“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

When the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was declared in 2020, it was an accepted fact that in good time it would arrive on Jamaica’s shores.

MMS Ltd was in preparation for our annual client educational seminar and decided that the topic needed to be addressed, hence we moved into high gear with research and the seminar “Facts Not Fear” held on March 5, 2020.

Speakers included scientists, an immunologist, as well as an epidemiologist, economist, business representatives, health practitioners, politicians, and attorneys-at-law. Attendance saw over 280 participants from a wide cross-section of citizens, employees, purveyors of goods and services, the media with outdoor broadcasting, and those who could not be accommodated called for a repeat outside of the Corporate Area.

This was the start of MMS’s contribution towards steps to understand how to control the spread of the coronavirus infection.

By the time the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Jamaica – March 11, 2020, the need for public education became clear as there was not yet any specific medical regimen to treat the disease COVID-19.

Suffering and death started to create fear and anxiety, the response included edicts and protocols which were met with mixed acceptance and compliance, so the virus raged on.

Fast forward to the approval of vaccines, ironically the fear somewhat shifted from COVID-19 to fear of the vaccine.

Facts went out the window and ignorance trumped the willingness to learn. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

For the purpose of this article, ignorance is being used in the context of not being stupid, but lacking in knowledge or training, or uninformed about a particular subject.

We have brought this situation on ourselves as misinformation took centre stage ahead of a coherent sustained public education programme, as there is the quest for knowledge about for the coronavirus causing COVID-19 and vaccines.

To date this is still woefully inadequate, resulting in slow vaccine uptake. COVID-19 is both a unifier and a divider which has provided the opportunity for a collective approach to controlling the spread of the infection.

A variety of action items emerged from state policies, businesses, and selected corners of the society. But instead of the intended unity around specific actions such as curfews and no movement days, resulting in curtailment of some businesses and social interaction, we saw divisive actions as a show of ignorance of the impact of COVID-19 on lives and livelihoods.

We want our freedom without responsibility and coin information to support whatever we want to justify.

We, who should know wrong from right, invoked our rights to ignorance to suit ourselves, thereby making wrong decisions or bad choices by ignoring proper facts and so COVID-19, being not choosy, infected all and sundry across all classes of the citizenry.

The ignorance of citizens or their unwillingness to learn is dangerous, and such persons come in all forms – educated, under-educated and illiterate.

We see the proof of ignorance as it relates to infection control measures and in particular vaccines.

There is a rejection of research, tried and proven measures of infection control as we believe in our own understanding of information, gleaned from social media and the portrayal of the dark side through conspiracy theories that present themselves as facts.

All the education about facts and truths in the world, cannot counter these beliefs despite the untoward effects playing out worldwide in plain sight daily, with the infection rate and the deadly effects on the unvaccinated.

The mutation of viruses loves these people, making them sicker and absorbing much of the already-stretched healthcare system.

People will tell you of their interpretation of what they read in the papers, online and heard on the news as their alibi for ignorance. No amount of personal nor public education can dissuade the diehard hesitant or anti-vaxxers to exchange their ignorance for knowledge of facts and truths.

What is required is sustained quality public education programs to bridge the gap between knowledge and ignorance. We need to put more efforts into this, starting from coherent policies, educational tools, talks from experts, influencers, counselling, and perhaps incentives.

One Mr Jeff Rich states “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

This is the premise on which MMS Limited operates by making education an integral part of its business operation. MMS is of the belief that “a quality education grants us the ability to fight the war on ignorance and poverty” (Charles B. Rangel).

People in position of influence, regardless of sector, must at least be seen to be making every effort to educate those who are reluctant, hesitant, or against vaccination to be equipped with knowledge about what will harm or kill them.

We may not be able to make people listen, they have to come around in their own time to discover the harm they may be inflicting on themselves and those around them.

At the time of writing unfolding in the news media is the unfortunate occurrence of atrocities at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Montego Bay. In listening to the composition of the congregation, I am convinced of Simon Bolivar’s saying, “an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its destruction.”

And I say as ignorance persists then we have to own it.

—Article by Audrey Hinchcliffe
CEO and Founder, Manpower and Maintenance Services Ltd Group.
Email:[email protected]