Freedom awaits – the vaccines are here

 Jamaica Observer column published 30 August 2021

by Jean Lowrie-Chin

The Covid vaccines are arriving thick and fast, courtesy of international donors. Soon no one who wants a vaccine will be denied.  Last Friday, Jamaica passed the 500,000 vaccinated mark and the target of 700,000 by the end of September is in sight. This cannot happen too soon, as health care workers are frustrated and exhausted. 

Nurses at the Savanna-la-mar Hospital shared on Dionne Jackson-Miller’s ‘All Angles’ programme that sometimes they cannot help crying, so stretched they are with the deluge of Covid patients and so sad they are to see some dying despite their valiant efforts. The Clinical Coordinator for the Cornwall Regional Hospital Dr Delroy Fray has stated that none of the Covid patients in the Western Jamaica hospital have been vaccinated.

Malicious anti-vaxxers continue to share fake news on various social media platforms, even twisting the content of straightforward reporting.  In an interview with Emily Shields, K.D. Knight related that although he and his late wife Dr Shirley Knight had gone to the vaccination centre together, she postponed taking the vaccine due to a medical concern. Dr Knight subsequently contracted Covid and sadly passed away the day after the couple’s 54^th wedding anniversary. Incredibly, a false report that Dr Knight had been vaccinated began circulating to the point that the interview had to be played on a newscast to assure the public that this was not true.

It is a comfort to know that many Jamaicans are looking forward to taking the vaccine, and that with the rise in hospitalizations and deaths, vaccine hesitancy seems to be waning.  Dr Melody Ennis hosted an excellent virtual Townhall on the vaccine last week, and a repeat may be required for those health care workers and teachers who are still vaccine hesitant. 

Covid boosters being considered

Dr Eve Palomino-Lue and husband Basil 

Dr Eve Palomino-Lue noted to us that that persons like her who have had renal and other transplants are immunocompromised and may require Covid booster shots for sufficient antibody response. Others such as persons with rheumatoid arthritis, cancer being treated with chemotherapy and HIV may not be creating enough antibodies as they are taking immune-suppressant drugs.

Dr Palomino- Lue is appealing for such persons to receive booster shots, and that they should be made aware of this issue and be sure to take every possible precaution, even if they have already received the two shots.

We understand that her appeal is being considered by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and for the sake of the immunocompromised individuals, many of whom are seniors, we hope that a third shot will be made available.

Coding & Robotics Rock

We have always regarded Mona GeoInfomatics (MGI) led by Dr Parris Lyew Ayee as a digital powerhouse, but what is even more impressive is their enthusiasm in opening the digital world to children.  The gaming technology company IGT brought MGI on board to conduct a Tech Camp at homes and centres in the Caribbean where they operate their After School Advantage Centres. From August 9 to 19, students in Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Maarten and Trinidad & Tobago were introduced to HTML, JavaScript and CSS projects along with group robotics activities at the Camp. MGI tutors, led by Kaodi McGaw and Hugh Billings guided the enthusiastic youngsters, and at their ‘graduation’, we were treated to creative web pages.

 

Jamaica’s students hailed from Sunbeam Children’s Home, Spring Village Development Foundation & Training Institute, SOS Children’s Village - Stony Hill, Mustard Seed Communities – Jerusalem and Mary’s Child, and the Women’s Centre Jamaica Foundation centres in Mandeville and Savanna-la-mar.

 

Alpha Bandmaster is a lady

The Sisters of Mercy of Jamaica have announced that music educator Gay Magnus has been appointed Band Master at the Alpha School of Music (ASOM) in Kingston. Preparing to welcome its first cohort of students in the Associate Degree programme for Music Performance, the Alpha School of Music is Jamaica's only tertiary programme focused on ensemble performance. As ASOM’s first Band Master, Ms. Magnus will be leading the innovative music curriculum as it expands to offer its renowned vocational training in music and entertainment to a national audience of young men 16-25 years old.

With more than 15 years of experience lecturing and directing ensembles at the university level, including Lecturer at the University of the West Indies and Head of Percussion at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, Gay Magnus brings an array of music education and band performance skills to the Band Master position. A trained pianist who switched to percussion and now focuses on steel pan, Magnus received a teaching certificate from the University of the West Indies, Mona campus and completed her first degree in music performance at the UWI’s St. Augustine campus (with First Class Honours) and a Master’s in music performance from Northern Illinois University in the United States. For more information about the Alpha School of Music Associate Degree please visit www.alphamusicja.com.

Seniors Celebrate Jamaica

Justice Roy Anderson 

Where can you find judges, psychologists, PR gurus, medical doctors, potters, dancers and poets on the same stage? Only at a CCRP Virtual Concert, where we donned our black, green and gold Jamaican colours to soak up the amazing and hidden talent of some of Jamaica’s leading lights, expertly guided by emcee Charmaine Harrison and co-hosts Corrine Stewartson and Debbie Cargill.

Last Wednesday we enjoyed songs from Barbara Hylton, Retired Justice Roy Anderson (who was celebrating his 80^th Birthday), Winston Sherwood and DiMario McDonald, renditions on her saxophone and Miss Lou poetry from Rosemarie Voordouw, and presentation of original poems by poem ‘Elmina’ by Retired Senior Parish Court Judge Lyle Armstrong and Dr Winsome Miller-Rowe. Dr Owen James coaxed beautiful Jamaican melodies, ‘Redemption Song’ and ‘Island in the Sun’ from his harmonica.

We paid rapt attention to the thought-provoking poems presented by Ambassador Aloun Assamba and Berl Francis and laughed with Doris Halstead as she dramatized Valerie Bloom’s ‘Recommendation’. Janet Crick had us on the edge of our seats with a ‘duppy story’ from Robert Lalah’s book and Enid Bissember got us floating as she danced in a floating gown. With her bright smile and cool moves, Dr Lilieth Nelson took us down Festival memory lane featuring Toots & the Maytals, Stanley & the Turbines and Roy Rayon. We also enjoyed a video of Vilya Thomas’ unique pottery.

Farewell Lady Daphne 

We have lost church Sister Daphne King, whose stewardship as a choir member and Eucharistic Minister at Stella Maris inspired her fellow congregants. Ninety-seven-year-old Daphne served faithfully up to a few years ago and passed away peacefully earlier this month.

Daphne was a trailblazing executive at BWIA, BOAC and Air Jamaica. She and her late husband Noel raised four successful children of whom she was extremely proud. Son Paddy King recalls that his mother moved up the corporate ladder in the airline industry by dint of hard work. “We miss her terribly, but we feel very blessed to have had the perfect mother,” he says.

 

Deepest sympathy to her children Garth, Paddy, Damien, Sharon, grandchildren and great grandchildren. May the beautiful soul of Daphne King rest in peace.