Scudamore told the Sunday Observer that Jehovah's Witnesses are “totally distressed” at the loss of lives and suffering that the pandemic has inflicted on the island, especially during the recent upsurge. The pace of the take-up, the ministry said, has placed the Government in a position to achieve its target of administering 700,000 doses of the vaccine by the end of this September on a mission to achieve herd immunity. Last Thursday, the Ministry of Health and Wellness reported that more than 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered since the start of the national vaccination programme in March this year. The five leaders - Pastor Everette Brown, president of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Rev Dr Peter Garth, president of the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance and senior pastor of Hope Gospel Assembly Anglican bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and head of the Church in the Province of the West Indies, Howard Gregory head of the Roman Catholic Church Archbishop Kenneth Richards and Reverend Newton Dixon, president of the Jamaica Council of Churches - argued that the vaccine matter is “a health issue, not a religion issue”. On August 19 the leaders of five major church organisations in the country appeared at a news conference at Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston with Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and urged Jamaicans to arm themselves with facts, rebuke myths, and accept the vaccines. I would tell unvaccinated persons to get vaccinated now to help reduce the risk of catching or dying from COVID,” she said. My father and sister have also gotten the vaccine. One Witness in Jamaica, who requested anonymity, told the Sunday Observer that as an individual she endorses the COVID-19 vaccine. We are also grateful to the medical professionals in Jamaica's health-care service who are working hard to protect us during this pandemic,” Scudamore said. “Jehovah's Witnesses love life and thus appreciate the many advances of medical science to reduce the risk of serious illnesses. “While getting vaccinated is a personal decision to be made by each individual, reputable medical studies have shown that those who are fully vaccinated have added protection against the virus, while those who remain unvaccinated must be more cautious during this pandemic,” Scudamore added.
“Many Jehovah's Witnesses have made the personal decision to be vaccinated, believing that it is consistent with their respect for the sacredness of life and their desire to always display love to their neighbours,” local Jehovah's Witness leader Elder Peter Scudamore told the Jamaica Observer. The endorsement will likely strengthen the health and wellness ministry's efforts to vaccinate more than half of the population by March next year as the Government tries to shield more Jamaicans from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and which, up to last Friday, had infected 64,899 people here, killing 1,465 since the first case was reported in March last year.
Jehovah's Witnesses were not among the five major religious groups that two weeks ago gave support to the Government's COVID-19 vaccination programme however, the millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs is urging unvaccinated Jamaicans to trust science and take the jab. Many Jehovah's Witnesses havemade the personal decision tobe vaccinated, believing that it isconsistent with their respect forthe sacredness of life and theirdesire to always display love totheir neighbours.
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