By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Tribune Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
CONSULTANT Physicians Staff Association President Dr Sabriquet Pinder Butler said it is “mind-boggling” that some people who have contracted COVID-19 are still reporting to work and not properly isolating themselves.
She made the comment yesterday while telling The Tribune that Bahamians have generally not got accustomed to changing their behaviour to safeguard themselves against contracting COVID-19.
This behaviour, she said, has contributed to the “concerning” increased virus deaths in recent weeks.
In other cases, she said people who have tested positive have questioned whether they should inform people they have been around that they too could potentially have contracted the disease.
Asked if she was of the view that the country needed to return to harsher measures to curb the spread, Dr Pinder Butler was noncommittal, saying restrictions only work as well as the people who are being restricted.
“It’s just like wearing a seatbelt,” the CPSA president told The Tribune.
“A lot of people don’t like to wear seatbelts, but you know if you have a fine and people are actively going to be checking we do what is necessary.
“But when we don’t feel like people are looking and we don’t feel like this is something that we need to do even though we know that it will safeguard our lives, unfortunately we let our guards down. We do these things that we know are not to our best interest, nor to our population.”
She continued: “We’re still having people knowing they have COVID and going to work. You would not think that you’re having that but we’re still having that and so the question is are we not thinking it through as a people? Are we tired of it?
“We do know that a lot of times we have challenges with persons accepting that it is actually impacting them until it’s too late and we really never want that to happen. We want people to be able to feel that they can reach a healthcare provider. That they can let us know what’s going on. That we can provide help to them if they don’t know what to do before it’s too late.
“I mean it’s absolutely mind-boggling. Why are you still calling to find out if you should still go to work? Why are you still calling to ask if you should let the people who you’ve been around know? Shouldn’t that be automatic by now? But it’s still not happening.
“Again, if we really thought about each other as our neighbour, even beyond that, thinking of them as ourselves because sometimes neighbourly is as neighbourly does. If you think of it impacting yourself and it could critically impact you maybe, we would think differently.
“Unfortunately, the same behaviours keep occurring and I think that’s what’s going to cause us to be in this pandemic for a while.”
The COVID-19 death toll rose to 608 after three more deaths were recorded on Monday.
In its October 11 dashboard, the Ministry of Health noted that two women and one man died from the disease on September 27 and 29.
The deceased were between the ages of 47 and 73. These deaths were previously under investigation and were recently reclassified.
Fifty-seven new coronavirus cases were also recorded on Monday.
Thirty-five more cases were recorded on Tuesday, pushing the nation’s toll to 21,815.
One hundred and forty-two people are in hospital with the virus, 15 of whom are in the intensive care unit, according to the latest data.
In recent days both former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands have called for harsher measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Comments
ThisIsOurs 3 years ago
"CONSULTANT Physicians Staff Association President Dr Sabriquet Pinder Butler said it is “mind-boggling” that some people who have contracted COVID-19 are still reporting to work and not properly isolating themselves"
its not "mind boggling", when you have to make the decision between eating and not eating, or your children not eating, its not mind boggling at all.
The blindness of the well off to the plight of the poor hasnt changed in 100 years. Wrote this comment back in May 1 2020 to the Tribune's story on thd Decameron:
"Hmmm the article on the Decameron, stories around the black plague (1918) and how wealth versus poverty resulted in different outlooks and different health results was very interesting.
The poor people were relegated to their cramped disease spreading environs while the wealthy ran to their remote estates. Both entertained themselves over the period, the poor because they were going to die anyway, the rich to pass the time. The poor had to work to eat despite the threat of infection, some even had to take care of infected wealthy employers a virtual death sentence. There was also something about the inability of the wealthy to understand the plight of the poor during the period. "Why all them people on the line..why they dont go to the ATM? In the foodstore again??..and they even een buy a trolley full of grocery...they cant shop for 2 weeks and stay home"?
The parallels are uncanny..
Rather than chastising people for wondering when their next dollar will come in, ask them first why they have the concern. Do they need rent paid? Do they need food? Electricity paid etc etc. Take a holistic approach to the solution. Because I can assure you, for minimum wage persons who need their job, living to the next day or eating will take precedence over any microscopic organism
ohdrap4 3 years ago
If anything the pandemic revealed doctors to be heartless and cruel people.
I once visited a doctor who ripped me off. But had promised a discount. She took sixty dollars off my bill but the visit was almost 700 dollars. I told her I had no insurance. Her response was: you are working, you ought to have insurance.
Heartless bitch. I paid her. But I will die before I go to her again.
joeblow 3 years ago
... not all, I heard about someone who treated a number of people for free!
FrustratedBusinessman 3 years ago
I legitimately wish that we can put people like that doctor on minimum wage, and ask them to balance their budget to include health insurance.
This is most of the problem with this country : the political class is completely out of touch with the reality that your average Bahamian lives in. Look at Minnis, he was completely shocked that he lost (and still cannot comprehend the reality that no one is on his run).
ohdrap4 3 years ago
Well, have you ever heard of contact tracing? Performed by a neutral party.
Also some will go to work because they cannot afford to stay home. Thus is an area what shows contact tracers could work on.
Do you all tell people to tell others of concern that they have AIDS OR GONORHEA?
My responsibility stops when isolating during disease and telling employer. I will not be walking around telling people I had Covid.
ThisIsOurs 3 years ago
Wasnt it Gilbert Morris who said pandemics are a social problem? Understand your society. Why are they concerned abiut work?
John 3 years ago
JokeyJack 3 years ago
I never knew doctors had these communist thoughts in their heads.
ThisIsOurs 3 years ago
i assume thats a joke Jack. She's not a communist or evil. She deserves our thanks for her contribution, her words were just not thought through, I make the same mistake at times.
JokeyJack 3 years ago
No. It's not a joke and i wonder what excuses you people will come up with as the shelves continue to get more and more empty, resembling communist countries .... but of course it wont be communism right? Maybe we should had empty shelves long time since they are so wonderful. Dont think they are wonderful? Watch the news a month from now and you will he told why they are.
ThisIsOurs 3 years ago
Im lost as to your point... but I dont have to watch the news a month from now. Ive been wondering for years about the decline of our society should food ever become a rare commodity. Abaco got a glimpse of it, but only a brief glimpse.
sheeprunner12 3 years ago
In this country, money greases the wheel. The State can't take care of everyone. Most of the 60% who are in or near poverty either work, beg or steal to earn a daily meal or die trying. It's a vicious cycle out there. A rich doctor cannot identify with that reality.
ThisIsOurs 3 years ago
I doubt Dr Butler is rich .They dont pay physicians hefty salaries at PMH. She probably deserves an award fir her selfless contribution over the psndemic.
My point was the objective of isolation is great and advisable but think holistically about how to accomplish that. Whether its making sure people have basic needs met or properly monitoring so you dont have abuse. If you (general) fail on either dont blame the people.
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