There is an idiom that says, ‘Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes’, it means that you really cannot understand another person’s experience until you have put yourself in their situation. But having read the letter published in this newspaper from the person in the Covid-19 isolation facility at the Diamond Hospital, it is impossible not to empathise, even without taking a single step.
A picture really is worth a thousand words and in this instance, more than that. The photograph from that facility of the plastic water bottle with a hole in its cork filled with a liquid that the isolated have to use to sanitise their hands speaks volumes. It surely points to certain limitations in the so-called comfort in isolation offered by the government. What the isolated could be hearing though is ‘here, make do’, or ‘we do not care’, or ‘we figure you are going to get it anyway’. None of these thoughts bode well for their mental well-being. And lest we forget, this is important in isolation.
There are not enough words to describe the photograph of the unappetising bits of sausage and what looked like fried ground provision in a plastic box. Nevertheless, it needs to be addressed as it is not and should never be described as a meal. Where are the fresh vegetables that are grown in abundance in Guyana? Where are the fresh fruits? Why are people in isolation, who are suspected to be ill, being offered some indeterminate meat product that came out of a can or frozen plastic wrapper and was undoubtedly imported into this country? This is madness, to say the least.
One hopes Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Karen Gordon-Boyle is as appalled by this as the people in isolation and every other right-thinking Guyanese. The good doctor might have been asked or was selected to provide the COVID-19 daily update, but as a public health practitioner, she should be aware that the only correct way to do so is from a position of knowledge. Mind you, she was quoted as saying, “I am sure that some of you have fears about quarantining and isolation but be assured that the Ministry of Public Health has set up these facilities bearing in mind that you are away from home and so is trying to make you feel as comfortable as possible.”
Where is the comfort, Dr Gordon-Boyle? Would you be comfortable under the conditions described and exhibited? As exhorted earlier in this column, are you prepared to walk a mile in the shoes of these isolated persons?
It must be extrapolated that Dr Gordon-Boyle was reading from a prepared script someone placed in her hands. She clearly has not visited the isolation facility to ascertain for herself that the basic needs of the people isolated are being met.
No doubt, Dr Gordon-Boyle is a very busy woman. One imagines too that her workload has assumed insane proportions with the complication of coronavirus. All the same, it is not too much to ask that as a medical professional, she endeavours to speak from a position of confidence.
There are other burning issues in the missive of the isolated individual that one hopes have already been addressed. One of them is the damnable lack of isolation. The Ministry of Public Health cannot place people in isolation and then expect them to share cramped quarters with others whose Covid-19 status is pending. That is beyond ridiculous. There is need for social distancing still, as well as spacing and ventilation. What is next? Two to a bed? If there is not enough room then the authorities need to create space somewhere else. And the stupidity of having people sleep in masks is indescribable. Who is issuing these instructions?
It is even more outrageous when one considers that minor children are also being housed at this facility.
Furthermore, Covid-19 isolation should not spell imprisonment. Everyone in the isolation facility should be able to take walks or some sort of exercise out in the sunlight and their times for doing so should be staggered. This is good for both their physical and mental health. One would imagine that the whole idea is for as many of the people in isolation as possible to test negative and be able to return to their homes and not to add them to the coronavirus statistics. And while board games are fine, if they are not the kind of games that allow for the recommended social distancing then they are useless.
One understands the isolated person’s initial reticence in publicising the ghastly and inhumane conditions in the facility. Clearly, anyone reading the letter that was eventually shared with the public would be within their rights to refuse to be admitted to such a facility. This means that the chances for the virus spreading could escalate. However, if after weeks of pleading for improvements, which they should not have to ask for, persons are still faced with what we have seen and what was described, then it was the right thing to do.
One only hopes that by now, the adverse publicity has shamed those in authority into also doing the right thing.
