Education minister reveals she is now vaccinated

| 23/08/2021 | 93 Comments
Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly at Monday’s education conference (from social media)

(CNS): Education Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly has confirmed that she has been vaccinated, despite her original misgivings. For some time the minister’s vaccine status had been undisclosed and she was the only Cabinet member who had not publicly received the shots and encouraged her constituents to do likewise. This has been fuelling speculation that, despite government policy, she would not be getting vaccinated.

But speaking on Monday morning at the education conference welcoming new and old teachers ahead of the forthcoming school year, she urged all educators to get vaccinated, as she shared her doubts about it before she got her shots.

As Cayman struggles to move the needle on the number of vaccinated people toward government’s 80% target by 9 September, she spoke of the importance of getting vaccinated, given that the borders will be opening at some point and the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.

O’Connor-Connolly shared her own story and said she had been reluctant to get the shots but was persuaded by Premier Wayne Panton.

She explained that her reluctance to take was was mostly medical because she has some underlying health issues. But when the premier spoke to her about it, she said, he didn’t tell her that she needed to get the shot to save the government from embarrassment but because he did not want anything to happen to her.

He said that if she decided to get the vaccine, he would go with her. After hearing the reasons why he had chosen to be vaccinated, she agreed and that they had gone to the clinic “incognito” together, and last Friday she had her second shot.

O’Connor-Connolly asked all those teachers who have not yet been vaccinated to give it some serious thought and consideration to protect themselves and the students.

During her address welcoming the teachers back, the minister also spoke about the investment in government schools, the improving standards and the fact that the publicly funded school system was debunking the myth that private schools were better than the government schools.

See the minister sharing her vaccine story with educators on CIGTV here.


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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (93)

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  1. Mikey says:

    sooo does this vaccine carry expiry date or that was just to get the numbers up?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Nothing to see. A smart person, with genuine concerns, chose to wait to see effects and has now judged it to be worth the risk. That is the actual transparency people want and we got it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Nonsense. She should have taken it the first day it was available. Leaders are supposed to,lead

    • Anonymous says:

      This is a person who would rather believe social media than science. There is not a single credible scientific source that recommends against getting the vaccine. There are no microchips, you won’t become magnetic and there is no evidence that it impact pregnancy- but there have been 1.7 billion doses. At this point it is socially irresponsible to not be vaccinated.

  3. Anonymous says:

    “the fact that the publicly funded school system was debunking the myth that private schools were better than the government schools.”

    Please.

  4. JTB says:

    Any time I begin to feel even slightly positive or optimistic about the future of the Cayman Islands, I remember that this woman is our Minister of Education and I realise that we are doomed.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Do exorcisms remove Covid from the body too or just other stuff?

    • Anonymous says:

      No, just gayism. Oh wait. Didn’t work on me. Was not able to pray that away, even after petitioning Heaven.

  6. Amanda in Miami says:

    Minister Conolly is an Obamaite. She is not for Trump.
    There is no vaccine yet for children.
    The vaccines are not working against Delta variant. Why get vaccinated. Pfizer only got FDA approval to pacify other people. The vaccines are very bad. It is a kill off the masses program by China. Bill Gates went on TV and stated this. Why demand the people get a vaccine? Communist plot! People should be able to think for themselves and not be codependents!!!

    CNS: Hi Amanda! Could you please let us know where you are getting your information from?

    • Anonymous says:

      Hahahaha! Utter BS.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hi Amanda, thanks for your thoughts, please could you give us your full name. We can then add you to our no-fly / no-entry list – you qualify on a number of grounds, principally though for being a complete loon.
      Yours,
      Every sane person in Cayman

    • Anonymous says:

      Good luck Amanda in Miami – I think you are going to need it

    • Anonymous says:

      Here we go! AMANDA speaking like a true KAREN? Sounds to me she should start thinking for herself- or is she too steep in her conspiracies theory to think?

      • Anonymous says:

        at this point I just think they should just open up, let the unvaccinated get sick, have the insurance companies either refuse to give medical insurance or massively increase their rates for the unvaccinated, due the hugerisk of massive medical cost from either being on a ventilator or from long covid.

        Then they can see Darwinism in action, but they don’t believe in that either, lol

        The world would be a far better place, and it would raise the IQ of the generations to come

    • Anonymous says:

      OMG do people like this really exist? Shocking. Hopefully she stays in Miami.

      • Benjy says:

        Yes, the USA is rampant with these ignorantly stupid people. We are surrounded by them in Florida!

        • Orlando Bob says:

          Yeah Benjy, I regret to say that in Floriduh these ignorantly stupid people are now the majority in our state. I cannot believe the absolute nonsense coming out of Governor DeSantis’s mouth every day.

          I get the feeling from DeSantis, that we are moving into the Dark Ages as his nonsense is so irrational and illogical by any standard.

    • Slacker says:

      This information coming from the voices that only Amanda can hear.

    • Anonymous says:

      We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast……

    • Anonymous says:

      Ain’t no vaccine for styupid…

  7. Anonymous says:

    An imaginary god whispers instructions to her, Trump is her hero, social media lunacy, Fox News… and she’s in charge of education.

    What could possibly go wrong?

  8. Anonymous says:

    Thank you Mr Premier for being a kind and passionate man. I am liking him better and better every day.

    Ms. Julie, I am so happy for you as well. You did the right thing and please work with Mr. Panton now to mandate that all teachers must be vaccinated. You might lose a few and that’s okay but I would rather my children be a in a safe environment than at home with or in a hospital with covid. Take a look at what is happening in the States right now. It’s a disgrace to see how many young children are infected by this terrible virus and are told by their parents and government to not wear a mask even when covid is raging around them.

    • Anonymous says:

      No one is being told by the government to not wear a mask. Saying you don’t have to wear one vs that you aren’t to wear one are two different things!

    • Are you really that ignorant re Covid infecting children . They reckon 1 in a million will die if infected, and even then the child would probably have underlying health issues. I know any loss of a child is terrible , but unfortunately children die every minute of the day, most through starvation, not Covid. Do some research on the subject, it might help remove your obsessive Covid blinkers.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Even Trump is now encouraging his patriots to get vaccinated. Many unvaccinated Caymanians follow him closely and passionately. Maybe they will listen to him now.

    • Anonymous says:

      @ 11.56 ‘Many unvaccinated Caymanians follow him closely and passionately’….really???? The man is a bampot!

      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bampot

      • Anonymous says:

        11:56 , Trump is a thousand times better than Biden, look at the mess he doing in Afghanistan .

        • Anonymous says:

          24@6.23pm – Hmmm….excuse me. Biden is following the “plan” and “deal” and commitment that Trump made with the Taliban last year in Doha! Idioot!

          Follow real news, not the fake news or “leave out the truth” Fox!

        • Anonymous says:

          Yeah. He agreed to be bound by the withdrawal plan that Trump agreed. Well, he actually managed to get a 3 month extension on Trumps plan, but the pin was out the grenade when it was tossed to him.

        • Hubert says:

          11:56, You do realize that Biden was carrying out the peace / withdrawal agreement signed between Trump and the Taliban in February last year?

          The dumbest deal ever signed because Trump did not include the Afghan Government in the agreement.

      • Anonymous says:

        Thank him for fast tracking the vaccines and cutting through the red tape.

  10. Anonymous says:

    so she don;t believe in internationally accepted medicical science…but was persuaded by wayne panton?????
    welcome to wonderland….zzzzzz

  11. Anonymous says:

    She’s paving the way for others, again.

    Now, just need a jab to cure homophobia!

    • Anonymous says:

      And hundreds of others who marked their ignorant presence on various social media platforms on the evening of the pride. But hey, that would be too much to hope for. A lot of them don’t seem to even know what’s good for their physical survival, considering how they are ready to elaborate why they don’t want the vaccine. So… I would not hope too much for that.

  12. Anonymous says:

    It’s the free lunches for all primary school students that I’m not so sure about. She announced this but…mmm….where does the responsibility of parents come in? Totally agree with free breakfasts, snacks and meals for those in need…but all? What values are we teaching these kids? Entitlement? That there really is a free lunch?

    • Anonymous says:

      They are kids. Everything is free for them. We are feeding them so they aren’t hungry and can be tauggt.

      • Anonymous says:

        And why aren’t their parents feeding them – that’s the point of the comment, not whether hungry children can earn. SMH.

        • Anonymous says:

          Because they are poor you dimwit. Feed the damn kids.

        • Anonymous says:

          You can “SMH” all you want, but the commenter said “what values are we teaching these kids”. Not, what values are we teaching the parents. My point was that they are kids, it’s not their fault that their parents are poor or negligent. Objecting to feeding them lunch because you think it will make them entitled strikes me as incorrect.

      • Anonymous says:

        7:43 am, i can see that you are one that wants every thing for free. What about the parents responsibly ? Lazy people should not have children .

    • Anonymous says:

      In the Brac, i see parents having their young children begging for money to go on trips, that wrong, teaching their children to BEG, very sad indeed.

  13. Anon says:

    We’ve had vaccines in cayman since feb! Any has this take 9 months to announce. Shocking. Hope she has made all the teachers get jabbed too for the benefits of the children! What a joke.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Better late than never! She was worried about he vaccine due to underlying health issues? Obesity is a huge risk factor for complications with Covid so she should have been concerned about that!

  15. Anonymous says:

    Those who want the vaccine have it, those who could be bribed or coerced have largely received the vax.

    The vaccine is leaky and doesn’t stop transmission. Scientists are not even saying we can burn the virus out any longer.

    There is literally no legitimate rationale to push vaccines on those who don’t want them. None.

    CNS: All ICU beds full at most hospitals in every major Tennessee metro area, says hospital association
    Metro-area hospitals, in addition to treating the most patients, normally accept transfers of the sickest patients from other hospitals. But when their ICUs are full, it creates a ripple that “affects the health care system statewide,” said Dr. Wendy Long, president of the hospital association.
    “This means that if you or a loved one need treatment for any type of serious healthcare, problem like a severe injury, heart attack, or stroke, you may not be able to access the care you need, when you need it,” Long said in a statement on Thursday morning.

    • Anonymous says:

      In Florida 95% of hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated. Even an antivaxer should be able to figure it out from there. It’s a great pity it doesn’t fix stupid.

    • Anonymous says:

      Then increase hospital capacity. The hospital capacity argument is total garbage and everyone knows it, especially in light of the available therapeutics.

      • Anonymous says:

        So you think the doctors and nurses will drop from the sky or something?! It takes years to train them and we’re in short supply of health care workers the world over.

        Maybe if the people who refuse to take the vaccine don’t go to the hospital when they get sick this would alleviate some of the issue.

        But they’re the ones filling it up and expecting to get the greatest level of care for something they could have either avoided or at the very least been less affected by getting the vaccine and masking up.

        Glad I’m not a doctor.

        I’m currently working on a cure for stupidity and lack of common sense.

    • Anonymous says:

      9:13 there is absolutely a legitimate reason to push vaccines! They were designed to prevent moderate to severe symptoms and they are VERY successful at doing that! It was not intended to provide full immunity but instead to prevent hospitalization and/or death…..and they’ve done that!

      Someone having Covid but not needing medical intervention means there’s no burden on the health care system.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Premier Panton is a good man. What a breath of fresh air over the past arrogance of our former goverment. Thank you Mr. Premier!

    • Hubert says:

      An amazing announcement after all this time.

      Now mandate all educators in Cayman get vaccinated or find another job.

    • Miami Dave says:

      There were more than 180,000 new COVID cases of children under 12 in the U.S. last week.

      Time to have mandatory vaccinations for all teachers in the Cayman Islands.

      Let’s use common sense.

    • Anonymous says:

      The past Premier was busy doing the country’s business!! I much prefer a little arrogance instead of trying to pretend that he is down with the majority- and looking so uncomfortable. Never has, never will!!

  17. Anonymous says:

    “I can’t tell you that you have to get vaccinated because I wouldn’t have any teachers”.

    Two things.

    1. Yes you can and you should.
    2. We are not “your teachers”.

    • Anonymous says:

      If you for public schools you are

    • Anonymous says:

      Troll. 7.55 poster

    • Anonymous says:

      Agree with you completely, but at the same time overall this story of Wayne supporting her as she overcame her vaccine hesitancy and accompanying her to her vaccinations is rather touching.

    • Anonymous says:

      The thesis here is that teachers, supposedly amongst the most educated in the population, are all hostile to the idea of vaccination? if that’s right, what’s the educational background of these teachers? Or is JOCC just projecting her own fears and beliefs unto them?

      • Anonymous says:

        The majority are from our Eastern neighbor. Everyone know the condition they are in. Their favorite thing to do is watch youtube conspiracy theories.

  18. Anonymous says:

    Good for her but my god doesn’t believe in vaccines.

  19. Anonymous says:

    Yes, but did she do it just to try and win the cash?

  20. Anonymous says:

    Unvaccinated teachers should not be in a classroom with our children. No jabs, no job.

    • Anonymous says:

      What good will that do to prevent the spread of C19 if the “vaccine” does not prevent the acquisition or spread of the virus? The so-called “vaccine” is a good preventive measure to greatly reduce the poor health outcomes and death from C19 but vaccinated people are susceptible to c19 infection. Vaccinated teachers can get a breakthrough infection and spread the virus to each other and to the students. Got any other plans?

      • Anonymous says:

        Further to my comment at 24-8-1:52:
        Since no one here seems to have a plan, let’s fill in the blanks for you.
        Following the science, the evidence strongly points to the fact that vaccination of staff alone is not an effective strategy to reduce C19 infections in a school setting unless accompanied by other measures.

        Alicia Zhou, chief science officer at Color, a health technology company involved in population-scale COVID-19 testing and vaccination initiatives, in collabouration with modeling experts from the University of Washington, built an interactive model that simulates the course of an outbreak after an infected person able to transmit the virus enters a school setting.

        Running the model using an R0 of 6–to represent the up and coming dominant strain, Delta–indicates that 100% staff vaccination (with a 90% effective vaccine) absent student vaccination will result in a firestorm C19 outbreak among primary school students unless additional measures are taken. This and other avenues of C19 science give evidence that staff vaccination alone is just one element, but requires the support of additional measures in order be meaningful in reducing widespread infection in a school setting.

        These measures are:

        1. Mask wearing. If someone in a school has been infected with C19, the best way to minimize others’ exposure is to ensure that all individuals wear masks at all times when indoors. This is especially important because youngsters are far more likely to have an asymptomatic infection but can still transmit the virus to their fellow students. At an R0 of 6, one student will infect 6 who will in turn infect 36 and so on. Masks are one of the most effective and cheap tools to significantly reduce C19 transmission. All individuals in a school– students, teachers, staff, visitors, and others–should wear masks in all indoor school settings.

        2. Testing: The Delta variant is nearly three times more transmissible than the early versions of SARS-CoV-2. Until children under age 12 can be vaccinated, it is impossible in a primary school setting to achieve adequate protection from student outbreaks through teacher/staff vaccination alone. At least weekly (and better, twice weekly) testing is an effective way to quickly identify, isolate, and contain potential school-related transmissions and can greatly reduce the likelihood of a widespread school-related outbreak.

        3. Ventilation: Ensure adequate ventilation in all classrooms, offices, and other enclosed spaces that are open to students, staff and visitors. Follow CDC guidelines “Ventilation in Buildings” Updated June 2, 2021. The stupid airport kerbside restrictions just introduced by our local buffoons indicate that the Cayman Islands Government loves to follow-fashion. Maybe, this time they can follow the science and save lives rather than mandating noncompoopery like their airport security edict.

        PS: Oh, and by the way, something very interesting happens (or shall I say does not happen) when the model is run and teacher/staff vaccination uptake is reduced from 100% to 0%

        • Anonymous says:

          Mask wearing at Clifton hunter where there is no ventilation? Poster you have have ideas but it can’t be applied to all schools. Have you ever been to chhs? Our windows do not open, they are all for show and we can’t wear mask in that musky place until DES approves the removal of the carpet in the building. So sad to say a vaccinated teacher will spread c19 to staff and students, unfortunately. And I say “a vaccinated teacher” because they are the ones who are out there traveling and not adhering to c19 regulations. I know a few who traveled for summer and got c19 in Florida. As for the unvaccinated teachers? They have been extremely cautious.

      • Well said !! Some people just can’t seem to get a grip on reality.

  21. Anonymous says:

    Hi still amazes me that this woman is in a job at all, yet alone in charge of educating our young minds. With our education system widely failing in so many regards, just what improvements has she ever made in her lengthy leadership?
    And to be so reluctant to believe in modern science and technology and have so much faith in the silly sky fairy, she appears not to be of sound enough mind to carry out such an important job.

  22. Anonymous says:

    This was a brilliant speech. So down to earth, relatable. Very persuasive for one who was on the fence about the vaccine for similar reasons. Pfizer has now been FDA approved. It is our responsibility as educators and citizens to protect those who cannot be vaccinated…namely our children.

    • AME says:

      I’m glad she is finally speaking out and encouraging the hold outs to get vaccinated. But seriously – would you not speak to your own doctor about the risks of taking or not taking the vaccine if you have underlying health issues?

  23. Anonymous says:

    So?

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