Health Professionals Urged to Play A Role In Public Education

Health Professionals Urged to Play A Role In Public Education – With hopes to return to normality from the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is urging health professionals and experts to help play a vital role in educating the people, as misleading information may push the population away from vaccination and the desire to reach herd immunity. 

Prime Minister Andrew Holness was speaking at a hand-over ceremony, at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) on Friday, October 22. A Genome Sequencer was donated to the National Influenza Centre at the University Hospital of West Indies, by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports, and Education – CHASE- Fund, to facilitate testing for new Coronavirus (COVID-19) variants. In the Prime Minister’s presentation, he notes that alongside the COVID-19 pandemic there is an epidemic of false information which is causing many Jamaicans to resist vaccination and that much of the information on social media does not go through any process of vetting, thereby exposing people to misleading information.

The Prime Minister says accurate information is needed to preserve lives and livelihoods and appeals to the health professionals and subject experts, to play a more active and visible role in combating the misinformation. 

Reporter: Jhanielle Powell