Well, it had to happen, didn’t it?? Old people say, “Who na hear guh feel” and even though President Trump is “old people” and should’ve known better, he didn’t “hear”, so now he’s “feeling”. Just a couple of days after he mocked Biden for his habit of wearing a mask in public, he had to announce that both he and his wife Melania have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Your Eyewitness wishes the President and his wife well, and hopes they pull through with flying colours; but with what we know about the disease, at 74, it ain’t gonna be no catwalk for him. At a minimum, he has to be quarantined for at least 10 to 14 days, and he certainly won’t be making any of the scheduled raucous rallies that are the lifeblood of his re-election campaign during that time. It’s doubtful he’ll also be making the next debate with Biden, which is scheduled for Oct 15. At worst… Well, let’s not even go there right now. For sure he’s now changed the entire narrative in the States.
For us in Guyana, your Eyewitness hopes that this news about President Trump is a wake-up call for all and sundry. We now see that the virus can GET to all and sundry if they don’t take the well-known precautions of wearing masks, keeping social distancing, and washing hands with soap. If there was anyone living in a COVID-free bubble, it had to be Trump. All it took was one exposure to one of his advisors who was infected – and BOOM!
And it’s obvious that this lesson hasn’t been absorbed by a wide swathe of Guyanese, who insist in moving around and gathering in crowds with no masks at the drop of a hat.
Did you see the protests the other day by those squatters at Success? None of them had on a mask. It doesn’t seem that the seemingly inexorable rise in the total number of deaths scares anyone anymore. So, what we have is a walking time bomb.
In times like these, when there’s a clear and present danger to the nation, it’s time for leadership to step to the crease. And we don’t mean the President and the other political leaders – we mean the FUNCTIONAL leaders who’ve been given the responsibility for fighting this scourge. They have to ask the tough questions and also make the even tougher decisions. Do we really have to open up the airports in two weeks? Or decrease the curfew hours?
Ultimately, it’s a judgement call, since, if folks can’t work, it might take longer, but they’ll also die – from starvation.
Guyana needs some tough love.
…to GPHC and other hospitals
As the Americans say, we need the threatened nurses’ strike like a hole in the head. But, like your Eyewitness has been saying, this is a political matter as much as it’s industrial. And when politics enters the picture in Guyana, you know all good sense goes out of the window. But your Eyewitness hopes that the recent directive made by the Director of Medical Services at GPHC to his staff makes the PNC and their GPSU surrogate think twice about their irresponsible warning.
For instance, without nurses, only patients presenting symptoms that demand emergency interventions would be accepted. And for those patients, their relatives or friends would have to remain in the hospital to deliver normal care, like showering and feeding. The burden of supplying medication and all the chores that nurses perform will now have to be done by doctors.
What’s pathetic is that the PNC are willing to flex their muscles against the PPP by using such Guyanese as hostages.
But that’s the PNC, isn’t it?
…and pleadings
The Opposition wrote to the Chief Justice, asking that their elections petitions be dealt with expeditiously. A question your Eyewitness asked earlier is still on the table: Won’t the PPP’s 2015 elections petition be heard before the PNC’s?
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