KINGSTOWN, ST. Vincent – Parliament is expected to begin debate on Thursday evening of a third revision of proposed changes to the Public Health Act, even as Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves was nursing wounds suffered during protest here earlier during the day.
Protest outside the St. Vincent Parliament (CMC Photo)Gonsalves was struck on his head with an object as he emerged from his official vehicle and was walking towards the Parliament building.
Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves, who is also his son, told legislators that his father was left “bleeding” as a result of the incident, and condemned the act against the Prime Minister.
The Finance Minister further decried opposition lawmakers for not condemning the violence against Prime Minister Gonsalves. As a result, there has been a stronger police presence near the Parliament building.
Hundreds of supporters of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) as well as two public sector unions turned up to protests the legislation that the government said would allow for the vaccination of public sector workers, considered to be front line workers.
The government is proposing to remove the word “voluntary” from a section of the law that speaks to vaccination against an illness that has triggered the declaration of a public health emergency — as is the case with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
An earlier version of the proposed amendments also noted that people could be exempted from such vaccination on medical or religious grounds.
However, those religious beliefs must be “deeply held”, according to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, and the medical assessment of a person’s physician must be approved by the chief medical officer (CMO).
“There was a new development this morning. We have had now had three versions of this amendment,” Opposition Leader Godwin Friday told protesters. He noted that under the existing law, exemptions were provided for reasons of conscience — which is usually interpreted to mean religion — and on medical grounds.
The Opposition Leader said that the government is now proposing to omit the section of the law that speaks to omission by reason of conscience, thereby making medical grounds the only basis on which a person can object to vaccination.
“But remember, the way it was written, it was suggesting that somehow if you get a certificate from your doctor saying you are not supposed to take that treatment, that the chief medical officer can come between them and decide that you have to take the treatment,” Friday said citing an earlier version of the proposed changes.
He said that in the latest version, the government is proposing to change the law in a way that makes its intentions clear.
“They have divided it into two sections and this is the procedure: if you want to get an exemption from an order for treatment, under the Medical Health Act, the first stage is that you have to get a certificate … from a doctor that is acceptable to the chief medical officer,” Friday said, adding that there are similar provision in the old law.
“In the second part of it, even if you get a certificate from a doctor that is acceptable to the chief medical officer, the chief medical officer may still require you to undergo an examination by one or more practitioners that she says you have to go to,” Friday said.
Friday said that the CMO, having rejected a person’s physician’s findings, can order that a doctor of the CMO’s choice examine the person.
“And only the doctor that … the chief medical officer specifies, that is the only doctor you can go to. So the government now is going to choose your doctor for you. I swear to God, this is what is before the Parliament now,” Friday said.
“If you go to your doctor and that doctor isn’t acceptable, for whatever reason, to the CMO, it don’t matter how many certificates you get, you can’t get further than that.
“So first of all, here you have somebody who practicing medicine in this country that maybe you’ve been going to for years and they (the government) say you have to take this treatment. Let’s say it is vaccination. And then you go to your doctor, the doctor says, ‘You know what, I don’t think this is recommendable for you.’ … But the chief medical officer can look at it and say, ‘Well, that doctor is not approved, is not acceptable to me.’ So then you don’t go any further.
The opposition leader said that he does not intend to support the changes to the law and further suggested that the proposed changes might be further amended before it goes to a debate.
“We never know, when we go back into Parliament this evening we may get the fourth version,” Friday said, adding “but those people who are responsible for the legislation and the passing of it must be held accountable by the people of this country”.
Friday said that what the government is attempting to do with the change of the law “is what happens in dictatorships.
“That is what happens in communist regimes. That is not the sort of thing we are used to in a free and democratic society and we will hear more about that because the bill hasn’t come up for debate as yet. It is there in the draft and we will look at it and we will study it and we will come back to you again.”
Among the public sector workers who attended the protest in uniform were nurses, customs officers, and government printers.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has recorded 2,298 cases of COVID-19 since March 2020. Of those, 2,233 have recovered 53 remain active and 12 people have died. The country has administered 25,766 vaccines, representing 15,768 first doses and 9,998 second doses.
