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

If you reading this Ray, what Dr Brennen is saying is that you may as well trade in your boats for a pickaxe and some corn seed. These doctors running the show aren't trying to flatten the curve. They are now trying to eliminate corona completely. Sounds like a great idea right ? The problem is they'll never be able to stop it from being reintroduced the moment they reopen the borders, so you can forget tourists and second homeowners being allowed in. No kids going to college in the US. No shopping trips or vacations abroad. Just stay right there and grow some corn and you'll never have to worry about 0.1% chance of dying until the next thing comes along.

This government-created chaos is only getting started. A lot of the larger employers have been carrying their staff till now but with no end in sight and cash flow evaporating the number of people in this country that will not be receiving any financial support is about to explode. NIB was designed to be able to service a small percentage of weak and needy at any one time, not the entire country on its knees.

What fascinates me is this belief that a virus can be "defeated". Is that defeated by a month-long lockdown perchance....or a 20 year lockdown? Helllooooooo !! hiv, hpv, Herpes, the more common Flu's. We have been living with these diseases for decades and centuries (and I note it is a good thing the government did not prohibit us all from having sex after they figured out what HIV was :) Covid19 is already mutating like crazy so at best, the human race will figure out a way to 'manage' how to live with this pathogen. In the meantime, if our BS.government does not figure out how to let us all work around it, the predictions of any financial rebounds are a little delusional. 90% unemployment for another month = caveman economics

The value for Labor force, total in The Bahamas was 225,780 as of 2019

(https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/the-ba…)

If 90% of the labor force is being forced to stay at home during this lockdown = approx 200,000 not making an income. NIB helping with 30,000 of those = approx. 170,000 people NOT making an income right now

At what point is the government of the people going to acknowledge that it simply does not have the capacity to HELP the entire population if the vast majority of the population is not working ?

The Doc must find ways to protect the old and the vulnerable and let the strong and healthy help him to help all of us - by going back to work

How to make sure that everyone in the country is comprehensively infected as quickly as possible. Limit the amount of time available to shop and scare the pants off everyone with random lockdowns. This will force the entire population to line up and breath on each other for a couple of hours outside the food store and then go home and make sure any new infections are transferred to the rest of the family by being locked up inside an enclosed space together.

Then change the rules daily and use some poorly informed cops and store clerks to try and manage the chaos just to add some fear and frustration to the mix. Good luck Bahamas. I hope you are all working on your own immune systems because this isolation game is turning in to a joke
.

Reopening the construction industry would at least give us an economic cushion for now. It is absolutely insane that we have lost tourism due to this global corona crisis and the first thing the government does is shut down the next most important foreign income earning sector of the economy, to what, save some lives. Anyone thought about how many lives are going to be lost when hundreds of thousands of people can't afford to pay for food ? Let the construction workers sign a waiver that they understand the risks. Let them wear their hi-viz shirts so people can keep away from them. Make sure they make arrangements to not be cohabitating with high-risk family (or any family) Make them stay in man camps. The government HAS to find a way to get the construction industry back to work !

The prime minister has put all his eggs into this virus "isolation theory" and so long as he has absolute rule we can probably all kiss our economic behinds good bye. I am not arguing that social distancing and precautions shouldn't be taken to minimize the spread of corona but nobody really has any idea if this lockdown is going to do anything more than postpone the inevitable. Too many people think the virus is simply going to go away if we hide from it for a few weeks. Fat chance. A new wave of Covid19 can go around the world again and again and again. That means folks we are going to lockdown indefinitely. Destroy our economy and way of life and when we finally come out of our holes we are going to be potentially exposed to the virus all over again. Oh. Unless we ban all tourists from ever coming to the Bahamas again. Is time the government started thinking about plan B and plan C rather than betting the whole farm on this lockdown doing anything other than letting them bully us all around

I You all know what I'm doing. I'm eating right and staying as fit and healthy as I can and I am trusting that my very own biological immune system can protect me from this virus. I know. Its very weird. You all put your faith in the government. Yeah, apparently they got some kind of theory that if they can stop you from going about your daily lives, convince you to lock yourself at home and turn on your neighbor for not playing the game.....give them total control over every aspect of your life ....... they are going to stop this virus from hurting you.......Guaranteed

If they can socially isolate the whole country, why can't they just socially isolate the high risk and let the low risk get back to work ? This crisis is not the government's fault. It is not anyone's fault but the facts are getting clearer and clearer that people are going to die no matter what anyone does. Not overloading the healthcare system is ideal but there are too many people in this country that will not be able to afford to buy food if this keeps going at which point our problems are going to multiply by 100. In the meantime, the statistics clearly show that the vast majority of people currently forced to stay at home will either not be infected or show minimum symptoms. I am in foreign investment. I build homes for foreigners. All my men want to work and we would all rather die providing for our families rather than starve to death hiding in our homes. The government needs to figure out a way to protect the weak and fearful and let the brave and the strong keep the economic heartbeat of this country alive