J Dr West’s comments come in the wake of a lawsuit filed against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer by the Attorney General in Florida on behalf of citizens.
The Florida Attorney General, James Uthmeier, along with the Department of Legal Affairs, filed a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. and its CEO, Albert Bourla, in the Florida State Court on October 1. According to legal news source Top Class Action, Uthmeier accused the biopharmaceutical company of deceiving Florida consumers about the safety risks of its COVID-19 vaccine and whether the vaccine could stop the spread of the virus.
Dr West said its unlikely that the Jamaican government will pursue legal action on behalf of Jamaicans who have experienced medical issues after taking the vaccine.
“This is the purpose of courts to adjudicate on action. So if there is a concern and I think that there are persons in Jamaica who have concern about the modus operandi of the vaccination process related to COVID, that should be adjudicated in the court so that going forward we’d have a better understanding of how people, how the authorities operated, whether they operated in the best interest of the country and what we should do in the future when something else like this occurs,” he said.
“I would strongly recommend that persons who have Locus standi, who have issues that they want addressed, come together because I don’t think our politicians are like the politicians in Florida. I don’t get the impression that they are willing to examine any downside to the vaccination strategy, so we leave it to persons who were actually affected to get private lawyers and so on to get the courts to adjudicate on their behalf,” he said.
More than 1.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were administered to Jamaicans up to 2023. AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer were the primary suppliers. The country received an initial shipment of 208,260 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines donated by the United States in 2021. The country also received a donation of 45,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the US Government in December 2023. Other doses of the Pfizer vaccines were supplied by the Government of Suriname or through the COVAX Facility.
Jamaicans were urged by the government, including Prime Minister Andrew Holness, to take the vaccines, and several mandates were implemented to frustrate those who refused the jab.
In 2024, AstraZeneca announced the withdrawal of its vaccines from the market. It admitted that its COVID-19 vaccine could cause a rare but deadly blood-clotting condition. The pharmaceutical giant was sued by more than 50 alleged victims and their grieving relatives.
At the time of the AstraZeneca withdrawal, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton declared that there were no reports of Jamaicans suffering from the rare blood clot side effect caused by the brand.
“There are no reports to date of any cases in Jamaica of persons, Jamaicans, suffering that rare side effect involving AstraZeneca,” he said.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie also defended AstraZeneca.
“The vaccine had gone through various studies and had proven to be a highly effective vaccine specifically in terms of reducing serious illnesses as well as reducing death, so the vaccine was widely used early in the response to COVID, and over three billion doses were produced worldwide and were provided to persons. It is estimated that over six million lives were saved because of the AstraZeneca vaccine. All medications do have side effects, and very early in the clinical studies that were done, the rare side effect of blood clots was not discovered at that time,” she said.
However, director of Family Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Melody Ennis, disclosed in April 2021 that there were several reports from those who were vaccinated during vaccination blitzes that took place islandwide up to April 13 that year.
“We have been monitoring the same [reports] over the period. We have received, to date, 76 notifications — the vast majority coming from females amounting to 66 and males just 10,” she said.
“We continue to watch this trend that the younger persons who receive the vaccines are the ones that have the most side effects,” Dr Ennis was reported by JIS News as saying.
Young persons between 18 and 37 years of age accounted for 34 of the 76 persons reporting side effects. Five serious reports were made.
“We also analysed the adverse events and we categorised some as being serious. What we call serious would be deaths, activities that may be life-threatening, anything that leads to disability,” Dr Ennis said.
Some of the reports were also classified as unknown.
“Unknown” is an interesting category, because when we assess the reports, we cannot make a determination. It’s possible that the information is inadequate, so we classify those as unknown,” she noted.
At the time, one death was under investigation.
Dr West said the side effects of the vaccines were suppressed by governments for the most part, and as such, they would not be motivated to go up against pharmaceutical giants on behalf of their citizens.
“When the large-scale vaccination campaign started, that information was deficient. But in addition to that, the authorities knew that there were certain side effects that could occur as a result of using the vaccines,” he insisted.