Nickocy Phillips to Government: Stop forcing people to take the vaccine

Unity of the People political leader Nickocy Phillips has accused the Government of forcing citizens to take the covid19 vaccine.

Tobago continues to have a challenge with vaccine hesitancy, particularly in the eastern part of the island.

As of Wednesday, the THA Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development reported 22,526 people on the island have been partially vaccinated and 20,959 people are fully vaccinated. More than 100 people in Tobago have died from the virus.

The Prime Minister has said repeatedly the Government is not considering making vaccinations mandatory at this time. However, he said it may be forced to revisit its position depending on the infection rate.

In the meantime, the Government and the division have been appealing to citizens to take the vaccine as a safeguard against severe illness and death.

But speaking during a panel discussion titled Navigating the Pandemic and hosted by Tobago CivilNET, Phillips accused the Government of forcing citizens to take the vaccine, which Phillips said infringed on their rights.

Phillips, who claims to be a trained pharmaceutical technician, said people have the right to refuse medication and treatment if they so desire.

“Yes, we know we are in a pandemic. Yes, we know people are getting sick. But at the end of the day, give people the choice to make those decisions.”

Phillips claimed Government was aware that many people did not know the laws that govern them “so anything that they force and say that has to be done will be done.

“But patients have all rights. People have rights to refuse medication and treatment.”

Phillips argued the Ministry of Health and the division should have distributed pamphlets about the various vaccines in communities.

“I believe that if you have given out pamphlets for the different types of vaccination that you have to the parents, have consultations with them and let them decide, then parents would say, based on the information given, I can now say that my child could take it. But there is a lack of education in regards to the vaccines.”

Phillips, who is contesting the Buccoo/Mt Pleasant electoral district in the December 6 Tobago House of Assembly election, said he has reached out to the division’s line secretary Tracy Davidson-Celestine on “many private occasions,” asking about the pamphlets.

“We can do as much as we can but if we don’t get the source information from the persons who have received the vaccines and would have the information, we can’t give out pamphlets just so without information from the Ministry of Health.

“Up to this day, there is no pamphlet, no response to that. They are only saying we looking into it. I believe more could have been done.”

Phillips also believes there is too much misinformation about covid19.

“One minute you are hearing the Minister of Health (Terrence Deyalsingh) saying face masks won’t save you and it does not make sense, then you hear him say it works now and you are charging people for not wearing masks.

“Then there was talk of the virus being airborne and the minister dispelled it but in March or April of this year, he said it was airborne. So, education in regards to information and inaccurate information from the ministry, that is also a failure.”

Phillips, during the discussion, also claimed to have a list of 2, 473 persons from Trinidad and 547 in Tobago who have not received any of the Government’s social assistance grants since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

“I have text messages. I have calls. I even started posting the text messages, responses from social development (department) to our Facebook pages to see the same song that they have been singing – they have not received any finances from the Minister of Finance so they cannot issue 2020 grants.”