Fully-vaccinated Guyanese dying from COVID, says GPSU.

‘Not so’, counters Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony

SEVERAL FULLY-VACCINATED GUYANESE HAVE CONTRACTED COVID-19 AFTERWARDS AND DIED President of Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Mr. Patrick Yarde claimed.

“There is evidence that even persons who were administered both doses of those vaccines that required you to have two doses, subsequently contracted COVID 19 (and) several of them died,”Yarde said. 

But Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, this week dismissed such claims. Anthony said there are no reported local cases of any one hospitalised or admitted in any of the hospitals’ intensive care units (ICUs) since being fully vaccinated.

“Approximately 20 percent of our population have been fully vaccinated, and as we have said before about fully-vaccinated persons we have not seen any of them coming to the hospitals:meaning that they don’t have the severe forms of the infection, or have they been admitted to any of our ICUs or died from COVID. So, that’s a very important thing for people to understand,” Anthony declared during a news conference this week.

Yarde said he notified the head of the country’s COVID Task Force, Brigadier (ret’d) Prime Minister, Mark Phillips and encouraged the senior government official to implement stricter measures, review the curfew hours and reimplement the rotation system.

“The GPSU received from the Prime Minister an acknowledgement of its correspondence but no mention was made of the concerns expressed by the Union. The GPSU dispatched a second correspondence to the Prime Minister as a form of a reminder reiterating its concerns and urging that the Government approach be revisited,” Yarde reported.

“In response to the GPSU, the Prime Minister requested that the Union encourage all public servants to take the vaccine at the earliest opportunity. Again, there was no mention about the additional restrictive measures referred to by the Union,” Yarde noted.

He referred to comments contained in an article published in the Guyana Chronicle on the 22nd May, 2021 edition under the caption, “No lockdown” stating inter alia, “take the vaccine now or risk having to pay later”.

The GPSU, Yarde contended, interpreted this as a subtle response to its genuine concerns outlined in the two correspondences to PM Phillips. He lashed out at the article as repulsive, irresponsible and a lack of recognition of citizens Constitutional Rights of equal treatment in the utilisation of public funds.

There were three main concerns outlined in the GPSU missive to the government. In one of them the union noted inter alia, “Guyana now holds a seat at the Executive Board at the World Health Organisation (WHO).  This Executive Board comprise 34 persons, of which six seats are allocated to the Americas which includes Guyana. The Guyana representative on that board is the current Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P. That Guyana Public Service Union fully supports the procurement and distribution of WHO–approved vaccines to the Guyanese public and the GPSU supports the individual rights of Guyanese citizens to refuse medical treatment, including vaccines after making informed decisions. A reply was also sent to the Prime Minister, expressing similar sentiments,” Yarde disclosed.

“This union would continue to motivate its members in this current deadly and depressed environment, to be professional, efficient and effective in discharging their responsibilitiesand at the same time, to be careful with whatever they are required to do and ensure their safety, to avoid all risk and protect their health regardless,” Yarde outlined in the GPSU statement.