ENOUGH OF THIS COVID 19 CHARADE
When we were put in this state of public emergency by the Prime Minister Hubert Minnis and the FNM on 17 March 2020, they told us this was for our own good. The PLP said it was not necessary. The FNM said yes it was necessary because it would give the health care system time to prepare itself for what was to come with Covid 19. The idea was the emergency was to help slow down the rate of transmission of the disease.
Okay, the public went along with it. Except now ten weeks later, the public is asking everywhere what is the evidence that what the FNM promised would happen over the ten weeks actually happened. If the idea were to prepare and upgrade the health care system, you just have to look at the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama to see that the same tents that were there ten weeks ago are still there. Nothing has happened.
The hospital situation so angered the musician and teacher Kevin Tomlinson that he engaged in a 20 minute (give or take) screed about the lack of a hospital and the duplicity of the FNM on the subject.
So there is failure on that score.
The other issue of course is the regulations they put in place. You get the feeling reading these regulations that they are incomprehensible. No one quite understands what is in place and what isn’t. They are being observed now more in the breach. No one pays the slightest attention to them.
So for example, this weekend, there is supposed to be a lockdown for 24 hours. You are not supposed to come out of your house unless it’s an emergency and even then you have to call the police to say you’re out on the streets,
But then the regulations also say you can go to church on Saturday and Sunday from 7 a. m to 1 p m; you can go to the footsore from 7 a.m. to 6 pm., you can go to the take away restaurant from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; you can exercise in your immediate neighborhood from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. So basically the public has taken that to mean they can do what they want.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday, 6th June, up to midnight: 224,490
Number of hits for the month of June up to Saturday, 6th June, up to midnight: 155,824
Number of hits for the year 2020 up to Saturday, 6th June, up to midnight: 4,708,615.