Turner pushes kids vaccine as virus cases plummet

| 28/02/2022 | 129 Comments
Health Minister Sabrina Turner on Radio Cayman

(CNS): Just 44 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 were reported to the Public Health Department over the weekend, as the official figures relating to the virus move into a rapid decline. There are now an estimated 957 active cases of the virus, and the seven-day rolling average, as of 28 February, fell to 40 cases.

Ten people are still in hospital due to of COVID issues, seven of them unvaccinated. A well as urging more people to get boosted, Health Minister Sabrine Turner urged parents to get children vaccinated as the paediatric doses have a short shelf-life.

Turner and Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Autilia Newton appeared on Radio Cayman on Monday, and revealed that here in the Cayman Islands there are 4,000 children between five and eleven years old who are eligible for the shots. Government received 2,000 paediatric doses last week, which will expire in less than three months, which is before their second doses will be due twelve weeks after their first.

However, many children in Cayman have had the virus over the last month or so, and the CMO said that parents should wait four weeks after their children have recovered before taking them for a shot.

Although children tend to be asymptomatic, the minister said that Cayman has already documented a small number of children with ‘long COVID’, as she urged people to take advantage of the free vaccines supplied by the UK. She said it had been a challenge to secure the vaccines as she asked people to make sure that supplies are not wasted.

Turner also said that government wanted to see a reasonable uptake of children being vaccinated before the mask mandates will be removed in schools.

See Turner and Newton of For The Record below:


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid

Tags: , , , , ,

Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (129)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Sweden is recommending against it …
    https://www.dailywire.com/news/sweden-decides-not-to-
    recommend-covid-19-vax-for-kids-ages-5-11

  2. Anonymous says:

    Meanwhile we’ve been subjecting our kids to these LFT tests, which aren’t even FDA approved, and are not giving accurate results:
    https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/do-not-use-certain-acon-flowflex-covid-19-tests-fda-safety-communication

  3. Anonymous says:

    I’ve been trying to think of a way to put this that makes it clear how misguided the mask mandate in schools is, now that we are at this stage of the pandemic.

    The best I can come up with is that the death rate from COVID in children is 2 per million and the death rate from influenza is 3 per million.

    Both of these stats could probably be improved if all children took vaccines. But the risk is already negligible which is why flu vaccines are not mandatory.

    I realize long COVID is a thing. It’s a serious disease and shouldn’t be dismissed.

    But to make the least vulnerable wear masks all day while the rest of society runs around in bars and restaurants half-assedly engaging in mask theatre for 5 paces to and from the door is misguided. Never mind that cruise ships are back.

    It’s time to end the nonsense and let kids go back to being kids.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I think one of the qualifications to run for office should be an IQ test.

  5. Anonymous says:

    An unhealthy health ministry pushing anything is an embarrassment

  6. Anonymous says:

    Can some demand a vote of no confidence in this idiot?

  7. Robert Mugabe IV says:

    Forcing kids to wear masks should be a crime. The very fact that minister for Health is not following the science should be enough to have her removed her mInistry. Turner has shown from day one that she has no idea about Health. She couldn’t answer simple questions, all she could do was read speeches made by someone else’s Just another clown in the circus.
    The intern CMO should be sacked aswell for not following the science. Hello ! The Pandemic is over!!
    Thankfully the Covid panic merchants are almost extinct. Majority of people are now shaking their heads looking back at all the unnecessary protocols that were forced on the population, by this administration that don’t follow the science.
    This MADNESS has to stop. We will see in the next election if we have learned anything. The clowns in this circus should never be allowed to hold the reins of power again.
    Going forward there needs to be huge changes in who is allowed to run for election. You should be ineligible to run if you have a Criminal Record, a history of lying to the public, not believing in science, not being able to count backward from 100, not being able to say the alphabet backwards, just to mention a few. Above all you should never hold a position in any Government if your decisions are based on religious beliefs. Oops, I’ve already mentioned not believing in science.

  8. Anonymous says:

    There have always been ignorant people, but they haven’t always had college degrees to make them unaware of their ignorance. Some people imagine that they are well informed because they have memorized a whole galaxy of trendy dogmas and fashionable attitudes.

    • Anonymous says:

      Great insight. Perhaps if locals, of which I am, were afforded broader quality education from childhood, there would be no such thing as ignorance. However, prevailing attitudes and expressions demonstrate that education does not equate to empathy, ethics or basic honesty and common sense.
      Ie.. you can’t come and “discover” lands,jobs and property and subjucate the innocent welcoming natives, without them lashing out eventually.

      • Anonymous says:

        You subjugated yourselves.

      • Robert Mugabe IV says:

        Decades of mismanagement of government funds is part and parcel of the subjugation of Caymanians by our own. The money wasted on building monumental schools alone could have afforded Caymanian children to have been educated in private schools. The lack of education of Caymanian children and teenagers has nothing to do with ‘foreigners’ or ‘expats’.
        It’s our successive government’s, voted into power by Caymanians who are to blame for where we are.

    • Anonymous says:

      Pompous comment. A college degree does not make you smart.

  9. Anonymous says:

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/pfizer-covid-vaccine-younger-children-study?utm_campaign=trueAnthem_manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3W-u7vJ9jo1L3Pb1vvkJkpai-jUoy3j1a4wiRsXukpIuhvWEaXj_iw7HI

    Studies show the vaccine offers no protection yet Government won’t release children from mask wearing in schools until more have been vaccinated! Cayman will never be free from mask wearing as Government refuses to follow the science!

  10. Anonymous says:

    The U.K. has cancelled mandatory vaccinations, is Cayman going to do the same? Or does this clown know better?

    • Anonymous says:

      Not only cancelled mandatory vaccination but does not prescribe it for children under 12 – but Sabrina wants to push it on our under 12s – ironically using vaccines supplied by the UK.

  11. Shawn says:

    I feel way better reading the comments on these articles now than I did last year or even a few months ago congratulations it took two years but it seems in most people minds the gig is up the narrative has collapsed

  12. Anonymous says:

    Get rid of the masks in schools. All parents know kids get together after school and on evenings and weekends, not wearing masks.

    Adults aren’t wearing masks in restaurants, bars, gyms, and offices.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Did they award the vaccination prizes yet?

    • Anonymous says:

      They’re going to present them at the Annual Civil Service Awards for Excellence event. World Class.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Remove the school mask mandate NOW! Kids getting the vaccine will have ZERO impact on the spread. ZERO! These poor kids have been through enough. Go to any bar or restaurant and you’ll see no masks or social distancing yet our poor kids are still being subjected to wearing them all day. When was the last time Sabrina wore a mask all day???

    I am sick and tired of the default response to anyone suggesting getting rid of these nonsense restrictions being “but we need to protect the children!!!” That is hysteria. The children are FINE. The so-called COVID prevention measures are hurting them more than actual COVID.

    End mask mandates NOW. Not in a few months. Not at the start of next school year. Not when we reach some (non-scientific based) percentage of childhood vaccination. NOW!!!!

    • Anonymous says:

      @4:09pm Quite obviously you are not a parent or you would be more compassionate and understanding. Until you walk in our shoes, please don’t speak for me or for my child. Our kids had no protection whilst people like you advocated for not wearing masks, getting vaccinated or even social distancing. To tell me that I shouldn’t do all to protect my children or trying to make me feel guilty for saying that I want to is totally out of line.

      • Anonymous says:

        Lol! Original poster here. I have FOUR kids. Three of them are in the 5-11 range. I guarantee you I absolutely want what’s best for them. Sitting in a mask all day at school and not seeing the facial expressions of their classmates and teachers is doing FAR more damage to them than protecting them from COVID.

        I feel sorry for you. That you still think COVID is coming to get you and your family. What are you so afraid of? Do you allow your kids to swim? To drive in a car? They have a far, far, far greater chance of dying or being seriously injured doing those activities than from COVID.

        I am tripled vaccinated. My kids have all their standard vaccines. But COVID does not make the kids sick and the vaccine has been PROVEN to provide minimal protection for this age group. Please refer to the many articles linked here or Google yourself.

        Mask mandates are over most other places in the world. Because everyone has realized they are not needed anymore.

      • Anonymous says:

        Just make it optional, if parent wants child to wear mask, parent decision.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Within just two weeks of full vaccination the efficacy for children aged 5-11 dropped to 65 per cent and by 28-34 days it was 12 per cent

    https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/pfizer-covid-vaccine-less-effective-kids-aged-5-11-against-omicron-study-122030100458_1.html

  16. Brat says:

    Here are the full list of covid legal restrictions in England now: (null)

    That is the end of the list.

    • Anonymous says:

      Who cares what England is doing? Bunch of unruly muppets!

      • It’s time to put on make-up says:

        I believe The Muppets were American. Apart from the chef and the scientists. They were Swedish and non-specific European respectively.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Please just go away and take your colleague Minister of Tourism with you.

  18. Anonymous says:

    I don’t have to wear a stinking mask at work – why are we forcing our kids to still wear them at school??? Ridiculous!!!

  19. JTB says:

    Can someone explain why I should give my 5 year old daughter a vaccination against a disease she has already had and recovered from ?

    • Anonymous says:

      And the vaccine only lasts for a few months. Ridiculous!

      • Anonymous says:

        Well that’s not entirely true. The vaccines have longer lasting protection against serious illness and death.

        That said. It’s exceedingly rare for children to get seriously ill, much less die from Covid.

        So tying masks to these vaccines for children is pretty stupid, but it’s exactly what I would expect from this government.

    • Anonymous says:

      @11:26..Simple, your daughter could get covid again and it might be worse the second time around..The Vaccine is not a cure, but it has been proven to help to reduce hospitalizations and death.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because Cayman is undemocratic

  20. Anonymous says:

    The Public Health Department and by extension Minister Sabrina Turner has lost the confidence and trust of the people of the Cayman Islands. There is no amount of perfume that can be put on the pig to make it smell good. Parents will not be trusting the guidance and advise from people and entities that they deem untrustworthy.

    • Anonymous says:

      She lost my confidence by her last-minute, political party switcheroo that proved she was only in it for herself. For that type of politricking to take place and then be rewarded only results in the poor caliber of people we end up with as “leaders.” And then we expect them to be moral and trustworthy?

      Shame on us. Change the system. Allow PR holders to vote and run for office. And don’t reward people for either being fickle or being allowed to be fickle by party leaders.

      I can hear the Chicken Littles’ response: But if we had not bowed down to her wishes, PACT wouldn’t have been the party in power. Not a big loss, based on the PACT record thus far.

      • Anonymous says:

        @12:59pm..wondered when the sore loser PPM party would weigh in..You guys are like Trump’s Patriots now still complaining that the election was stolen from you. Get over it, you lost the election.

  21. Anonymous says:

    Fosters – please get rid you your magic spray bottle protocol as we enter the store. No on is thinking about COVID anymore in Cayman (or the US, Canada, UK…. ).

    Seriously.

  22. Anonymous says:

    In a week, our household will be 5 months from the third booster, and probably in need of a fourth since CDC reports efficacy falling to around 30% by 5th month. Assuming this COVID journey isn’t over, when are those going to be made available to people who choose them?

  23. Anonymous says:

    Fix the park you see everyday Sabrina. My kids will be fine without being vaxxed.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Just a reminder when Mr Panton seeks reelection, it was his lust for power that gave this lady a ministry she is so clearly unqualified to lead.

  25. Anonymous says:

    Stop forcing religious beliefs on vulnerable kids in school.

  26. Anonymous says:

    We can easily end mask mandates. JUST STOP WEARING THEM!!

  27. Anonymous says:

    There is no longer any need for a mask mandate in schools, and science backs it. The health minister has no right to continue this. Data today also show the pfizer vaccine to have a very low effectivity in children. Better to let them develop their own immune systems. Vaccinate the vulnerable only.

  28. Rick says:

    Wow! We have lost all objectivity with these ridiculous policies.

    • Anonymous says:

      Sabrina has an objective alright. Not to be embarrassed in having asked the UK government for vaccines and then be unable to use them, because she hadn’t anticipated people being reluctant to vaccinate their children in the absence of any clear medical evidence of a threat to them from Covid. Despite the enormous difficulty they had in persuading adults to get vaccinated during the height of the pandemic, and now boosters.

  29. Bert says:

    1 million does of vaccine for 5-11 year olds outside of risk groups would prevent between 0.5 and 3 ICU admissions and zero deaths. That is what the UK JCVI say. There is no benefit to vaccinating children to prevent transmission either, they found. In a long interview on the BBC last week a JCVI member said there was no positive case to support vaccinating healthy 5-11 year olds but they would allow them to be vaccinated as parents were demanding ‘choice’.

    And by the way, I am not an anti-vaxxer, adults should get jabbed and anyone overweight or over 30 who is not vaccinated and not in the tiny group who cannot be vaccinated is a plain idiot.

    • Numba Cruncha says:

      And New York State health officials have confirmed the Pfizer vaccine is significantly less effective for 5-11 year olds. Vaccine effectiveness against infection dropped from the 68% adult figure to just 12%!

      https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/28/pfizer-vaccine-less-effective-children-ages-five-to-11-data

    • Anonymous says:

      (Preface: I am not an anti-vaxxer and am tripled).

      I agree. Unless a child is in an extremely vulnerable category, this is a low-risk disease for this age cohort (especially Omicron).

      The child-dose vaccine (1/3rd dose of adult vax) does not seem to confer much protection from infection. There is still some marginal benefit from severe disease but in an age group that has limited vulnerability in the first place, this is just preventing an extremely rare event.

      So if I was CIG, I wouldnt hang a policy decision based on the vax rate for children.

    • Anonymous says:

      Did a fat, over-30 person sit on you when you were a child? Always focusing on those two factors and ignoring the myriad others out there, e.g. compromised immune systems, heart disease and previous severe reaction to a vaccine.

      Sure, there are health risks to being obese, for example. So does sitting a bar or in a yard with your pals and swilling alcohol — and that includes beer and wine. So does promiscuity (CI probably is an STD cesspool.)

      Give it a rest, focus on acting responsibly while supporting those who do, and stop spewing your inane wellness judgments.

      • Smurfette says:

        Step away from the cake. It might make you less angry.

      • Bert says:

        Can you explain your point in coherent English? Fat people are far higher risk of death from covid than those that have self control. What’s confusing you there?

        “Wellness judgment” why not? The obese are like smokers with their self-harm imposing huge burden on society. Even aside from the diabetes and heart problems, right now covid restrictions harm the life of everyone and hospital admission and mortality rates that drive policy are seriously affected by the obese. Covid ICU unit in the developed world were filled with the old and the fat.

        People cannot do anything about being old or ill. They jolly well can do something about being fat. That is the difference.

        I appreciate that your anger on your post probably comes form your anger at yourself but just remember ice cream is not your friend.

        • Anonymous says:

          You are so sad. Probably spout a Christian faith, too. What would Jesus say about how judgmental you are?

      • Wait 4 It says:

        Age and being overweight are risk factors. The former is unavoidable, the latter is a choice.

  30. Anonymous says:

    End all mandates. The child vaccine doesn’t work, we don’t know long term effects it has on our children and is just not needed. Sabrina looks completely out of her element since she took this post. She was never vaccinated until AFTER the election herself! So for her to tell us to vaccinate our kids with this useless child vaccine? It’s outrageous…

  31. Anonymous says:

    Buy now, while stocks last…!

    Ffs

    • Anonymous says:

      Basically what Kenny Boy’s massive poster by the airport roundabout says. Of course that’s a public health announcement and not political advertising, which is illegal outside of elections I believe……..

  32. Anonymous says:

    Is she warning us again? Laughable stuff.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hahaha she switches up so fast that by next week it’ll be jargon of “don’t take the vaccine kids”

  33. Anonymous says:

    OK.on another note,
    What is being done this Honoring Women Month to help couples and kids trapped in toxic relationships?
    So many young people especially, and little help from police and courts in cases of abuse.
    Yes, they must be taught to manage relationships, decisions and conflict from primary age.
    Let’s do this Cayman!!

    • Anonymous says:

      Ridiculous – so she wants us the give these completely pointless not fully tested vaccines to our kids because they have a short shelf life?

    • Anonymous says:

      Apparently we are helping with men trapped in toxic relationships by revoking their PR status and deporting them.

  34. Anonymous says:

    Hmm – so how do you reconcile it with observed data that the current batch of vaccines increases the chances of catching covid for kids aged 5-11?

    35-41 days since vaccination = negative efficacy of 10%
    42-48 days since vaccination = negative efficacy of 41%!

    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.25.22271454v1.full.pdf

    And the vaccine could erode their natural immunity developed through prior infection with Omicron. Plenty of recent research supports that possibility.

  35. Anonymous says:

    A reasonable amount of vaccine uptake in kids before masks can be removed in school implies that the vaccinated kids don’t spread it and the unvaccinated do. Total divisive disinformation bullshit. Now the vaccinated kids can blame the unvaccinated for masks without a stitch science to back it up.

    Maybe lunch should include no sugars until the fat kids lose enough weight. Sabrina can lead by example.

  36. Anonymous says:

    Jabbing children that are at statistically zero percent risk of serious covid can be considered child abuse. NEVER seen such nonsense in my life.

  37. Anonymous says:

    She is out of her mind.

  38. Anonymous says:

    Meanwhile heart attacks gallore.

    • Anonymous says:

      Some of us desperately tried to warn everyone.
      This fiasco never passed my sniff test from day 1.
      Never been violated with a swab, nor jabbed with an MRNA injection.
      I am up to date with polio and tetanus vaccines, so there you go.

  39. Anonymous says:

    Newsflash. The UK isn’t even vaccinating under 12s unless they are high risk. Absolutely not a necessary vaccine for the little kids. Whether 0% or 100% are vaccinated the masks need to go. Asap!

    • Numba Cruncha says:

      Not true. UK Government confirmed two weeks ago that kids 5-11 can get jabbed if the parents want, on a non-urgent basis. Don’t think the jabs have started yet though. Doubt anyone will get their kids jabbed unless they need it for travel.

  40. Anonymous says:

    Story from New York Times today on the child vaccine. The one-third dose not really doing much (for Omicron anyway).

    “Pfizer Shot Is Far Less Effective in 5- to 11-Year-Olds Than in Older Kids, New Data Show.

    While protection against hospitalization is still strong, the vaccine offered almost no protection against infection, even just a month after full vaccination.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html

    • Anonymous says:

      It is still showing protection against hospitalization (but not infection).

      So the prudent takeaway from this is to consider this vax for your child if they are in an extremely vulnerable health category. And it is likely your pediatrician has long ago discussed this if you are a parent of one of these groups of children.

      • Bert says:

        If 1 million healthy kids are vaccinated and the peak of cases is over the UK government’s independent vaccine advisory body estimates that 1 ICU admission would be prevented. If there was another surge wave that number goes up to 6 out the 1 million.

        The kids are more likely to be harmed driving to get the jabs than protected from covid by the vaccinations.

  41. Anonymous says:

    Holding us hostage re masks we will never be free from mask wearing – moving goalpost every week!

  42. Trippy Bush Ebanks says:

    Useless. Health Minister. This country going to the dogs…

  43. Anonymous says:

    Push all you want but Covid is over. Now lets follow the rest of the world and drop the masks. Then I can go back to not knowing or caring who the health minister is around here.

    • Anonymous says:

      I don’t understand what the big deal is it’s just NOT

      • Anonymous says:

        Fine, then allow those that want to wear them crack on, wear them everywhere for all we care.
        The majority are over wearing masks and would like to get back to breathing fresh air and not breathing their own stale toxic waste, sending that air back into their once healthy lungs causing goodness know what bacterial problems down the line.

  44. Anonymous says:

    They want to see a reasonable uptake in child vaccinations before they remove the mask mandates…,ha, most everyone I have seen isn’t bothering with masks anymore unless forced. I would say the mask mandate is already over.
    Soon there won’t be any more excuses for banks cutting hours and places like the courthouse hiding from work.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.