‘No time for vaccine hesitancy’ − Min. Anthony tells parents

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony is urging parents to protect their children and safeguard their future by ensuring they are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Dr. Anthony made the appeal during the launch of Government’s COVID-19 vaccination programme for adolescents across the country, on Thursday at the St. Stanislaus College, Brickdam, Georgetown.

“This is not the time for us to hesitate, this is not the time for us to debate, the science is very clear that vaccines work,” Minister Anthony said.

He added that science has proven that vaccines are working, saving millions of lives.

“They are the people who are going to take this country into the future, and one way that we know for sure that they can come back here, is to make sure that they are vaccinated. And this gift from the United States is a very timely one because it allows us to make sure that we bring students back safely.

“We are now in possession of 146,000 [146,250] doses of Pfizer’s vaccines, and those vaccines have been authorised for use from 16 and upwards … This vaccine has also been approved with emergency use authorisation for any child between 12 to 18, and that is why we are using it.”

In the United States, over 11 million children have already received their COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine.

“While we have vaccines in place, while we have the staff from the Ministry of Health well trained to do those vaccines, while we have people talking about vaccines and so forth, we still need to mobilise the children to bring them to some point where we can do the vaccination,” Dr. Anthony told parents.

Meanwhile, during the launch, St. Stanislaus College students Ramon Cummings, a fifth former and Danah Shiwgobin, a second former were the first two adolescents in the country to be vaccinated against the deadly Coronavirus.

The students’ parents signed their consent forms to have them inoculated.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, MP, Charge d’ Affaires of the US Embassy in Guyana, Mark Cullinane, Officer in Charge at PAHO/WHO Guyana, Dr. Jean Alexandre, and Deputy Representative, UNICEF, Guyana, Irfan Akhtar were present at the launch.  

On Tuesday, Guyana received the 146,250 doses of Pfizer vaccines, a gift from the Government of the United States of America.