Having lost four cousins to COVID-19 last year, 60-year-old Norman Pryce, a Jamaican living in Long Island, New York, is infuriated by people who trivialise the pandemic on social media. He is also encouraging Jamaicans, especially front-line workers and people with underlying illnesses, to take the vaccine as it will give them a chance to survive.

“Persons might be out there and saying this and that about COVID and say that it’s fake because they don’t have anybody in their family who died. To know that a family member was not sick… they were happy and good, and they just died, is not nice,” Pryce told the Jamaica Observer.

“Listen, I have four cousins who died from COVID-19 — ages 32, 45, 50 and 58. That played a lot in me going to take the vaccine. They died in the US here. It affected the family because you can’t go to hospital to look for them. They only allowed a certain amount of people in the hospital, so only the close family could go. And then the funerals were over Zoom. It’s not nice to have Zoom funeral,” Pryce lamented.

All four cousins were from different households. The 32-year-old was living in Queens, New York; the 45-year-old in Brooklyn, and the 50- and 58-year-olds were living in Long Island.

Pryce said he received his first dose of the vaccine on February 11. He got the second dose three weeks later, on March 3.

“I rolled up my sleeve for the nurse and by the time I turned around, the thing was in my arm already. It took just about two seconds. I don’t feel any way. People are pushing people out the way to take the vaccine. I took my second vaccine on March 3 and I feel normal. The first day, my arm felt a little heavy and that’s all. There’s nothing wrong with me. Plus, they checked up on me,” he said.

“One of the main reasons I really took this vaccine too is because I am a front-line worker; I’m a teacher. This thing [COVID] is killing people. Especially people with like, high blood pressure. Those people… I think they should be at the front of the line to take that vaccine. Don’t be afraid of taking it,” he advised.

“If you are a person who is out there and mingling with people, don’t be afraid to take it. It can stop you from dying,” he said, pointing out that he was merely offering advice.

“I’m not going to force anyone to take it, because my wife don’t want to take the vaccine,” he said.

“She says she is waiting and watching me to see my reaction. My kids are medical professionals. They took the vaccine and they are okay so far,” he said.

Pryce said his children, who are 28 and 24 years old, have related “horror stories” to him of people suffering from COVID-19. “They told me that they cried watching patients in pain,” he said.

Pryce, who migrated in 1981, said he visits Jamaica frequently, but because of the pandemic, 2020 was the first year in a while that he hadn’t returned home.

“I am a Jamaican; I don’t care what people talk about Jamaica. I am a proud one,” he said.