Rastafari scorn of Western medicine fuels Jamaican vaccine hesitancy

FILE PHOTO: Children eat peanut butter sandwiches during the Sabbath service, at The School of Vision, a Rastafari community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. Picture taken June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova

ST ANDREW, Jamaica (Reuters) - At a Rastafari farming community high up in the hills above Jamaica's capital, dreadlocked locals gather at the temple to worship and celebrate with Bible readings and traditional drumming and chanting. No COVID-19 protocols are in place.

This isolated community of around 100 people called the School of Vision has so far escaped the ravages of the pandemic. They credit traditional medicine, like root wine and herbs such as neem, bitterwood and ginger, for helping fend off the virus, and do not want to take the vaccine.