EDITOR, The Tribune.

September 16, 2021 came as a relief to many as they considered the draconian measures used by the People’s Time administration to control the COVID-19 pandemic too harsh and unnecessary. The New Day government promised an end to the nightly curfews, which ended in November and also granted more freedom with a new set of emergency orders.

There was much panic when the New Day administration did not introduce any measures for the Yuletide season to avert a possible spike in COVID cases. Although many postulated that the numbers would go through the roof due to the lack of measures, we only saw a marginal increase in the number of confirmed cases, which was not unmanageable by the healthcare system.

I guess after having gone through the former administration nobody wanted a return of the hangman like measures which drastically curtailed our freedom, so citizens and residents alike behaved in an orderly manner to keep the confirmed cases to a manageable number.

Earlier this year, we rolled out the red carpet with much fanfare and celebration to welcome some members of the British Royal Family. We all witnessed the return of Junkanoo on Bay Street. Who could have missed the very few people wearing masks?

With this practically mask-less celebration on “Bay”, we thought that more relaxation would have been announced shortly after. Well, yes, more relaxation came several weeks later, but only after our neighbour to the north dropped testing to enter their country for vaccinated individuals did we do the same a week later. Is this a mere coincidence or is The Bahamas taking orders from someone unbeknownst to the general populace?

Why did the New Day government punish us by letting us go through this blistering summer still shackled by a face mask?

My summer was partially great as I got to enjoy a whole month of breathing and functioning without a mask for a whole month, in another country may I add. I did not remember how exhilarating the freedom to be maskless was until I got to enjoy it again after some two and half years.

On my return home, I was very disillusioned to learn that we still had to wear masks. The many tourists who were on the flight were befuddled by the “strange” announcement from the captain that everyone would need a mask to exit the plane. You could see the stupor on their faces as most of the ones in my immediate vicinity had no masks and were panicking since their Bahamian dream vacation was about to come to an abrupt end even before it started. Thankfully, this issue was resolved by agents who issued masks as we exited the aircraft.

Is The Bahamas waiting for CDC to lift mask-wearing? If so, they have long done so in their own country, while cautioning the immunocompromised and vulnerable. And do not tell me that we are still trying for herd immunity – that elusive LIE!

The leader of the New Day administration, whilst he was in opposition, kept saying there was no scientific evidence to prove that curfews help to stop the spread of COVID-19. I do believe that he is well aware that vaccination does not prevent COVID-19 either. I put it to you that those who wanted to take the COVID-19 shot have already done so.

I am really dispirited whenever I hear the advertisement for vaccine. Certainly, you have heard the same advertisement on social media and the airwaves. Are we supposed to take the vaccine just for travel? If so, you might as well tell me to take the vaccine and be carted off to the plantation just like what they did to our forefathers.

Where is the logical reasoning and substantive scientific evidence to persuade the unvaccinated to take the jab? Do not be fooled by the national average being a D, because not everyone is cognitively lazy; many of us are cerebral.

The putative scientists who work in media all prognosticated that there would be an astronomical rise in COVID-19 cases for those countries like Jamaica, Grenada, among others in the region that dropped all COVID-19 entry requirements and relaxed the protocols for their citizens. Have you seen or heard of hospitals bursting at the seams to contain COVID-19 patients in these countries? Unquestionably, we would have heard especially from Jamaica, which is ranked in the top 15 for press freedom.

The pundits would have these countries that put “dollars and cents” over their citizens’ health and wellbeing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mainstream media would not let it rest.

Should I even mention that Haiti, which has less than two percent of its population fully vaccinated, is not struggling to deal with COVID-19?

That Machiavellian lie that they have fed us about vaccination helps to minimise the number of hospitalisations is also disingenuous. Do you remember hearing, “The only pandemic we have is the pandemic of the unvaccinated?” When was the last time you have heard that statement?

What nobody is telling us is that what we are actually having now is a pandemic of the vaccinated. There are more vaccinated people being hospitalised now than unvaccinated. They have wittingly stopped announcing confirmed cases and hospitalisations because they would have to break down those hospitalised into the vaccinated and unvaccinated and, indubitably, they would have no grounds to stand on when the vaccinated column is higher.

I implore the competent authorities to fly the gate on mask wearing and let those who are still scared keep their faces shackled. But do not punish us any longer.

Let us continue to enjoy the New Day before it becomes another day.

PASTOR CARLYLE PEART

Nassau,

September 7, 2022.