UIC president Joseph Patterson says he does not intend to take COVID-19 vaccine

 

Joseph Patterson, President of the United Independents' Congress (UIC), says he has no intention of taking a COVID-19 vaccine or recommending it.

 

Mr. Patterson, who is before the court for breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act by staging an anti-vaccination march recently, has been advocating against COVID-19 vaccine policies and mandates.

 

He and his co-accused informed the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Court on Thursday that they will be challenging the constitutionality of their arrest.

 

Speaking on Friday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Mr. Patterson said he does not trust the vaccines due to a lack of information. 

 

"I don't not intend to take this biological substance and I would not recommend it to any of my family or friends... We're not talking about our childhood vaccines, we're not talking about a vaccine I take to go to Ghana. We're talking about a very, very different kind of technology with no long term data study to support what may happen to you in two, three or four or five years. I don't even know the quality of what they're sending to Jamaica. I have no idea...because I can't trust my government.  I can't even trust the scientific community because they have been censored," he argued.     

 

Mr. Patterson is convinced that vaccine hesitancy in the society is due to the push that the medicine is the only solution to ending the pandemic.

 

He contended that many lives have been lost because the government has "focused on a one-track solution as opposed to making sure we have proper early treatment." 

 

He added that the Holness administration has "failed to be more aware, and more informed, and more practical in the approach that they have taken." 

 

Mr. Patterson said the constitutional challenge that will be mounted by his political party will show that the Government is taking the wrong approach to controlling the pandemic and it has "cost Jamaica dearly." 

 

"If the Prime Minister had gone the route that is properly afforded for in the constitution, then he would be standing on solid ground and he would have allowed for a process of greater checks and balances in what is being deployed on the Jamaican people... But because he has chosen a path which is more dictatorial, a one-man don kind of approach, he has lost credibility and lost the trust of the Jamaica people," he sought to explain. 

 

The United Independents' Congress is Jamaica's third registered political party.