Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has sighted ‘lack of information’ as the reason for the inequitable vaccination distribution that has plagued the country since inoculations started just over a week ago.

Addressing a Virtual Vaccine Town Hall put on by the Office of The Prime Minister earlier today, Holness said that “the people who are clamoring to take the vaccine and who are turning up in large numbers (to take the vaccine) are usually those from a higher income category”.

He said this was due to the fact that these individuals are more informed.

“They do more research. They have more access to information and many of them speak to their doctors directly and so they get advice,” Holness said.

On the other side of the information spectrum, however, are those individuals from the inner cities and rural areas “who do not always have the information and don’t always have first hand access to their doctors
and practitioners to give them the advice”.

Where this ‘sound advice’ is lacking, it is generally replaced by “perverse information”.

Information which suggests that they “don’t take the vaccine or don’t do this and that kind of information isbeing circulated widely in our country”, generally by people who are opinion leaders.

Holness emphasised that it is due to this continued misinformation, that the equitable distribution of vaccines is being hindered.

“During this period of short supply, what will happen is that a certain section of the society will get vaccinated and they will be able to go back and move around without having that high risk of infection, whilst people who are poorer may very well still maintain a high risk of infection,” Holness said.

The prime minister is therefore urging all Jamaicans to get vaccinated as soon as the call for vaccination of their particular phase group is made.