By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 2nd June 2021) — SKNLP Chairman and medical doctor Dr. Terrance Drew says Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris “continues to play politics with COVID-19” and has called for an all-of-society approach and scientifically proven methods of communication and vaccination outreach. Speaking on Freedom FM’s “Issues” programme on Tuesday 1st June 2021, Dr. Drew said the government’s aggressive approach to vaccination is misguided.
“People like her should not be pushed out of a job or be forced out of a job, should not be maligned and called all sorts of names. That is a person you should call in, give her a forum where she can have all of her doubts, her fears listened to and responded to. That is the approach,” Dr. Drew said, referring to a caller who said she was a Unity supporter but was not taking the vaccine. He called on businesses who feel they must force employees to take the vaccine to instead use “scientifically proven methods of communicating and convincing people” — noting that there is a “scientific democratic approach that can achieve the same end.”
Dr. Drew recalled that both he and former PM Douglas — himself a medical doctor with experience managing the AIDS pandemic in CARICOM — had offered their assistance at the outset of the pandemic and been “bashed” and “pulled through the mud” for it. “The government was not serious ever about the whole of society approach. Had they brought us in, that would have helped,” he said. “The Prime Minister has not changed. He continues to play politics with COVID-19.”