The Editor
Bahamas Press
Nassau Bahamas
8 September, 2020
Dear Sir.
In an earlier letter to Bahamas Press, I expressed the concern that the FNM administration had no plan to get us out of the Covid-19 mess. Rather, they would persist in lockdowns which actually endanger family units and no testing. Well the lockdowns have been done away with but, the continued lack of testing and inefficient contact tracing has seen a phenomenal rise in Covid -19 cases and deaths. Exactly how bad it is we do not know. The medical authorities in league with the FNM administration has as usual kept us in the dark.
But remember this; the annual number of deaths in the Bahamas was 2,600 in 2019. So, in 2020 lets see what the “excess deaths” are; any number over 2,600 are probably Covid-19 deaths.
The good doctors appear to have forgotten the basic lesson of medicine “ if the diagnosis is wrong it is impossible for the prognosis to be right”. Their diagnosis of how many cases of Covid-19 was present in the Bahamas was incorrect from the beginning. All of the misleading information issued at the so-called press conferences including the graphs and charts which even the presenters could not explain is proof positive of this. They could not explain the recovery rate (recovered cases divided by total cases) nor could they explain how many Covid related deaths we have. In fact, anytime someone tells you how many persons were engaged in preparing statistical information be careful! Garbage in, garbage out.
Indeed, they have said repeatedly that comorbidities was the cause of many of the deaths. This may be so but, if you assume that a person dies because of their comorbidities and do not test them then, this is medical negligence. Their families are put at risk simply because they may think that their loved ones died from diabetes, cancer etc and that Covid was not the triggering event.
It is settled now that delays in testing and isolating cases or quarantining their contacts plays a vital role in arresting the spread of the virus. A delay of even a day allows a positive case to infect even more persons; of course, the reproductive rate is exponential. Yet the government is disinclined to ramp up public testing despite the fact that Bahamians are saddled with a National Debt projected to be almost $9 Billion in 2020.
One would have thought that somewhere in these borrowings the FNM would have provided for free testing for Bahamian taxpayers especially our vital frontline workers rather than have them fork out $250 to private testing providers. But why are we surprised; the welfare of ordinary Bahamians was never a priority of this government. All we are is cash cows who pay the bills for their extravagances, deplorable fiscal management, no bid contracts and jobs for their close friends and families.
But time is running out for this crew; the PM says he has lots to do before he calls a general election, I wonder what these things could be? He has had more than three years to improve the lot of the 89% of Bahamians who voted for his administration but squandered all of this goodwill by lying to us, increasing the national debt with no visible evidence of how these monies were spent and victimizing Bahamians. Do not forget, this government was shown to be totally incompetent long before Dorian and the current Covid-19 pandemic. They are now trying to fool us again about who is responsible for our current financial and societal problems but, we know exactly who the culprits are.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Brown
