Sands - we need tough action

Dr Duane Sands

As of Thursday, August 19, 2021

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Health Minister Dr Duane Sands believes the country should return to harsher COVID-19 measures as both public and private healthcare systems continue to be gripped by crisis.

He also told The Tribune he doesn’t believe the nation has seen the worst of the pandemic, adding that while stricter measures are not the only answer to reduce infections, they do work.

He spoke the day after Dr Raquel Davis-Hall described the strain the virus has placed on Princess Margaret Hospital in stark terms, insisting the institution has “passed the breaking point”.

She said sections of the facility are “bursting at the seams” and that the hospital is already at the point of collapse.

PMH is currently in the worst state it has been in since the start of the pandemic last year, Dr Davis-Hall said.

Yesterday, the Nassau Guardian reported that Doctors Hospital is “out of space” and “out of staff” and choosing which patient is placed on a ventilator.

“It is not only a crisis but a tragedy and so we’re seeing people in their 20s and 30s dying of COVID,” Dr Sands said while describing what he’s been seeing in hospitals in recent days.

“We’re seeing people in their 50s and 60s and 70s dying of COVID. In the last 24 hours we’ve had at least five people die and I don’t believe that we’ve seen the worst of the end.

“I have been calling for stricter measures now for more than a month,” Dr Sands said. “It’s not the only answer but people have to understand that public health measures work, social distancing works, wearing masks works, washing your hands works and while vaccination is a critical and important part of the programme, we don’t have a majority or plurality of our population vaccinated and even if you use those doses of Pfizer the minimum time to get people protected with Pfizer will be six weeks and if you go with AstraZeneca you are talking 10 to 12 weeks.”

As the country tries to reach herd immunity, Dr Sands said now is the time for there to be harsher measures put in place.

“We are going to have to rely on the tried and true public health measures that work. You cannot have a situation where all of your health capacity is filled up and you don’t even have the option of admitting people with regular medical problems in some instances.

“So, you have to try to regain some ground because the next step is the unpalatable conversation that every country has had to face at some time or another is triage to determine who benefits from scarce resources.”

Dr Sands said Bahamians have not taken COVID-19 seriously but need to acknowledge the threat is real.

“We cannot afford the type of view or the type of consideration that we have put on many of the other challenges that have faced us,” he said.

“Bahamians don’t claim their diabetes. They don’t claim their high blood pressure. They don’t claim their obesity or overweight, but they suffer from it and now we have collectively not claimed the severity and the seriousness of COVID and so these public health measures we think they ain’t really for us and this vaccination thing is the ‘mark of the beast'.”

The government has thus far resisted implementing strict restrictions on people’s ability to assemble and move throughout New Providence during the third wave of COVID-19, emphasising the arrival of vaccines points to a way out of the pandemic.

But even as residents show greater willingness to get the jabs, hospital officials are worried their institutions cannot cope with the deluge of patients.

“People are dying,” Dr Davis-Hall said Tuesday. “Young people are dying. We have people pull up at the Critical Care Block not breathing and we do all that we can to assist them and we are limited in our reach and in our scope. There are things that we don’t have in this institution to help our fellow man. We want to have negative pressure rooms in the emergency rooms (but) we don’t have that and so our efforts for these patients are limited.”

Dr Davis-Hall said the Accident & Emergency Department needs more nurses. She said tents donated recently by Samaritan’s Purse were a welcome gift, but they are already filled to capacity under the surge of COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile PMH, Grand Bahama Health Services (GBHS), and Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre (SRC) continued to experience a staff “sick out” for a seventh day.

Therefore the Public Hospitals Authority recommended, where possible, the public access services at community clinics for non-urgent care, as affected institutions may experience delays in services.

Alex_Charles 2 years, 8 months ago

The Healthcare system has collapsed.

tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago

Sands continues to be a major disappointment. He, like Minnis, knows full well that our entire dysfunctional and grossly under-resourced public health system was on life support long before COVID-19 came along.

mandela 2 years, 8 months ago

The country is in need of a real Minister or Ministress of health at this time, first to inspire our health workers so they can return to the frontline, second to manage our COVID crises. This is war and without our frontline, we will defiantly be quickly defeated as it now shows. We would fall faster than Afghanistan fell. The question now is can the FNM find someone to take up this task, because the current health minister seems to only make matters worse.

WETHEPEOPLE 2 years, 8 months ago

I wish sands would just shut up!

benniesun 2 years, 8 months ago

Dying of covid versus dying with a positive covid test are two different positions. An honest public assessment would bring much needed clarity.

A Perfect Agent:

A Perfect Agent is a person who is an agent, but not aware of being an agent. That Perfect Agent is totally immersed and indoctrinated by the enemy's agenda; he believes in the indoctrinated tenets and executes them with righteous fervor, and with righteous indignation enthusiastically targets those he perceives as non-believers.

Possibly a very good official for the coming Inquisition.

tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago

Perhaps Sands needs to visit the Ministry of Health website, click on 'health statistics', then click on 'mortality' and have a good hard look at the 2014 numbers for leading causes of death per 100,000 people in The Bahamas. The numbers were compiled by the Health Information and Research Unit of The Bahamas Department of Statistics and made available to the public in August 2017.

The leading causes of death in 2014 were as follows:

Heart disease 135 deaths per 100,000 people; Cancer 102 deaths per 100,000 people; External Causes (Accidents, Violence and Poisonings) 67 deaths per 100,000 people; Stroke 38 deaths per 100,000 people; Diabetes 30 deaths per 100,000 people.

The statistical info for leading causes of death for years after 2014 is not yet available on the Ministry of Health's website for whatever reason. But it's unlikely the rates that would be shown for the years since 2014 have gotten any better.

Over the past 18 months we've had 333 COVID-19 deaths in The Bahamas according to public health officials. Some believe that number has been skewed to the high side for political reasons, but that's a story for another day.

The 333 COVID-19 deaths so far equate to about 55 deaths per 100,000 people calculated as follows:

333 ➗ (18 ➗ 12) ✖️ (100,000 ➗ 400,000) = 55.5, where the population of The Bahamas is assumed to be about 400,000 souls.

All the scaremongering by our elected officials and their appointees is really baseless when you consider that the average person living in The Bahamas has a greater chance of dying from so many other things.

Incidentally, you have about a 133 in 100,000 chance of being raped in The Bahamas, nearly three times more than the likelihood of you dying from COVID-19.

For those of you interested in learning much more about COVID-19 and the vaccines, the latest research studies published by the Israeli government are generally regarded as the gold standard. So far, these studies support the greatest amount of ongoing T Cell and B Cell immunity being achieved through the development of natural immunity, i.e., those who have been infected and recovered from COVID-19.

And it now seems the novel experimental vaccines only provide waning protection for a period up to 8 months, with unknown potential long-term side-effects will only become known with the passage of significant time.

Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago

So, 55 COVID deaths per year is okay with you ? At what number do you think it's not okay?

I'm guessing the homicide statistics are going to be pretty similar (per 100,000) so no problem there also, right?

tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz..........

Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 8 months ago

Exactamundo !

Twocent 2 years, 8 months ago

Slavery implies the loss of human rights and freedoms to a bigger “power”. The loss of these to the power of disease is normal. Anyone who has been ill, even with a cold, knows this. The loss of these to a government which is using disease as its leverage to take away the choice as to whether these are lost to disease or tyranny is the “new normal” ?

I applauded the work done in the early stages of this “pandemic” from a public health perspective. I admired Dr Sands for his common sense backed by his medical education. We know the public health measures imposed on our nation worked and gave us COVID FREE STATUS. What went wrong? There are a LOT of unanswered and (dare I even suggest, forbidden questions).

TalRussell 2 years, 8 months ago

Lawrence and Lydia Rodriquez were a couple for 21 years who shared — four children, — 18-year-old twins Nathan and Ethan; son Adam, 16; and daughter Synphonia, 11. Their parents — didn't trust the COVID-19 vaccine. — The Texas couple. Lydia and Lawrence — did not get vaccinated because they distrusted vaccines due to misinformation. — As Lydia remained in the ICU, Lawrence —became — deaded — to complications of the disease. — On August. 2, — Just 14 days later on, August. 16, — Lydia, joined, Lawrence, in becoming — COVID deaded. — Lydia's last dying wish to her sister. — Please promise me that our kids — will get vaccinated. — Yes

tribanon 2 years, 8 months ago

No, but only because you, like so many in the politically bent main stream media, choose not to tell us any sobbing stories about persons who have died as a result of getting jabbed with these novel warp speed developed experimental vaccines. Constantly cherry picking outlier stories of your fancy to suit your own political narrative and agenda only serves to destroy your credibility.

TalRussell 2 years, 8 months ago

@ the minority 10% determined remain unvaccinated. Uncover the mystery — of how to survive by not living, working, socializing, nor popoulaces mixing, nor cohabiting others — should be afforded their right to — so do — Notwithstanding — Breathing same air others — and, for as long they are not hooked up to ventilators and oxygen devices — nor expecting their medical costs to be funded by the 90% is still waiting to join the vaccinated** — Yes?

Then why us he a stuck record these days? Whe is he opposed to the use of medication all of a sudden?

ohdrap4 2 years, 8 months ago

He said on the radio he got 2,astrazeneca and one pfizer dose.

He was telling people to get one AZ AND ONW PFIZER.

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