NASSAU, The Bahamas (CMC) — The local Rastafarian community has defended the use of natural remedies in the fight against COVID-19 by stating that none of its members have contracted the virus.

The claim was recently made by High Priest Rithmond McKinney, who declared that no Rastafarian will 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 see vaccines as being 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. It’s ironic that he never said how we can boost our immune systems, especially those who have not made up their minds to take the vaccine. He never said how they can 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, from our community, there is not one of us who have been infected with the COVID virus. I think that is a good thing,” he said.