Dear Editor,
According to news reports over the weekend, the Vice-President announced that Guyana will not be headed into a lockdown because, as he says, there is no evidence that it works anywhere. As a letter on May 24 from Nick Harewood astutely noted, he must have missed Barba-dos. Or Ontario, Canada, one might add, where public health and other officials finally forced a recalcitrant provincial administration into lockdown back in March, with a significant effect on rates of infection and death. Moreover, this is a lockdown that accompanies a slow to start but now aggressive vaccination campaign, with over 51% of Ontarians receiving their first dose. Yes, a higher vaccination rate than Guyana, and still, a lockdown.
But perhaps, did the news reports miss the Vice-President announcing that the current (and questionably timed) 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew had been lifted? Why else would the Honourable President post a picture on Sunday of him and his Vice-President fishing alongside the caption “Midnight fishing in the Boera-sirie Conservancy, Region Three last night”? And why Guyanese would be offering other fishing tips and locations and completely missing the fact that we are in a pandemic and under curfew is another matter that makes one scratch one’s head? It could not be that the Right Honourable Presi-dent and Vice-President are breaking the curfew that their own administration has imposed? Or, as someone asked, perhaps an essential service was being performed? Or is it that the rules are not for those who set them?
Sincerely,
Alissa Trotz
