Do you think that the Rowley Government told us the truth about Covid-19 way back in February and March of this year? Do you think that they have been doing a good job in containing the virus? Do you believe that this "second wave" of Covid reported infections is just that ... a second wave? Do you believe that the Government has done a good job in handling this crisis? Do you think that the mainstream media have reported accurately on the pandemic in T&T?
If you answered 'yes' to any of theses questions then don't bother to read any further because you definitely are not going to agree with anything that I will be saying here. Let's take the first question about the Government telling us the truth: if they were telling us the truth from 'Day One' then why is it that we are seeing such a spike now when the country has been on a virtual lockdown since the 23rd March? Where are these "new" cases coming from? And if they didn't tell us the truth from the beginning then was there an agenda (winning the elections?)?
And as to the second question, do you remember how they used to boast about what a great job they were doing and how low the numbers of infections were? But they weren't doing any significant testing. In the same period that we had tested a little over 4,000 cases little Grenada had done some 48,000 tests! But some quack organization claiming to be out of Oxford University is reported to have ranked us number one in the world for our handling of the pandemic. How could they say that they were doing a good job when there was very little testing? More importantly, why was there so little testing?
As for the "second wave", did you notice that the reports started coming of an increase in Covid-19 infections literally just before the elections? And now it is obviously out of control. On the one hand the Government's erstwhile Minister of Health is reported as saying that masks are ineffective and on the other hand you have the same Government passing emergency laws fining people for not wearing a mask! Really? And where did this so-called "second wave" come from if the borders were closed? From the illegal Venezuelans? But they come in mainly through Cedros in the South and all the first "new" cases came from the north! What's wrong with this picture?
Do you still think that the Government has done a good job in managing the pandemic? Do you think that children are less likely or more likely to practice social distancing? In this regard then, should the schools be re-opened or should they re-open only with virtual classrooms? What should be done with those poor people who can't afford internet in their homes ... much less laptops! Do you think therefore that the government has shown the required leadership in dealing with this crisis?
And as for the mainstream media, do you think that they were "asleep at the wheel" in their reporting ... or lack of it? Or did they have an agenda which was (and still is) not to criticize the Government or make it look bad.
The election is over, but we are not going to get out of this obvious mess anytime soon if we refuse to ask the hard questions or hold the Government's proverbial feet to the proverbial fire.
Hey Robin! All that you listed are true but I did not see you mention anything about the citizens of T&T who were studying and living abroad. They were allowed to come back and were not force quarantine like the first set who came from the cruise ships. In my opinion that also have a part to play in the second wave. If they had force quarantine them then yes we would been fine. Then again, I think that the government did not force quarantine them because of the elections. Who knows? But one thing is for sure we need to ask ourselves the hard questions as you said.
ReplyDeleteGood point!
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