The Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS) strongly condemns the actions of the individuals who have sought to create fear among the population by using edited video material published by the agency to imply that the COVID-19 vaccine administered to Her Excellency Dame Sandra Mason, Governor General of Barbados, was in any way unsafe or fraudulent.
As is customary when producing a video of any event, the footage of the vaccination of Dame Sandra and members of her family and staff for COVID-19 was edited to portray the sequence of events.
The needle shown being prepared in one video clip was not the one used to administer the vaccine to the Governor General.
The vaccine bottle comes with a rubber seal; a bigger needle (the blue one) is used to extract the vaccine from the bottle, while a smaller needle (the orange one) is then attached to the syringe to inject the vaccine into the deltoid muscle.
The smaller needle cannot be used to extract the vaccine as it may become blunt and therefore painful for the recipient. The BGIS regrets if this has led to any misunderstanding on the part of the public.
However, we urge persons not to deliberately and mischievously mislead others to further their own personal agendas.