HEALTH Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has hit out at individuals behind COVID-19 vaccine “myths”, charging that ignorance is fuelling different theories, including that the jab is “the mark of the beast” referred to by the biblical book Revelation, which details end-time happenings.

Dr Tufton, speaking during a virtual town hall on Thursday morning, said the “666” myth — which is one of several circulating about the vaccine — is a thorn in the side of health officials who are trying to encourage Jamaicans to take the jab, even as the island grapples with a third surge in infections, which saw reports of 544 new coronavirus infections and eight deaths on Thursday.

“I go into many communities on a given week, and the idea of the vaccine being the virus is a big one: ‘So you are infecting me with the virus’, but that’s not the case.

“I have even heard people say it is part of the mark of the beast and the end days, and I am not here trying to be offensive to the faith-based community but I have heard sermons being preached against the vaccines.

“The second [myth] is that it has some microchip, and that we are trying to control you,” an exasperated Dr Tufton stated.

Chapters 13 and 14 of the book of Revelation speaks to the establishment of a satanic system which will emerge during a period of catastrophe on Earth in which no person can buy or sell if he or she does not receive a mark identified as 6-6-6 in their right hand or in their forehead.

Parallels have been drawn with the vaccine, given the global roll-out, pressure for people to accept the jab, and the move to make the take-up mandatory, in instances, coupled with indications from some quarters that individuals may not be allowed to travel, return to work, or access certain spaces and services without proof of vaccination.

Yesterday, President of the Jamaica Council of Churches Reverend Newton Dixon, who was among eight signatories — including private sector and social associations — on a joint statement on Thursday urging Jamaicans to get vaccinated, said individuals have once again erred in their interpretation of the chapters.

“To deal with how faith has interacted with this present issue, I think we are looking at the book of Revelation for an answer, as Christians have always done in every situation of crisis. We have gone back to the Bible to look for answers, and we have always gone to Revelation when there is something that seems to be a little catastrophic.

“We run to those books to find a quick answer and we have not learnt that we have done this many times before in history, and each time we have gone to Revelation for an answer and read Revelation the wrong way, we came up with the wrong answer and we made a fool of ourselves,” the clergyman, who is also a lecturer in theology, told the Jamaica Observer.

Reverend Dixon said it is being done again.

“We are going back to Revelation with the same mindset as we did in 1844 and 2000, when we thought the world was going to end. We have done this so many times and we haven’t learnt that there must be something fundamentally wrong with how we are reading this book.

“I would like to suggest that a literal meaning of the book of Revelation is not necessarily helpful for those cataclysmic existential crises that come upon us from time to time. The book of Revelation is more about how we endure the struggle with good and evil over the course of time until God decides to finally complete the conquest of good and evil eternally and for good. How do we live in that in-between time where we still have victory over evil, but evil is still present?” he reasoned.

“This idea that the vaccine is the mark of the beast, we are looking for another answer, and we have gone where we have missed before; it is not,” insisted Reverend Dixon.

The clergyman said if one reads Revelation 13 it would take “a bit of a stretch and a bend to equate this virus with the mark of the beast”, because the details in the text, if read literally, do not match up.

“We are talking about a man and his name, and a mark and his number, and this man is telling you, ‘If you don’t get this mark you can’t worship at all,’ ” he pointed out.

“We are not hearing any of this narrative of it at all. What we are hearing is we are faced with a virus and our communities need to be safe through communal action, so let us all get this thing done,” Reverend Dixon said.

“So those organisations that have insisted that you don’t come into my space if you are not vaccinated are really going to the extreme end of the spectrum, that says, ‘Let us all be socially responsible.’ So when they don’t see that social responsibility, they are going to say, ‘Well, I won’t commit suicide because you are suicidal, I won’t join you. I am going to ask you to be vaccinated before you come into my space.’ It really has nothing to do with the mark of the beast and the imposition of a world order,” he emphasised.

Reverend Dixon said, too, that the world has for centuries been “beneficiaries of a gift from God called science, which has been a tremendous aid to life and livelihood… And part of this benefit of science is the breakthroughs made with regards to health and wellness” — one of which is vaccination.

“We have been working, and living with, and benefiting from the breakthrough of science through vaccination. All of us who have been born since the 1960s have been living a good quality of life because of vaccination. It just seems strange that all of a sudden we now have hiccups with a vaccine that is coming in the midst of clear existential danger,” the president of the Jamaica Council of Churches argued.

“It’s not an old humdrum disease that has been around that we are struggling with, this is something that is in front of us, clearly presenting lethal and serious danger. Our view is, we have no reason, no sufficient scientific reason, to think that this vaccine is going to do anything less or other than the other ones, which is to enhance our ability to fight a virus that can be tremendously dangerous. We have done it with poliomyelitis, smallpox; we have done it with measles, malaria; now we are doing it with COVID,” he told the Observer.

Meanwhile, the health minister dismissed other theories that the authorities are part of a wider conspiracy to trap people.

“I want to say that, as a Government, I am speaking on behalf of all of us, we are not advocating, as it relates to the vaccines, anything that is going to put the Jamaican people at risk. The direct opposite is the case. The vaccine is there to protect your life, your livelihood, and your happiness against a virus that can kill you, and those myths are unfounded; and those persons who are advancing that kind of conversation do not understand what this process of immunisation is,” he argued.

Dr Tufton, too, insisted that most Jamaicans have been part of the country’s immunisation process.

“Going in to school, you would remember you had to take the vaccine. Some of the very people who are opposing the COVID vaccine had to take it to go into the public education system, and they are all alive, they are all doing well. Indeed, life expectancy in Jamaica is where it is because of these vaccines. There is no reason for these myths,” the health minister said.

Speaking further on the matter during COVID Conversations on Thursday evening, Tufton said: “The science does not support some of the conclusions that are being drawn” about the vaccines, classifying them as “…rumours, speculation, and mischief”.

“It’s anecdotal. It’s made up and it’s damaging, not just to individuals but to the society on a whole. The vaccine does not a have a chip. We are not trying to track people’s daily living; your phone more does that — and you all have a phone. It is not the mark of the beast; we are not trying to put the virus inside of you,” he declared.

Professor of public health, epidemiology and HIV/AIDS at The University of the West Indies (UWI) Dr Peter Figueroa also countered misconceptions about the COVID-19 vaccine.

“To say that the vaccine is the virus is not precise; that is not accurate. You can’t say the vaccine is the virus. The vaccine is prepared in a way that it cannot really infect you, all it can do is stimulate your immune system.

“I’ve heard people say when they do get the injection they wonder did they really get the injection, because the needle is so small, you hardly feel anything. One person was saying to me, ‘How they would get the chip in this? It must be a soluble chip because it can’t fit in there, it is such a small needle.’ So even for those who are afraid of needles, the needle is so fine it cannot bother you,” Professor Figueroa said.

He added that the challenge facing the country is not straightforward, nor is it easy.

“I am privileged to sit on the World Health Organization Working Group on COVID vaccines…and it is clear there is a significant challenge facing us. There are over 200 million cases confirmed globally and over four million deaths; our best hope is the vaccines.

“The vaccines that are authorised by the World Health Organization are proven to be effective and safe; they are not perfect, but we do find that they are very effective in preventing people getting severely ill and they are safe. It’s very rare adverse events occur,” the public health expert said.

Addressing suspicions around how quickly the vaccines were developed, Professor Figueroa noted that research on this specific coronavirus vaccine began from as far back as 2005 and has advanced since, making it easy for scientists to pivot when SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, erupted in late 2019.