Dear Editor,

Having watched recent happenings in the nation’s Parliament, I am at a loss as to why the People’s National Party (PNP) under Mark Golding and Morais Guy is so hell bent on getting Ivermectin into Jamaica when absolutely none of the pre-eminent agencies that deal with health across the world has recommended it to fight COVID-19. It beggars belief.

The basis put forward by the Opposition is not only half-baked, but deeply dangerous now and in the future when faced with another pandemic. Those reasons boil down to how cheap the drug is and that we should take a risk. That’s utterly bewildering.

Let’s understand this: The PNP, under Golding, seems willing to play Russian roulette with the lives of Jamaican’s to prove a point. They are willing to subject Jamaican’s as guinea pigs to test out a treatment for COVID-19 when no other country is basically willing to do so. If it was not so serious I would laugh. But under these circumstances one cannot be anything but horrified. It’s appalling! Its unbelievable!

Let’s understand something, in any pandemic no Government outside of a clinical trial should subject any part of its population to unproven drugs. None! The Government has a responsibility of care to act in such a way as to preserve life. You don’t preserve life by allowing your population to try out things to see if they work. You have to be guided by the science that says this is the evidence available to fix this problem. At no time, also, should the cheapness of a drug be in consideration of whether it should be allowed to be used or not. What should be and must be of importance is how effective that drug is. It’s like the PNP is saying if bleach is cheaper than Gramoxone then we should drink it. Utterly senseless.

And, to add insult to severe idiocy, the very manufacturer of the drug stated quite clearly that the drug should not be used to treat COVID-19 because it has not been scientifically proven. You don’t get any clearer than that. The PNP, on the other hand, said basically, “Oh, well, ignore what they say and pump Jamaicans full of it.” It’s utterly horrible! Just horrific! Does the PNP have so little regard for the safety of Jamaicans?

It draws into focus, however, one very important thing: Leadership matters. Picking the right people at election time matters. Based upon the utterances of this particularly clueless bunch of PNP leaders, one must be eternally thankful the Jamaican people disposed of them comprehensively at the last general election. Because if the PNP had been in power now, I shudder to think what they would have done. We might very well have seen hydroxycloroquine and bleach been approved to treat COVID-19. It’s utterly appallingly horrific!

Fabian Lewis

tyronelewis272@gmail.com