Bahamas: The local Rastafarian community says no to COVID-19 vaccines
The claim was recently made by High Priest Richmond McKinney, who declared that no Rastafarian would take COVID-19 vaccinations as they believe being injected with “any foreign substance” is against their religious beliefs.
In a statement, McKinney said that the Rastafarian community sees vaccines as detrimental to “the holistic development of our children”.
“Rastafarians believe that the dangers of vaccines outweigh the benefits and are strongly opposed to any policy that demands immunisations as a condition for education and/or work,” he said.
Speaking with the Tribune, McKinney said medical officials need to tell Bahamians how they could help themselves.
“The prime minister said we must not use bush medicine against COVID as there is no benefit. Ironically, he never said how we could boost our immune systems, especially those who have not decided to take the vaccine. He never said how they could prevent themselves from getting it, different from wearing masks and social distancing,” McKinney said.
“The Rastafarian community totally believes in bush medicine. We continue drinking our bush medicine along with cannabis as a part of our regime to prevent COVID.”
In a document, McKinney said the local Rastafarian community believes that “RNA & DNA from 11 species contaminate vaccines. We, therefore, declare our fundamental right to refuse the novel COVID-19 vaccines in any of its brands and ask that the fundamental rights and freedom as enshrined in our constitution be respected.”
“We don't believe in taking the vaccine …I think they will have a problem if they want to vaccinate the Rastamen. So far, not one of us from our community has been infected with the COVID virus. I think that is a good thing,” he said.
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