Trinidad Minister: Christians don’t want to vaccinate

Terrence Deyalsingh
Terrence Deyalsingh

(Trinidad Guardian) Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has admitted that the majority of people who have so far refused to become vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, are from the Christian faith.

Making the disclosure during the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) media briefing yesterday as he responded to questions, Deyalsingh said, “When we talk to people and do our surveys, the bulk of people who seem to be vaccine hesitant are of the Christian faith.”

Claiming he had been taken aback after hearing a Christian pastor on a radio station discouraging persons from being vaccinated, the minister went on, “My fear is what is happening behind the scenes.”

He added, “With the way the Bible and the teachings of the Bible have been interpreted or misinterpreted…there are many such pastors doing that both in Trinidad and Tobago.”

In recognizing the vaccine hesitancy among the population, Deyalsingh said the MOH had changed its communication strategy and now had a new slogan of “Don’t Delay, Vaccinate Today.”

In late August, Roman Catholic Archbishop Jason Gordon urged people to stop listening to misinformation as he pleaded with citizens to get vaccinated to save T&T from social and economic ruin.

He said, “I am asking you please, please, please, please get vaccinated. There is spurious information circulating that is stopping people from being vaccinated.”

At the time, he advised citizens to listen to the experts and to the science before making their choice to vaccinate.

He told them, “There is no science that says you will get a chip in your arm from Bill Gates, or that China will be able to track you. There is no science in that whatsoever. We know that 99.3 per cent of people who have died from COVID-19 from May this year were unvaccinated people. That is the science. The undisputed fact is unvaccinated people are dying at a higher rate than vaccinated people. That is the fact, you cannot dispute the numbers.”

Gordon said people were not understanding the science and were trapped in Facebook algorithms that bombarded them with misinformation.

For those who were confused, Archbishop Gordon urged them to follow the lead of their Church elders and get vaccinated.

Back then, he also slammed theological leaders who were against vaccinations, believing the blood of Jesus would protect them from COVID.