The Tribune

AS she fought a losing battle against COVID-19, nurse Bernadette Rolle recorded a voice note detailing her struggle.

The note circulated after the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre nurse lost her life to the virus. Tributes came quickly. Former Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands said he was “privileged to know her”, while his successor said she “was dedicated to her family, to her patients, and to the institutions of nursing and SRC”. The Public Hospitals Authority said she had worked for more than 14 years with the authority, while administrator Mary Lightbourne-Walker warned that the sacrifices made by frontline workers to provide care cannot be overstated.

It was the voice note though that really brought home the horror of this virus. In the note, Ms Rolle can be heard fighting for every breath. When she speaks, her words come in waves between gasps. She talks of being on the ventilator, of the staff trying to find ways to treat her because she was allergic to some of the medication, of her diabetes.

Most heartbreaking of all, she can be heard talking about her children and trying to get through this.

There are those who would claim that this virus is a hoax, that there is no need to react as strongly as governments around the world have done – but hearing nurse Rolle battling for her life, battling for her every breath leaves you in no doubt.

We hope with her diabetes that every effort was made to keep her from the frontline of this fight – as we hope the same is being done with her fellow medical staff who have pre-existing medical conditions that could leave them more at risk from COVID-19.

We also hope the story of Ms Rolle reminds everyone of the need to take precautions – not just for your own health, but for that of the medical professionals into whose hands you would be placed if you came down with the virus. We need to protect them so that they can protect us.

We would also note one other alarm bell being rung by Dr Sands as he paid tribute to Ms Rolle. He said: “We do not know the extent or number of COVID-19 infections in The Bahamas. Confirmed COVID-19 cases are only a percentage of the total.”

As you go about your business, we would urge you all to treat everyone you meet as if they might have the virus. Not just for your sake. But for nurse Rolle. For all the nurses. They need you. Pray that you won’t need them, and pray for nurse Rolle’s family, and thank her for all that she did for Bahamians.

Grand Bahama has had enough

Grand Bahama business owners are as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more.

Nearly 200 owners say they are ready to protest if the Prime Minister extends the lockdown in Freeport.

For five weeks, small businesses have been shuttered, and some of the owners on a Zoom call on Saturday talked about making a collective stand, some even saying they will reopen their businesses in defiance of the lockdown orders.

We would note that at the heart of their complaint is that they have received no response to letters sent individually asking for the lockdown to be lifted. The government owes citizens a response at the best of times – but there is no excuse for not keeping in close contact with the people when you’re telling them to shut down their businesses.

The reality of surging case numbers and increasing deaths is not to be ignored – but too many people are left feeling out of the loop, as if they don’t matter when what they need to hear from government is a plan. If not a reopening now, then when? When it comes, how will it work? People need to make their own plans, so why not talk to them about it?

With some evidence that lockdowns do not work on their own, what is our solution other than open up then lockdown again when cases surge? How do we manage our society once the lockdown is over?

We all have the same goal of defeating the virus, but doing so while keeping our economy alive will give us the best chance of recovery when all this is over – even if that seems a distant dream for now.

Government, hear your citizens’ cry, before it is too late.