Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is expected to address the country “shortly” following the series of town hall meetings on COVID-19 vaccines and testing, which wrapped up on Wednesday night at Combermere School.
Acting Attorney General Wilfred Abrahams revealed this while responding to a query about whether Government will accept liability or offer compensation from those who suffer adverse effects or death after taking a COVID-19 vaccine.
“The PM will shortly address the country in relation to the totality of what has gone on here. Look, we’ve come here to discuss and the panel had tried to answer all the questions put, and we’ve been entirely respectful of you the audience at every single town hall meeting. This is the last of those meetings.
“We have accumulated a wealth of information that needs to be collated. It needs to be referenced with all of the resources we have and then the best possible, most comprehensive solution put before the people of Barbados,” he said.
Abrahams, who is Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, added: “This is not something we’ve seen before. It’s something we need to look at carefully and it’s something we need your feedback on to get the right solution. That feedback does not require us to answer every question immediately. It is important that we take your questions, that we consider them and that when we actually speak on what the policy is, it takes into account the widest possible cross section. That is what respect is. Respect is hearing every single thing that every one of you had to say.”
He reiterated that the purpose of the public consultations, which came out of a Social Partnership meeting in July, was to listen and “not trying to prove that I know more than you or the person who spoke because I’m not a virologist, I’m not an epidemiologist. I’m a lawyer so I cannot disprove anything that anybody in here says”.
Also attending the more than three-hour meeting were Acting Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George and a team of medical professionals, president of the Barbados Association of Medical Professionals Dr Lynda Williams, Chief Labour Officer Claudette Hope-Greenidge, her deputy Wayne Sobers and other personnel from the Ministry of Labour, head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman, and chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association Edward Clarke. (GBM)
