The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION leader, Philip “Brave” Davis has said government has continuously dropped the ball in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

This, he said, was evident in Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ “know it all” attitude because he is a doctor.

Mr Davis, in speaking to journalists outside of the House of Assembly on Monday, noted that the Progressive Liberal Party warned the government about its practices regarding the pandemic, but their warnings fell on deaf ears.

He said the results of not taking heed are disastrous.

“We warned the government and made suggestions as to how they ought to be addressing, first of all the opening (of the borders), we told them how to open wisely, and indicated to them that they should be putting the protocols and an infrastructure in place to avoid spreads,” he said.

“They did not do it then and so hundreds of cases turn into thousands and now we are having thousands turn into more thousands, because they did not heed our warning in June. I identified the three variants that were then present. I identified the UK variant which was then present in 53 countries. I identified the Brazilian variant that was then in 23 countries. I identified, as well, the South African variant that was contained, but God knows where that would have led.

“I told them we need to act now and to prevent the spreads here. How do you do it? Through testing. There is no doubt that this government is continuously dropping the ball on our fight against this virus.”

Recently, the Consultant Physicians Association took issue with the government’s new policy which, as of May 1, gave those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the right not to be tested for the virus. The association said it was not consulted by the government on this.

“Typical of this government,” Mr Davis said. “The Prime Minister feels he is a doctor, so he doesn’t need to talk to doctors. In a fight like this you need to engage all of your stake holders and to craft an effective policy. Stakeholders who are required to participate in what you are about to do should be involved and engaged.

“So again, it tells you what we have as a government – arrogant, ‘I know it all and I don’t need to listen to anyone because I am a doctor.’ It always appears that the government is always reactive instead of being proactive to this dilemma that we are in.

“Our management of this pandemic is sorely lacking, and it doesn’t have to be this bad. All we need to do is to look around us at our Caribbean neighbours and see how well they are doing in their fight compared to how we are doing. We continue to pull far behind all of them.”

Mr Davis also challenged the government’s COVID testing and contact tracing measures.

“It’s clear that they don’t have a comprehensive plan for testing that will prevent the spread,” he continued.

“Because if they did, we would not have exponential spread as we’re having. The other issue we raised is the question of contact tracing. It was not being done immediately enough. It was not being done robust enough and in fact in many instances it was not being done at all.

“I have been able to demonstrate, that like in my own case and cases of persons who have been calling me, there’s been no effort to make contact with those persons who are testing positive to find out where they may have been to seek to contain the spread. So, this is the result of all these failed efforts on the part of this government to put in place the proper protocols.

“It’s one thing to go about saying ‘yes we are testing’, but you have to have a plan for testing, and you have to understand what you are testing. Are you contact tracing when many persons are calling to say that you are not even contacting them? And, then how are we isolating persons who have been determined to have the virus? What are the treatment protocols? What are the isolation protocols?”

Asked what he thought about our number of COVID-related deaths, Mr Davis gave his opinion but also highlighted that vaccinations could have arrived in The Bahamas much sooner than March, but the government did not take advantage of the opportunity.

He accused the Prime Minister of being “prematurely celebratory”.

“Again, this is sad,” he said. “We are told and we understand that if persons are vaccinated it curbs them out of deaths. I’m aware and the government has not denied, that vaccines were made available to them as early as January of this year which they did not embrace. And, where are we now? We have reached the stage where the slow roll out of the vaccines are causing ‘vaccine remorse’ where people don’t really want to take it now.

“Again, this is again the self-congratulatory of the prime minister. He continues to pat himself on the back and celebrate too prematurely on his efforts. He needs to access other vaccines not just the AstraZeneca … there is the Pfizer, there is the Moderna and other vaccines on the market to give the Bahamian people an option. And, also to have sufficient vaccines to ensure that all Bahamians who would wish to be vaccinated could be vaccinated.”

Mr Davis said he is deeply concerned about the healthcare workers who are again overwhelmed with COVID cases.

He said, their mental health should be taken into serious consideration.