Attorney General Carl Bethel. (File photo)
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunmedia.net
ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel blasted developed countries for hoarding COVID-19 vaccines during a debate in the Senate yesterday.
Although he did not highlight the Unites States of America by name, he alluded to the country during his commentary.
His comment came after Progressive Liberal Party Senator Fred Mitchell praised countries around the world for helping with vaccines.
“I hear the generous comments from the member opposite for the developed world but it is only India that sent us any vaccines, only India,” Mr Bethel said. “The others we paid for through the COVAX Facility and even the director general of the World Health Organisation himself has publicly condemned the behaviour of the developed world in terms of the vaccines.
“I hear promises of making vaccine distributions available quote ‘once they have been found to be safe.’ Well, AstraZeneca has unquestionably been found to be safe. I hear all about 60 million doses in storage. I haven’t seen the first donation. India crippled by this with less than five percent of its population vaccinated even though it is a major producer and licensed producer and [has] copyright for all of these major international vaccine companies, because that’s where the labour [is] cheap. They can’t get vaccines.
“I hear a lot of talk internationally but I don’t see no action. Talk is cheap, money buy land. So if the director general of the World Health Organisation can publicly condemn vaccine nationalism among his major donors, can I who see the same thing not also make the same observation? And I’m not going to give to anyone any sentiments that I don’t actually feel on this matter because there are hundreds of millions of poor, brown-skinned, black-skinned people who have no access whatsoever around this world to vaccination. So, you know, we have to speak truth to power. What is going on is not acceptable.”
Last month, the White House announced the US will share up to 60 million of its AstraZeneca vaccines with other countries and that the doses will be exported in the coming months after a federal review. This week, US President Joe Biden pledged another 20 million vaccine doses.
During a telephone briefing yesterday, a US official said that country has not made a final decision yet on which countries will benefit from America’s promised vaccine sharing but stressed that the COVID-19 situation in CARICOM and Latin American nations has been “front of mind”.
The Chinese Embassy in the Bahamas, meanwhile, has been in talks with the Bahamian government about potentially providing supplies of China’s COVID-19 Sinopharm vaccine which the WHO recently approved for emergency use.
The Minnis administration’s appetite for the vaccine is unclear.
Comments
TalRussell 3 years, 7 months ago
Ha, AG, the PopoulacesCommeners' will be asking like, Comrade AG, did you fuddle words when you say to mean what in that... the Minnis administration’s appetite for the vaccine is unclear? Come again?
The_Oracle 3 years, 7 months ago
Hoarding? again with this word. Planning ahead and securing needed goods is not necessarily hoarding. It could be called good planning. Government would call it hoarding as they plan nothing. And what when the U.S. "hoards" food, plywood, gas and diesel? Prices have skyrocketed and availability is a big issue. Did our Government plan for strategic reserves of fuel? Food? Medicines? No, they have not. They have for 40 years paid lip service to food security, but that is about it.
carltonr61 3 years, 7 months ago
He banned Hatian trade and travel now complaining about USA kindness. Can someone call Sandilands. $15.00 payment.
JokeyJack 3 years, 7 months ago
We should get vaccines from Haiti? What is theirs called?
WETHEPEOPLE 3 years, 7 months ago
You missed his point
tribanon 3 years, 7 months ago
And to think these are the very same 'types' of people that the ruthlessly evil and sinister Xi-Jinping led communist regime would like to see eradicated from our planet one way or another. AG Bethel would much better spend his time condemning the Communist Chinese Party for having created and unleashed on all of mankind the weaponized Wuhan Virus. But don't expect that to happen given Minnis's coziness with his Communist Chinese friends back in Beijing.
sweptaway 3 years, 7 months ago
Oh the fake stolen election in the USA and they wont give you any of the devils potion for free! Amazing that this Country hasn't caught on that all a democrat will give you is lip service ! Slick willy Clinton made a hundred million in donations for Haiti and sent over condemned camping trailers made by one of his buddy's out of formaldehyde infused paneling . What did your chosen one Barack do for you ? 6 dollar a gallon gasoline! All you Trump haters now have the fraud Joe Biden and what you got is the biggest racist fraud for a president now ! The man hates you ! Prove me wrong .The democrats look right over you ! they don't even see you ! You get donated injections from India of all places but not from the greatest nation on earth ,the USA !
tribanon 3 years, 7 months ago
You're wasting your breath because most Bahamians who have passed through our public schools since the 1970's have very deliberately received a D - education. The political ruling class in our country very early on recognized the advantages of a 'dumbed down' electorate and quickly went about creating the dysfunctional and failed public education system that we still have to this day. And those Bahamians who were able to pursue a college or university education in North America within the last 40 years or so were largely oblivious to the political 'leftist indoctrination' program they were undergoing at the time.
It's common knowledge that world history prior to the 1980's has been largely 'rewritten' by the 'leftist leaning' historians and educators of today. Therefore books written and published before the 1980's generally provide a much more factual and unbiased account of the world's more significant historical events. And for obvious reasons it's becoming increasingly difficult to find these older books, even 'un-retouched' versions on the internet at the US Library of Congress.
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