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The vaccination promotion project a red herring

02 Jun 2021

At the moment, there is a bigger controversy and turmoil than the Covid-19 pandemic. What has emerged and taken centre position now is the Covid-19 vaccination drive. We are compelled to talk about the vaccine and not about the illness. We see the competition, propaganda, and the struggle the countries producing these vaccines face in trying to sell their vaccines to “give for free” and to sell the rest at a “higher price” to the people in other poorer countries; rather than providing the same to the people infected with Covid-19 in their own countries. In this context, we see a variety of disgusting scenes on television, where ministers and MPs are on one side, while doctors, mayors, teachers, and trade unionists are on the other. It has been seen on social media as well as on television that various parties are struggling to get the vaccine, causing a great deal of controversy and uproar. But, for what? Is the vaccine going to save you from the pandemic? The producers themselves are not giving that guarantee. So what is it? What are you trying to gain? For how long have we been wearing the mask and what is our experience? For how long have we been facing lockdowns and travel restrictions and what is the result? In a very recent post on social media, this process was ridiculed through the following points: 1) We avoid sunlight and fresh air by staying inside our houses 2) We stop breathing freely for eight hours by wearing a mask 3) We stay inside houses and watch television and news propaganda continuously, which makes us feel sick 4) It instils a fear psychosis and anxiety in the minds of our children and neighbours 5) Will we get injected with untested vaccines? What untested vaccines?    In this context, it is said that there are trade unions among those who are fighting for this vaccine. As a Trade Union Secretary, my opinion is different.   Governments and the manufacturers of these vaccines have an ethical responsibility to give more and more information, and also the freedom for individuals to decide on the use of the vaccine and not to force the vaccine on them. In a context where even manufacturers that have not been tested on the exact health regulations and thereby the results have not been determined, are sceptical of vaccine-related reactions. We should therefore be more responsible. Exaggeration and publicity about this with various heterogeneous intentions doubles the suspicion about this vaccine. In my view, the problems of our people do not concern the problem of the vaccine. As a trade unionist, I feel the unions should focus on the following rather than on a vaccine that is diverting our attention. Here are the questions:
  1. While the vast majority of the population suffer from not being able to get even a daily meal in the current context, it is questionable as to why the country should invest to buy the vaccine by falling into debt. The majority do not have proper food, but they need to get vaccinated?
  2. From considering a beggar sleeping on the street who has no daily necessities or a home, to workers who work for a salary of Rs. 10,000 or Rs. 15,000 a month and the issues they have to face, the priority is to quench their hunger rather than the problem of getting vaccinated. They strive for one meal at a time for their family or the problem of finding ways to deliver the meal to the needy.
  3. For working people who earn a monthly salary, as well as for those who provide daily meals, the question today is how to get the next meal rather than the vaccine.
  4. The question of how and when to recover the lost period of education for the children who have been left in the lurch for more than one-and-a-half years. How to pay for online education?
  5. Adults suffering from chronic diseases is an issue. They are helpless. So the question is how to help them.
  6. How can pensioners sustain life in this present day with the unprecedentedly high cost of living, with their meagre pension?
  7. The problems of workers have become manifold and are aggravated by the state media's controversial misleading announcements. Furthermore, the curtailment of public transport has led to extra expenses to reach their workplaces with much difficulty. Apart from this, those who have worked for many years have not received their normal salary increase commensurate with the rising cost of living and commitments in the given situation.
  8. The other problem is that they have lost prospects of promotions, salary increases, bonuses, and gratuity payments they are entitled to during their service.
  9. Leave entitlements have been decided by the managements and in some cases, the forcible deduction of leave or pay cuts have taken place.
  10. Pregnant women have become victims of various types of inhumane treatment with no place to report such. Breastfeeding mothers have lost their freedom of leaving the workplace to feed their infants.
  11. The real issue, as far as the unions are concerned, is not allowing the members of unions or their leaders to meet and discuss the issues that affect them. The issue of compulsory 14 days of unpaid quarantine is dangled as a threat, and if found to have participated in a trade union meeting, this is the threat that is posed to workers of many reputed companies.
  12. Union meetings are curtailed or “virtually prohibited”. The issues confronting workers have become stagnant without any solution for an unforeseen period. I feel that this will lead to turmoil amongst the workers in the time to come.
  13. In the midst of all these obstacles is the question of the efforts of the employers to achieve 100% production under the pretext of maintaining the economy. Office employees are compelled to work from home with Zoom technology.
  14. The Labour Department and its district offices are somewhat inactive with the excuse of Covid-19. Thus, the workers who turn the wheel of the economy have to wait indefinitely for redress.
  15. The only mechanism that has been there to air out the common grievances on the labour front, even though it was treated as “shop talk”, the National Labour Advisory Council under its own guidelines and standing orders should have met once a month but alas, it has not been called for the past three months under the pretext of Covid-19.  
  16. The other indisputable factor is that we are notified that the road accident rate in Sri Lanka is at an average of about 10 deaths a day. That means about 3,600 a year. That is apart from the high death rate that occurs due to diabetics, heart attacks, cancer, etc. Up to now, there have been 1,363 cases of Covid-19-related deaths for the past one-and-a-half years.
The question is that all of these have succumbed to the vaccine promotion project that has been launched to make profits for pharmaceutical companies, which I think is a red herring in the given situation. I would say that this attempt to create a “vaccination culture” that did not exist in this country is a so-called “pilot project” of the so-called “world experts” in planning and policymaking. I think that the failure of the media to bring to the notice of the people of this country, articles in this regard about the deliberate failure to draw the attention of the international analysis of alternative scholars and intellectuals, who interpret Covid-19 and the vaccine, is a violation of the right of the people to information. It seems that we are unknowingly activating the fear of arresting, imprisoning, and prosecuting alternative ideologues. I do not think that it is necessary to give examples of such incidents here. Keep aside the popular propaganda, now open your eyes. I hope that the unions have the courage to say that “the emperor is naked”.   (The writer is the General Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile Industrial and General Workers Union)  

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