The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

All this tireless and seemingly senseless argument about vaccinating or testing hotel employees before they can be employed as a safety measure against this terrible epidemic that is terrorising the world and turning people’s lives upside down, is a mystery to me.

The logic seems simple.

A pandemic has put its ugly arms around the world, threatening all of its human inhabitants. So far the only known way to escape it is to put on the mask, lock yourselves in your homes with no outside contact and hibernate until the all clear is given. As this is not feasible, alternatives have been suggested.

For hotel workers, whose jobs can continue only if the hotel can remain open by assuring their guests that as far as is humanly possible they will be safe in their establishment, the workers will have to make a simple decision. They can get a COVID vaccination free of charge, or, if they object, they will have to take a daily test to make certain that they are not infected before they can enter the hotel to do their job. However, for this they will have to pay. The choice is theirs.

But, oh no, they not only want their cake, but they want to eat it too. Well, my friends, it just ain’t like that!

If your job is important to you, you will take the vaccination, which is free, and get on with the job, or you will insist on the daily test for which you will have to pay. If you can’t afford to pay, then get the vaccination — which I can assure you does not hurt. But, don’t be stupid – get on with the job.

And don’t come crying to the public about you lost your job, when the decision is in your own hands. I can assure you you won’t get much sympathy out here because we are all in the same boat and having to make the same unpleasant decisions. You know we ain’t fool. Go and take your vaccination so that you too can move around more freely and will not present a medical threat to the rest of us.

Tourism is the Bahamas’ life blood and so our hoteliers have to guarantee that as far as possible their establishments are safe places to book, eat meals and generally feel secure. To guarantee that their guests are welcome to an establishment that is offering them a safe place in which to relax and forget their worries and the fear that they might be contaminated by COVID, the hotel staff must also be medically safe.

The hotel employees, if they want their jobs will have to fully cooperate or the hotel might be forced to close and then there will be no job to talk about. So either get vaccinated for free, or pay for a daily test and stop crying about not being able to afford it. Please show some common sense.

A LOYAL BAHAMIAN

Nassau,

October 6, 2021.