Three educators died suddenly each month, since last year
Calls for study to be done re possible Covid-19 vaccine link
Several educators who started the 2023/2024 academic year will be noticeably absent from the classroom when school reopens next week due to their sudden passing.
More than 30 of these teachers were remembered last week during the Jamaica Teacher’s Association 60’th annual conference, but one senior educator said the obituary only reflected those names that were submitted to the association. The numbers could be much higher as not all of the nation’s teachers are members of the Association.
Immediate past president of the JTA, Leighton Johnson had expressed concern earlier this year about the fact that several teachers, including administrators had “just fell dead”. This concern prompted the Association to commission a study to see if there is a correlation between the stress levels and the teachers dying.
When contacted earlier this week, Johnson confirmed that research has started, but wanted the new JTA president, Dr Mark Smith to comment further on the matter.
The Freedom Come Rain newspaper was reliably informed that the original intention was to source someone outside of Jamaica to do the studies. However, the JTA has since recently created a post for a research officer, given the importance of research and data in informing policies. The Association is seeking to move away from using anecdotal information to guide its actions. The sudden death of teachers is among the priority areas for research.
Former JTA president, La Sonja Harrison said she could not speak for the JTA, but as a school administrator, she is troubled by the number of teachers who have died in recent years.
“To my mind, I have never seen so many teachers dying in such short succession. Sometimes we get news of two, three teachers in one week. It became overwhelming at some points, and these were not elderly people. You only hear that they were ailing for some time and then they passed and some of them, just suddenly passed. They would have a complaint and then they go to the doctor and then they are not at school,” said Harrison who has been an educator for close to 18 years.
She recounted one corporate area high school losing two young male teachers in quick succession during her presidency in the 2022 to 2023 academic year. The deaths were shocking because these two individuals were considered fitness gurus and were seemingly healthy.
Harrison, a school principal, welcomes the research into the deaths of teachers. She hopes all variables will be considered and studied so that the real cause of these deaths can be ascertained. She said it is important to assess how many teachers died while retired, versus those who died in service, as well as how many died over a long period of being ill, versus those who died suddenly. She also wants the data to include whether they had taken the COVID-19 vaccine, given available research linking sudden deaths to the vaccine.
“During the pandemic, the teaching profession was one of the highest groupings of professionals that subjected themselves to the vaccination process, and so that is certainly a variable that could be explored in terms of what are, if any, the effect or impact on the teaching profession or the teaching fraternity,” she suggested.
“It is a variable for consideration. So the stress level, the age, any lifestyle diseases, the possible impacts of the vaccine, those are the different variables that needs to be analysed to see the probability of what could possibly contribute to this increase,” she asserted.
Experts have been calling for more research into the side effects of the Covid-19 vaccine and its possible links to mortality rates, despite efforts by politicians and officials from the World Health Organisation to stifle any data that shows this link.
According to the well-respected UK newspaper The Telegraph, researchers from The Netherlands analysed data from 47 western countries and discovered there had been more than three million excess deaths since 2020 and this trend continues. They called on governments to fully investigate the underlying causes, including possible vaccine harms.
“Although Covid-19 vaccines were provided to guard civilians from suffering morbidity and mortality by the Covid-19 virus, suspected adverse events have been documented as well.
“Both medical professionals and citizens have reported serious injuries and deaths following vaccination to various official databases in the Western World,” authors from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam wrote in the BMJ Public Health.
They added: “During the pandemic, it was emphasised by politicians and the media on a daily basis that every Covid-19 death mattered and every life deserved protection through containment measures and Covid-19 vaccines. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the same moral should apply.”
According to The Telegraph, the study found that across Europe, the US and Australia, there had been more than one million excess deaths in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, but also 1.2 million in 2021 and 800,000 [in] 2022 after measures were implemented. The figure included deaths from Covid-19, but also the “indirect effects of the health strategies to address the virus spread and infection”.
Researchers said the side effects linked to the Covid-19 vaccine had included ischaemic stroke, acute coronary syndrome and brain haemorrhage, cardiovascular diseases, coagulation, haemorrhages, gastrointestinal events and blood clotting.
Harrison knows linking the vaccine to sudden deaths is highly controversial. Those who suggested there is a link have been censored by the owners of social media platforms, while doctors and other professionals have been ostracised for calling for more research in this area. Still, the senior educator believes no stone should be left unturned in ascertaining the increasing cause of sudden deaths among teachers in Jamaica.
“In other jurisdiction, the data is coming out as it relates to the impact of the vaccine, so it is not something to shy away from. If it is available, look at the data, the data may say yes it is or the data may say no, it has not been a causation, it has not been a factor. So look at it, do not ignore it because it is a top secret and we do not want to talk about it, because in the last three years, we have seen an increase in the number of teachers who have passed,” she said.
