By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former Cabinet minister yesterday added his voice to those opposing mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, telling Tribune Business: “Better to use a carrot than a stick.”

Dr Duane Sands, who stepped down as minister of health just last year, told Tribune Business that education and “respectful dialogue” were the best mechanisms for overcoming what he acknowledged was “considerable hesitation” among many Bahamians over becoming inoculated against COVID-19.

He also conceded that while The Bahamas’ vaccine roll-out had gone smoothly to-date, it was “probably not going as well as we would like” given that the country remains months away from achieving the so-called ‘herd immunity’ threshold of having 85 percent of its population inoculated.

While The Bahamas needs thousands more vaccine doses beyond the 20,000 received recently from India, and the $100,000-plus it is acquiring through the COVAX facility, Dr Sands said obtaining the required volume was down to conditions “beyond our control” as export bans and hoarding by wealthier countries impact this nation and countless others.

“It’s going as fast as it can given the limitations and circumstances,” Dr Sands said of The Bahamas’ vaccination roll-out, “but we need many, many more doses of vaccine, and we don’t have any knowledge of when we’re going to get them.

“In part from circumstances beyond our control, it’s not going as well as we’d probably like if we’re going to reach 85 percent completely vaccinated in a few months. With the number of doses we have it’s been a very smooth roll-out, and the logistics have been good. What’s missing is additional doses.”

The Bahamas has already received its first 33,000-dose tranche from the COVAX initiative to go with the 20,000 provided by India, and government officials anticipate receiving a similar-sized batch before May’s end. However, Dr Sands added: “That doesn’t really allow us to vaccinate 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 a day.

“There also remains considerable vaccination hesitation. It’s a significant concern everywhere, but it’s one best dealt with by education, dialogue and respectful exchanges but certainly not coercion and certainly not mandating vaccines for people afraid or hesitant.

“It’s better to use the carrot than the stick clearly. That’s the goal. Give some carrots to people who might say they’re a little bit reluctant.” Dr Hubert Minnis sought to use such “carrots”, or incentives, to encourage Bahamians to take the COVID-19 vaccine during his House of Assembly presentation on Wednesday.

Detailing the benefits that will accrue to fully vaccinated (those who have taken two doses) Bahamians, apart from being able to travel around the country without having to take a COVID-19 PCR test, the Prime Minister said: “Once individuals are fully vaccinated, individuals can participate in a closed environment, once all within that closed environment are fully vaccinated.

“The mask would not be necessary and they can participate within that environment. That means indoor dining can resume for those individuals who are completely vaccinated. It also means from a cultural perspective that those like myself who participate in Junkanoo, once we are all vaccinated, we can work within the Junkanoo shacks among us all vaccinated individuals.

“This is important because it allows within an enclosed restaurant or wedding facility, once all are vaccinated, it also means that the cultural events that we had yesterday where individuals in restaurants and weddings would have Junkanoo rushing through the environment, that can occur once all, including the Junkanooers, are vaccinated and therefore we can commence some form of normal life.”

Much focus has been placed over the past week on whether it should be mandatory for Bahamian workers to become vaccinated if they are to continue in their present jobs and positions. The controversy was sparked by Sushi Rokkan, an Old Fort Bay Town Centre restaurant owned by Michael Scott QC and his wife, informing its 40-strong workforce that valid medical grounds were the only acceptable reason for not taking the vaccine. Employees who refused to do so for other reasons could be reassigned to other roles or lose their jobs entirely, workers were told.

This resulted in Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, saying that forcing Bahamian workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of their continued employment would “take us back to 1942” and the Burma Road riots. He also likened the move to the industrial conditions that produced the 1958 general strike.

Mr Ferguson said: “The question of the vaccine: I heard the chairman of the Hotel Corporation, a government entity, made an announcement that he is going to make it a requirement for persons who want to continue to work....... it’s mandatory for them to take the vaccine. I just want to go on the record by stating categorically that is an illegal act.....

“No one... The constitution of The Bahamas does not permit for anyone to give that instruction, and have that kind of influence, with the physical situation of the individual. That’s a no-no. Disregard that because it doesn’t make sense.

“That will take us back to 1942, when the employer could tell you what to do, when to do it and how to do it no matter what the situation is. We are not going to go back to that, nor are we going back to 1958. We cannot go back to 1942 or pre-1942. We just cannot go back to 1958.”

Dr Minnis said earlier this week that The Bahamas is expected to receive 33,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine before the end of May through the World Health Organisation’s/Pan American Health Organisation’s COVAX facility. He said 22,000 vaccines have been administered to date.