Al-Rawi calls on Opposition leader to help get people vaccinated

San Fernando West MP Faris-Al Rawi is calling on Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to make a greater effort to get more people vaccinated.

Al-Rawi made the call on Saturday while meeting with staff at his constituency office as they wrapped up work for his annual toy drive.

“Mrs Persad-Bissessar is a voice that makes no cries for vaccines (and) she’s a voice that makes no cry for support.

“I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how the leader of the opposition could be so violently silent on issues like this.

“Have you ever heard her speak about encouraging people to vaccinate? I honestly challenge you to say that you can hear genuine advocacy coming from the leader of the opposition of TT.”

In contrast, Al-Rawi said his constituency team have been doing all they can to get people vaccinated which includes putting together a coalition of religious leaders and community groups.

“In (my) constituency, I can tell you that I have personally knocked on almost every door that we can.

“We (in my office) went door-to-door to thousands of homes on the vaccination issue.

“We have done caravans, we’ve taken doctors in, we’ve taken vaccinations in, and so we’ve had a lot of interaction.”

But despite the push, Al-Rawi admits not many within his constituency have heeded the call. For example, Al-Rawi said they were only able to get seven people vaccinated in an area where thousands lived.

He is urging people to get vaccinated given the current rise in covid19 cases and deaths.

“This is something that we are just continuing to push on and we are really asking people to pay attention to the numbers of infections and to the fact that our hospitals are full of unvaccinated people. 95 to 97 per cent of the people (currently) in ICU and HDU are unvaccinated.”

The Ministry of Health data shows that people who are not fully vaccinated accounted for 89 per cent (6,789 of 7,626) of patients entering the parallel healthcare system between July 22 and November 24.