After facing enormous backlash from Jamaican Twitter users on Tuesday (September 7), for comments made against mandating the COVID-19 vaccine within the workplace, Opposition Senator Damion Crawford is today standing resolute in his earlier position.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Crawford said he failed to understand the desire of organisations to mandate that their employees be vaccinated when unvaccinated persons pose more of a risk to themselves than to vaccinated persons, defeating the purpose of vaccine mandates in the context of workplaces.

This commentary from Crawford resulted in a firestorm of responses with many users questioning the intelligence of the mathematician.

The mandate is rooted in creating a safer work environment for employees. An unvaccinated employee is not only a danger to themselves but everyone around them (the vaccinated, immunocompromised etc). Maybe I’m missing something here but this doesn’t any sense imo. https://t.co/1TqNhvdSlQ

— mark (@youroxytocin1) September 8, 2021

In response to Crawford’s statements, one user @youroxytocin1 wrote: “The mandate is rooted in creating a safer work environment for employees. An unvaccinated employee is not only a danger to themselves but everyone around them (the vaccinated, immunocompromised etc). Maybe I’m missing something here but this doesn’t (make) any sense in my opinion.”

Another user, @AIZAWASENSI, stated, “You’re a mathematician and this is the calculation you came up with? The unvaxxed is a risk to everybody. You have a whole immunization card and have children but you choose to use your platform to spread confusion amongst the people of the country, you’re supposed to improve.”

Clearly unphased by the less than favourable commentary, the senator again took to Twitter on Wednesday (September 8) to further argue his point of view.

Your a mathematician and this is calculation you came up with?

The unvaxxed is a risk to everybody. You have a whole immunization card, and have children but you choose to use your platform to spread confusion amongst the people of the country, you’re suppose to improve. https://t.co/9m2peAmL3s

— Aizawa Namikaze-Oji (@AIZAWASENSI) September 8, 2021

He stated: “My opinion on vaccination has been made clear… I believe our ppl should be encouraged to take the vaccines.”

Despite this, however, Crawford argued against mandating COVID-19 vaccines as, in his opinion, the criteria for mandating vaccination has not yet been met.

According to Crawford, mandating the COVID-19 vaccine should only be considered if:

1) There is a high probability of serious harm to your neighbour if vaccination does not take place.

2) The act being mandated is able in and of itself to prevent the above-mentioned harm.

3) The act being mandated is achievable.

Having considered each of these requirements for issuing a vaccine mandate, Crawford argued that the probability of serious harm to one’s neighbour if vaccination does not take place is low, that vaccination alone cannot prevent serious harm to one’s neighbour and, given the current availability of vaccines in Jamaica, issuing a vaccine mandate on the entire working population would not be achievable.

In light of this, Crawford urged Jamaicans to place less focus on situations believed to be out of their control, such as vaccine mandates for employees, and instead place greater focus on things they can control such as pressuring the Government to procure oxygen supplies and implement border control measures so that more deadly coronavirus variants are not given access to the population.