A close-up of an AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine vial. Photo by John Twohig on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. At midnight on September 30, the Jamaican government found itself having to do away with 55,000 expired doses of the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine that had been donated by the United Kingdom on July 30. The wasting of the precious doses was a particularly bitter pill for Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton to swallow. He tweeted that there had been a last-minute rush on vaccination sites, with some centres remaining open for extended hours in order to use up as many doses as possible: Sep. 30th, the last day before expiration of this batch of vaccines there was a rush on sites. Over 17k vaccinated on that day. A week before only 1.5K turned up. Not an issue of sites. The issue is us! #TimeCome pic.twitter.com/srptXJHxIE — Dr. Chris Tufton (@christufton) October 2, 2021 Minister Tufton also responded sharply to a critical banner headline in the Jamaica Gleaner, instead laying the blame on vaccination-hesitant Jamaicans: The health team delivered 245k of this batch of vaccines with 2months expir. date. Over 40 VAX sites each day, empty @ times- over 25k people pass their 8week due date – where are they? At what point do we speak about personal responsibility? Or say get Vax or else…? #TimeCome pic.twitter.com/CO8MNNtGLt — Dr. Chris Tufton (@christufton) October 2, 2021 Journalist Jovan Johnson shared the health ministry’s vaccination statistics on Twitter. Of a total population of 2.9 million, the government's target for vaccines is 1.9 million; the statistics do not include children under 12, who are not yet vaccinated: @themohwgovjm: *Data as at October 3, 2021 pic.twitter.com/gLUcn8aLlA — Jovan Johnson (@jovanthony) October 6, 2021 Jamaica appears to be slowly emerging from a third wave of COVID-19, with infections gradually falling after a peak on September 6. A series of lockdown days and nightly curfews, which were finally scaled back on September 18, may have had an impact on the number of new cases. Thus far, over 803,000 vaccines have been administered, with only 292,326 people being fully vaccinated, placing the island at the bottom of the region when it comes to the percentage of citizens who have completed their vaccination schedule, whether single- or double-dose (9.5 per cent). Also, thousands of people have not turned up for their second dose. Vaccination levels have been increasingly falling short of targets, despite the urgings of state agencies and the private sector. The government aims for 65 per cent of its target population to be fully vaccinated by March 2022. As of October 6, it had reached just over 15 per cent of that goal. A range of outreach efforts, including webinars, weekly press briefings, social media posts, a new tool to reach “shut-ins,” and the expansion of vaccination sites into communities via a mobile bus and private sector partnerships, have barely moved the needle in recent weeks. Private-sector efforts, which began in late July, have also fallen short, with just over 20,000 employees being vaccinated over the course of eight weeks. The Private Sector Vaccination Initiative held a vaccination drive at a major Kingston transportation hub, targeting public sector transport operators, but although the goal was to vaccinate 500 taxi and bus drivers in a day, the uptake was only 200. Meanwhile, the National COVID-19 Operationalisation Task Force, established to ramp up the vaccination drive within seven months, has faded from the public spotlight. One political commentator blamed vaccine hesitancy on the persistent misinformation and disinformation being shared on social media: Blame the ignorance expanding power of Social Media Before SM those who were uninformed knew they were uninformed And hence on medical matters listened to informed authority. ie scientists Now same uninformed listen to two fake news video clips & pronounce themselves experts — kevin o'brien chang (@kevinobriencha1) October 1, 2021 The influence of evangelical pastors, some of whom have been actively discouraging their congregations from taking the vaccine which they call the “mark of the beast,” has also been cited as a major concern. Moreover, there have been major logistical challenges. In deep rural communities, most residents do not have quick access to information, and the cost and feasibility of reaching the nearest vaccination site remain problematic. A television report from the eastern side of the island showed empty testing sites and found that rural folks were most likely to rely on home remedies in an attempt to combat the virus. However, one such advocate, the creator of the “Immuno-gizer,” died from COVID-19 recently.