Not chide and condemn that recommendation to health and government officials
as skepticism about the covid 19 vaccination program continues as it is in every other
country there are several people in Jamaica who are apprehensive about the covid-19 vaccine
some have even taken protest action to voice their mistrust of the new jab
however social history professor at the University of the West Indies,
Mona varian shepard explains that this hesitancy is not only based on conspiracy theories i say
teach and explain rather than child and condemn the black community's distrust of the vaccine and
medical research and advice that they are asked to support is rooted in a long record of mistreatment
dr reed toxin co-founder of the black coalition against poverty 19 has explained that the late
1900s were defined by medical breakthroughs but that many of these experiments and discoveries
were made at the expense of black people's human dignity the forced use of experimental drugs and
procedures on enslaved blacks created this early mistrust for medicine reggae entertainer and
rastafarian tony rebel is among the critics he pointed to u.s lawsuits in the 1980s linked to
previous vaccines enough people might look for me i say yeah on a rastafarian and therefore i
deal with conspiracy theory but the truth is do you have an idea about 1932 when the tuskegee
experiment uh happened in america according to which u.s public health service systematically
denied 600 black men infected with syphilis of treatment for this terrible disease
while lying to them and telling them that they were being treated
based on this history many including tony rebel believe the global administering of a new vaccine
is time to mount to an experiment and so question the quick global acceptance don't
roll over and play a dead and take everything that these organizations present us we must have
our team that can do serious research because every time we listen to the news all
here is that um we're going by what the who says or what cdc says where you are set
but speaking at a vaccination town hall meeting on friday professor of public health and epidemiology
dr peter figaro refuted the experimental argument as part of the world health organization team
that reviewed the astrazeneca vaccine he insists that it's based on a decade of sars
coronavirus vaccine research he's defending its efficacy and safeness professor shepard
believes there's only one way to achieve the over 60 vaccine up that's required in jamaica
i think governments and medical doctors need to be understanding even though it might be frustrating
welcome back to primetime news and again a special
welcome if you're watching online at onespotmedia.com
after house for him to lead from the front the prime minister today took his first jab of the
astrazeneca covid 19 vaccine opposition leader mark golding also took his jab saying it is an
important signal to in supporting the government's vaccination drive now as giovanni dennis reports
the prime minister still has concerns about the continued spike in kovit 19 cases
will be given to our prime minister
and it's 0.5
sending a public signal 12 days after the first jamaican was vaccinated on local soil the prime
minister was inoculated security health officials jostling journalists the expected scenery
his wife and member of parliament juliet also got the vaccine it was fleeting and light-hearted
but when mr wholeness spoke he couldn't have been more serious the numbers will continue
to rise if we do not observe the protocols it is in our interest at this point in time
to restrict all movements if you do not have to go somewhere
stay at home he also had concerns about overcrowding at vaccination centers we don't
want to see a spike in the numbers as a result of persons going to take the vaccine because remember
even after you've taken the vaccine there is a period of time for your immunity to build
so during that period of time there is still a potential and then if there is um over if there
are too many persons gathering at the site let's say a person's club did not get through then they
would have been exposed so it has to be done in an orderly way in the meantime opposition leader mark
golding also got the first dose of the vaccine today i think it's important to send a signal
to jamaicans that this is an important thing for the country and for themselves and their families
that they must go through this process when their time comes i was prepared to wait my turn but i
was then invited by the government to do it now and i thought about it and i said look given the
pervasive fear and um anxiety around this whole vaccination business it's important that i send a
signal that i'm in favor of it the prime minister and opposition leader will get their second
and final dose of the vaccine in eight to twelve weeks time giovanni dennis tvj news
and dancehall entertainer tommy lee sparta was today sentenced to three years for illegal
possession of firearm and two years for illegal possession of ammunition when he appeared in the
home circuit court in downtown kingston the entertainer whose given name is leroy russell
pleaded guilty to the charges this morning the sentences are to run concurrently tommy lee was
arrested last december after a vehicle in which he was traveling on holborn road in new kingston
was stopped by members of the jamaica constabulary force specialized operations it was reported that
men in the vehicle were searched and the firearm phoned in the waistband of tommy lee welcome back
to primetime news and again a special welcome if you're watching online at onespotmedia.com
finance minister dr nigel clark has blasted the opposition spokesman on finance for comments he
made during his contribution to the budget debate in closing the budget debate dr clark argued
that julian robinson's speech was riddled with inaccuracies now varsion brown has been
covering the debate and now joins us in studio version all right thank you so much herman so
the opposition raised several concerns during the budget debate from price increases to the
government's decision to use money from the bank of jamaica profits to fund the budget well today
the finance minister got a chance to respond the opposition spokesman on finance argued that
many jamaicans are hungry because they cannot afford basic food items due to price increases
but finance minister dr nigel clark argued that the price increased data presented by julian
robinson were just not credible he questioned why the opposition did not get reliable information
from the consumer affairs commission why would the opposition spokesman come to parliament with
his data gathered from one degree unnamed source these are some of the price increases outlined by
the opposition spokesman cooking oil 85 in 2016 is now two hundred and twenty dollars an increase of
a hundred and fifty eight percent tin mackerel has moved from fifty five dollars to a hundred dollars
an increase of eighty one percent but dr clark said the prices used by the opposition spokesman
were completely off arguing that the consumer affairs commission data tell the real story
according to the consumer affairs commission corned beef moved by seven between 17 and 31
over the five years which is approximately three percent to five percent per year
cooking oil by 16 to 22 or approximately three or four percent per year rise
by 36 percent or approximately seven percent seven percent a year
pre-packaged dark sugar max man speaker all of those things he reported inaccurate information on
dr clark also took on the opposition leader saying that his comments on the bank of jamaica dividend
were misleading in his contribution to the budget debate mark golding blasted the government
for using money from the boj to fund the budget arguing that the wholeness administration
is using devaluation as a tax but like the prime minister dr clark is asking where the
boj dividends for the years the pnp was in office madam speaker the audited financial
statements of the boj show that between 2000 and 2007 and again between 2012 and 2016
11 years when the opposition was in power using mr gold's analysis of just adding it all up
the bank of jamaica enjoyed foreign exchange dividends of approximately 728 million u.s dollars
at today's exchange that's 107 billion dollars i want to know madam speaker where are the dividends
it's why dr clark is giving the opposition this advice they say that
when you live in a glass house do not throw stones
and modern speaker it is even more evident that if you take a little golden dust and you throw
on the glass hose it is still only a glass hose on this issue
now wash and we understand that the weekend lockdowns also came up for discussion what kind
of assistance did the finance minister say people will receive well herman the finance minister says
funds will be made available to ease the burden that the vulnerable will face during the lockdown
he says the money will be disbursed through the constituency development fund cdf on april 1.
the government of jamaica will provide support in aggregate in aggregate equivalent to
uh two million dollars per constituency but meaning that we'll have to take account of local
government as well right sometimes the unknowns constituencies councils say hey what about me
so a total of 126 million dollars through uh representatives to assist citizens during
this these weekends of lockdown all right thank you very much vashen for that report
and the house of representatives this afternoon passed changes to the disaster risk management act
local government minister desmond mckenzie has proposed 40 new fines
of up to 500 thousand dollars for breaches of kovit-19 orders mr mckenzie says on the lower
end persons could be fined five thousand dollars for not wearing a mask in public
and ten thousand dollars for breaking curfew there are also fines for breaking quarantine
persons who normally resides in jamaica and on returning to the island from overseas
fail or refuse to remain in quarantine or to obey the other directives or order
is liable for a fine of 25 000 if a person who does not normally resides in jamaica
or who is a tourist refuse to stay inside the resilient corridor as required the penalty is
30 thousand dollars the fine for unlawful church services and funerals is one hundred thousand
dollars it's the same for illegal illegally operated bars and on the higher end hotels
could be charged five hundred thousand dollars for breaches who operate a hotel a resort cottage
that is not licensed under the tourist board act certified by the tourism product development
committee are located within the resilient corridor is subjected to a fixed penalty of five
hundred thousand dollars this fine is also also applies to any hotel resort
that reaches corvid 19 protocols and to any nightclub amusement park
water attraction that is attracted that is operated when it is ordered closed
welcome back thanks for staying with us one of the consequences of the covet 19 pandemic
has been an increase in medical waste the challenges for the island's sole facility
that handles this waste has been made worse with a spike in covert cases over the last two months
now the ministry of health is trying to prevent a possible public health crisis by employing the
services of the national solid base management authority nswma and a private company to help
here is kirk wright with that tvj news exclusive years ago hospitals stopped burning medical waste
on their compounds citing environmental concerns the government then built this medical waste
treatment plant on drummond street across from the kingston public hospital to treat infectious
medical waste from all hospitals island wild the medical waste treatment plant is the only such
facility in the island and now it's struggling to cope with the increased medical waste
brought on by the pandemic we asked the prominent secretary in the ministry of health johnson brian
about the severity of the problem the problem is significant in that over the last two months
there has been a significant increase in the number of um in the number of
medical wastes that has been generated and is in need of disposal for treatment we took our
cameras to the rear of the victor jubilee hospital where we saw loads of the infectious medical waste
stored waiting to be collected we can't say what was burning but we observed smoke going into the
atmosphere from their chimney we also took our cameras into the skies over the saint joseph
hospital in vineyard town san angelo where we observed the infectious waste waiting to
be collected our information is that the same is true for other hospitals across the island
the permanent secretary says two short-term measures are being implemented to ease the problem
one would see the engagement of the national solid waste management
authority for the disposal of non-medical risk and we will be engaging a private firm
that is in the business of medical waste management to provide or augment our capacities
in the short term the nswme says it no longer buries the medical wastes from hospitals
but they are covered as quickly as possible we asked the nswma chief oddly gardener about the
possibility of people on the dump coming in contact with medical waste and contaminating
themselves because they earn a living that way um which i've tried in the past to discourage them
but yes it's easy to talk it's a difficult thing to tell a man to give up these means of survival
so what we did was to educate them as to the dangers and to advise them to use gloves and you
know get the disposable gloves and to also wear a mask while they're picking some comply i'm sure
majority don't but they can't set everyone warned but yes there is a danger kirk right tv genius