Dear Doc. Am pretty sure we all signed up for the PM giving himself dictatorial powers so that the nation could rapidly conform to the global cry "flatten the curve". A month later and there has been zero rush on hospitals and there are ample beds and ventilators available. Can we celebrate your success and let's get back to work before our 'work' doesn't exist anymore? I am pretty sure the elected government does not have the mandate to do whatever it wants for all eternity and at some point, we will have to trust that the majority of Bahamians have enough sense to avoid getting infected (all on their ownsome) Therefore, as a public question on behalf of all of the young and healthy people in this country that are forced to stay inside their homes - what is the official timetable to return to the Westminster system of government now that the rest of the world is winding up their shutdowns

Perhaps a better question for Minnis and Sands (both medical doctors) is when does their current 'modelling' for the Bahamas now expect that our hospitals, clinics and morgues will be overwhelmed as a result of the Covid-19 crisis that is being used as the reason for shutting down our country? So far we've only had the food stores and pharmacies greatly overwhelmed causing much strife and inconvenience for everyone, especially our more vulnerable senior citizens and the disabled who have no close family support living with them.

It is really ridiculous that senior's shopping hours are 6am to 8am, and in aquapures case 7am to 9am.

There is no public transport. Are seniors supposed to walk at 5 am in the dark to get to the foodstore?

Minnis is obviously oblivious to the time of morning that the sunrises at this time of the year, and also the fact that many of the elderly, who have no close family or other support to do their grocery shopping, etc., are afraid to go outside when it's dark. But as we all suspect, the most important and fundamental things are just not being carefully thought through to ensure the needs of the more vulnerable and desperate in our society are met during this crisis.

Another interesting question I have is about Caribbean countries in general. Most countries in the Caribbean are considered "developing" nations. We don't have the resources that the "developed" countries such USA and UK have. <br/><br/> But the mortality rate in the Caribbean is much lower than I expected for sure. (The reported cases I understand, because testing is lousy) but I find it interesting that mortality all over the Caribbean is very low. When it is the developed nations that have the best hospitals, health care, etc. Yet, the **developed world** won't study this, I guess for the mere fact that we are "developing nations"??? But I find that it's worth a closer look.<br/><br/>
(The worldometers website sheds light on this with the numbers.) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavir…
<br/><br/>
**As of Apr/19**<br/>
Jamaica 173 cases, 5 deaths<br/>
Trinidad 114 cases, 8 deaths<br/>
Bermuda 86 cases, 5 deaths<br/>
Barbados 75 cases, 5 deaths<br/>
Cayman Is. 61 cases, 1 death<br/>
Antigua 23 cases, 3 deaths... and so on.

It's the yam and cassava mon.

But seriously, rather than population ratios, it might be good to look at density. Remember many of the developed nations have major high rises so in the same 10 mile space they could house millions. while we may live in close quarters, our houses are max 2 stories housing singke families. If social distancing is the armour that could be the difference. I hope that puts the kabosh on taking bay street above 3 levels. I think its a mistake. There's something that makes these islands *islandy*, so find another way without losing that. That Pointe monstrosity is an abomination.

I once attended a Project Management seminar..it was religious based and the moderator said making decisions is easy! (Which you'd think is an oxymoron, decisiins aren't easy) He held up the bible and said, if it doesn't match up to what's in here, it's wrong. I think we need an *Islands of The Bahamas* bible. So when these developers come with absolutely wonderful (seriously) ideas, we can say immediately, *it's not in the book*

https://youtu.be/lGC5sGdz4kg

'Models' are completely dependant on the input. Total population 'lockdown' quarantine has never been tried before so they are literally making things up as they go. There is no historic, medical or scientific data for a global lockdown. That is the problem. There is loads of data for every other respiratory disease that has ever hit the human race but we as a collective have decided to try something completely different this time. The 'total community quarantine" is a political experiment that was introduced by the communist Chinese government and sold to the world by social media.

The facts are now coming out of Italy that the vast majority of people who died were vulnerable people quarantined within the same house as healthy family members that were exposed to the virus before or during the lockdown. Because it is pretty much impossible to stop the spread of respiratory disease within a family the lockdown of large families within one household is the worst possible thing to do if you don't know who has it or not (instead of simply isolating the vulnerable) Dont get me wrong. This is a horrible disease but anyone who thinks the lockdown is some kind of tried and tested scientific method for defeating a new strain of flu is severely misguided

Well this is how statistical modelling goes around here:

Suppose a politician's wife gets a flat tire or requires her car to be towed. They will come out and say the current numbers would allow for car shops to open from 7am to 9am and declare tow truck drivers essential workers.

Lol. Couldn't have said it better myself ohdrap. I wonder who in government owns a plant nursery? ROFL

Why are pharmacies closing at 1pm?
Before this curfew thing I never recalled a crowded pharmacy.

And the foodstore would only be crowded on Friday night, saturday and sunday morning.

So we are now in this unfortunate situation where the old models won't work because none of them were ever developed for mass quarantine. The US-CDC and Imperial British models are changing daily and we have a couple of local GP's trying to make sense of the hysteria going on everywhere else, with a whole other set of socio/economic circumstances. So guess what the easy thing to do is. Sit back and wait and hope.....................whilst our economic future slips away

Exactly right. The analysis is based on faulty assumptions.

The scariest thing for me is the tendency for some Bahamians to repeat anything the PM says with no kind of independent thought.

The "hotspot" in the east? I told a family member *that's ridiculous, How can you define a hotspot as half the island? A hotspot is a small confined area, he's probably talking about cases linked to the Elizabeth Estates clinic*. The family member an ardent FNM supporter of course told me I was ridiculous. Ok.

The ban on international money transfers for social distancing? Non-sensical. The scary part is Bahamians accept it. So when he wakes up Thursday and says the govt has to sieze all bank balances over 2,000 what will Bahamians say? They were silent when he did it to one set of Bahamians why shouldn't he try it again? *The country in trouble and you don't need all that money right now*.

We were in the surge when we were at 8 people now at 50 they're saying we're still in the surge. Was it just drama at 8?

The lockdown is working. Based on what? An outlier model that predicted 90 cases? You know what meteorologists do with multiple models predicting differing outcomes? They disclose all of them. Over time the outliers are shown to be less and less likely and there's a consensus on the most probable model. Noone has yet told us anything about what the other models predicted and what were the underlying assumptions on each. Added to that we really dont know how many people are infected.

Also if new cases are being reported today those persons were infected during the lockdown. And 1-3 a day, the same rate as cases reported prior to the lockdown. Don't know...the analysis is off...or they're not making their assumptions clear

Thisisours... of course their analysis is off!! They are just copying what they see other countries doing. <br/>
Notice America is saying to use cloth masks, all of a sudden cloth masks are better than slice bread. America says it will gradually open, now our government is saying the same.<br/><br/>
The problem with this copy-cat mentality is that the resources, finances, economic stimulus that other countries have, we don't!!!<br/>
So we can follow them and back ourselves right into a corner. Then when those countries recover, we will be 10 years behind the 8-ball as usual. SMH

**Can't you comrades tell...the entire virus's national response operation's brainchild being directed and run exclusively from the upstairs prime minister's office?**
Colony's Health Minister Dr. Duane has come down with **serious case Muscles Mouth.**
**Do all ministry health scripts** now require prior approval Comrade Sister Erica? Nod once for yeah, twice for no?

Since the boarders of the country have been closed beyond the incubation period for Corona, the focus should now be on the ‘new patients’. Where do they live? Are they essential workers or were they under curfew when they contracted the disease. If under curfew, did they violate curfew/lockdown and to what extent? How many persons do they live with and have these persons been tested? How much testing is being done beyond the range of the patients household? If they were essential workers, which field are they employed in? Were they following proper procedures to protect themselves? Were persons that work with them tested or quarantined? What adjustments can be/ were made to ensure better safety in their line of work? And are the Corona cases appearing in clusters across the island or is there a random spread? And as for the Family Islands: since they have been closed communities beyond the incubation period, are the curfews and lockdowns applied to New Providence and Grand Bahama necessary now? Should these residents be allowed to return to work and a normal life including children going back to school? Of course the Ministry of Education may want to keep all schools in the country at the same pace but is that fair to thousands of Family Island students , who can now return to school and complete their term work? And as for the surge in cases that may have overwhelmed medical personnel and overcrowded medical facilities: NO that surge did not come at the level that was projected but The Bahamas has among the highest cases per capital in the region. And while the world average is 79% recovered and 21% deaths, the Bahamas is like 53% recovered and 47% deaths. Also there are close to 1,000 people in quarantine. How many will develop the disease and how many will test free? Obviously there are factors present that allow mostpatients to only develop mild symptoms of the disease, compared to other jurisdictions. Some say it is the climate, others say it is the ethnic make up of the population. Well in places like Detroit and Chicago, the case of contractions among Blacks and Hispanics is much higher than average. Some say this is because Blacks and Hispanics and employed in jobs that expose them more to the virus. And they statistics show that the death rate among Blacks is 39%. And they attribute this to Blacks earning lower incomes and not being able to receive better health care. And as for climate being a factor, New Orleans, which has warmer temperatures has now become a hotspot for Corona cases.