The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis said his condition due to COVID-19 was a lot worse than he knew, revealing his oxygen had fallen to a “precarious level”.

He described his experience back in August with the respiratory virus as one he would not wish on anyone.

Mr Davis was criticised for leaving the country to receive medical treatment under the care of his daughter who is an anaesthesiologist working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight in Georgia.

However, he said the decision to leave the capital was an “easy” one.

“It was an easy decision. It had nothing to do with the professionals or care I got here at Doctors Hospital,” Mr Davis said.

“The truth of the matter is I was not feeling as sick as I really was. The diagnosis of my illness had me in a serious condition, but I was not feeling it. It was only when I got into the hospital, and I guess it was more psychosomatic than anything else, that I started feeling a lot worse than I was when I was at home.

“That was the extent of my experience. I was experiencing shortness of breath and my oxygen level fell to a precarious level. They had to bring that back up to the level that it ought to be. But at the end of the day I don’t wish the experience on anyone. I urge our people to take note of this invisible enemy.”

He said to this day he did not know how he became infected.

His comments came during an interview on the PLP’s new Facebook show, Coffee Break with Apryl Sands, which was posted on Sunday. During the interview, Mr Davis expressed confidence that his party will win the 2022 general election, noting he believes the PLP has regained the Bahamian people’s trust.

“The plan is to recapture the government,” he said.

“Immediately after the loss in 2017 I embarked upon a listening tour throughout the length and breadth of the country and on the island of New Providence and three things struck me.

“One, the majority of the persons I spoke to believe that the Progressive Liberal Party was the party for the Bahamian people, the small man. Secondly, they all understood and believed that the foundations of this modern Bahamas were laid by the hands of the Progressive Liberal Party. Thirdly they also understood that the voice of the people is articulated and better heard through the Progressive Liberal Party and so that caused me to pause. If this is so then why did we lose and not just lose, but so badly?”

He continued: “What I sense and the common denominator that emerged of those discussions is that they lost trust in the Progressive Liberal Party and hence that was my job.

“What I’ve been doing over several years and months was to regain that trust, working on regaining that trust (and) I think we are there.”