vaccinated.

“Oh gosh, let people choose, nah!”

Those who choose not to be vaccinated have claimed they are being discriminated against by being told that they have to be tested every 14 days at their own cost. Some companies have said unvaccinated workers may not be kept on their rosters as well.

In a separate interview, Ian Roach, chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission, said covid19 created an unprecedented dilemma and there is no hard-and-fast approach to address it.

“In some cases the individual's right is trumped by that of the majority. In some cases, discrimination is permitted, not blatant discrimination like race or things like that, but in certain instances, discrimination is allowed.”

Roach said while the decision to be vaccinated is a personal thing, there can be a national impact. He advised the unvaccinated to keep an open mind, saying their individual responsibility has a collective effect.

“You know that John F Kennedy saying about it is not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country? This is what you can do for your country.”

Roach said scientists across the globe have shown that the vaccine reduces hospitalisation and even death. He said people must be guided that the rights of the majority at times outweigh individual rights.

The issue of mandatory vaccination has seen protests in Barbados and St Vincent.

In St Vincent, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves was attacked and struck with a stone last Thursday while on his way to Parliament in the wake of protests against his stance that state employees must be vaccinated.

Using the hashtag #Mybodymychoice, some have taken to social media to support the decision by those who choose not to be vaccinated.