St. Vincent Vaccine mandate dismissals a stain people will not forget – Opposition Leader

St. Vincent’s Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday says the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate that caused hundreds of people to lose their jobs last December is a stain on the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration that people will not forget.

Friday said the government “overreacted” when it imposed the mandate last year, resulting in thousands of public sector workers having to choose between the jab and their jobs.

“Nobody else in the region did that,” he said and called on the government to reinstate the dismissed workers.

He told radio listeners that at one point, the Ralph Gonsalves government treated COVID-19 “as though it was some minor thing that will be passing.

“And then all of a sudden, they go on to the other end of the spectrum… completely beyond the range where others have gone, and they are firing people because they did not take the vaccine; making them choose between their bread and their bodies, and many people did choose their bread.

“But they will not forget the government that made them make that choice because they want to look out for their families, and they were prepared to do so even though they had serious doubts in their minds regarding the vaccine.

“That is something that will be a stain on this administration forever. And none of the people who have been directly affected and none of us quite frankly, as a country, should forget, and forgive them for that,” Friday said, adding that the government enforced the mandate “because they had the power, that’s it; nothing else.

“They had the power to do it, and it’s basically, ‘I will show you,” Friday said, adding that now that things have relaxed somewhat, people all over the world are learning to live with COVID “because that is what we have to do now.”

Friday said he would continue to call for the reinstatement of the workers until the government “gets out of its pig-headed stance and do the right thing.”

Last month, Prime Minister Gonsalves said the government was inviting unvaccinated public sector workers dismissed over the mandate to reapply for their jobs.

However, Gonsalves made it clear that this was not reinstatement of the workers and that he would expect that the workers would be rehired at the same level and that their pension benefits would remain intact.