Following news that AstraZeneca has withdrawn its COVID-19 vaccines from the market due to reported overabundance, Opposition Spokesperson Dr Alfred Dawes is calling on the Ministry of Health and Wellness to articulate its position on the vaccines.

Dawes, in a statement on Thursday (May 8), claimed that the ministry’s silence is a cause for concern given that this is the same vaccine used to inoculate thousands of Jamaicans during the pandemic.

“People are wondering what this means for them if they took this and other vaccines, if there are any long-term side effects that they may develop as time goes by,” he began.

“Many healthcare workers and ordinary Jamaicans who advocated for persons to take the vaccines in order to protect themselves, are now left in a precarious situation where anti-vaxxers are claiming victory and threatening to undo the successes of vaccination campaigns involving traditional vaccines” Dawes added.

The London-based AstraZeneca announced on Tuesday its intention to withdraw the COVID-19 vaccine, citing a “surplus of available updated vaccines” since the pandemic.

According to Dawes, the vacuum created by the ministry’s decision not to comment on the matter has created a fertile ground for conspiracy theories to spread.

He argued that it is particularly troubling when the rhetoric coming from the Government at the time leaned heavily towards vaccine mandates and discrimination against those who chose not to take the vaccines.

“On a personal note, I was a vaccine advocate and championed personal responsibility in protecting oneself through voluntary vaccination and proven but officially scorned early treatment methods. It was as a result of the Government’s decision to hold ‘vaccinated only’ events and the unscientific segregation of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, why I closed down my vaccination centre and withdrew from vaccination campaigns,” he mused.

“In leading an all-or-nothing, vaccine-only and no-early-treatment campaign that ‘frowned upon the unvaccinated’, the government divided the nation into anti-vaxxers, vaxxers and pro-vax mandate supporters. In taking such an extreme position on vaccines, the MOHW cannot now abandon its responsibility to those who supported the personal decision to take the jab through their advocacy or taking the vaccine themselves,” the shadow minister mused.

“Jamaicans want to know if they are safe. They want to know if they made the right decision. They want to know whether or not they can trust their government. Only the government can answer these questions satisfactorily,” Dawes said.

The single-jab Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were the four main vaccines introduced to the Jamaican populace by the Ministry of Health & Wellness.