Become vaccine ambassadors, Chuck urges JPs

MINISTER OF Justice Delroy Chuck has urged justices of the peace (JPs) to become vaccine ambassadors.

Speaking on Wednesday at Wembley Centre for Excellence in Hayes, where 37 JPs were commissioned into service, Chuck highlighted the distance Jamaica still has to go in achieving herd immunity. He urged them to take up the fight in ensuring that more people are vaccinated.

Pointing out to the incoming JPs that they should be problem-solvers, he said one of the problems the country has is how to get more Jamaicans vaccinated.

“If we can get over 60 per cent of the population vaccinated, then before long, COVID-19 will retreat into eternity,” he stressed, as he blamed social media for the Jamaicans reluctance in being vaccinated. He noted that they are being “brainwashed and misinformed”, adding that this will cause the virus to continue for some time.

“We must fight that the intelligent people of society must go out and combat the brainwashing and spread the information that vaccination works. It is so vital that we really buy into it. Let them see you as a leader. I beg you, let your light so shine, that others see your good works,” Chuck said.

His impassioned plea was echoed earlier by Custos Rotulorum of Clarendon William ‘Billy’ Shagoury, as he told the JPs that he hoped that they are all vaccinated.

“If you don’t take that vaccine and you die, this custos not coming to your funeral, just warning you make sure you all get vaccinated,” he cautioned, even as he cemented his message with the request that they be ‘vaccination ambassadors’.

Chuck in his keynote address also urged the justices of the peace to go into their communities and make a difference and not revert to their ‘businesses’ or ‘verandas’ but they should be proactive and participate in their communities.

“We are expecting you to reach out to others less fortunate, reach out to the weak and vulnerable and see to what extent you can help them. Not necessarily material things, but sometimes to guide them, sometimes to encourage them,” he told the cohort.

He stressed that the country needs more good people.

“We have enough bad people, people who would want to destroy one another, people who would want to destroy society, we need you who have been selected as justices of the peace, we believe that you are upright, decent, that you have qualities that we want for persons living in your community, and you must be the example of what others must be,” are his words of encouragement to them.