Dear editor,

The Chairman of National Coronavirus Task Force, The Honourable Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, has provided requested guidance to GECOM, as it pertains to the recount, under the very dark and heavy clouds of COVID-19. This guidance from National Coronavirus Task Force (NCTF) was requested by the Chairwoman of GECOM, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh.

The Madam Chairwoman sought guidance from NCTF regarding;

(a) Time at which the daily recount exercise should end;
(b) Number of persons who should be safely accommodated at the recount venue at the same time; and
(c) Required protocols for quarantining persons coming from abroad, and who were invited to be part of the recount process.
The NCTF, excellently headed by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, rightfully provided the following guidance to GECOM.
1. That GECOM adjusts its desired 10-hour work schedule within the daily 06:00hrs to 17:00hrs timeframe, and does not extend it into the curfew period (18:00hrs to 06:00hrs).
2. That all persons who are permitted special entry into Guyana during this period when our air space is closed to in-bound passengers, must submit themselves to being quarantined at a government institution for a period of 14 days.
3. That GECOM allows four technical experts of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) to conduct a site visit to assess whether distancing arrangements conform to the pandemic guidelines and the published order.

These guidelines appear reasonable and informed by current medical evidence. Unsurprisingly, the PPP and their surrogates, including their Chief Facebook propagandist, Lenox Shuman, do not support that. It is for this reason, I wish to add my voice in this debate and in the process articulate my expert opinion as to why, in my view, this guidance provided by NCTF, is not only rational but is informed by medical evidence.
GUIDANCE 1: The fact is, COVID-19 needs a human host to live, an uninflected human host for transmission and multiple human hosts to spread. What the aforementioned underscores is that without humans, the virus cannot spread. How can this be achieved? By making the difficult decision of a lockdown. When everyone is in their homes, then COVID-19 would either be in patients who are in hospitals or their homes with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19. In such an environment, the virus is contained and will not have a mass spread since everyone is either at home or in the hospital. This is the medical science underpinning the lockdown that serves to reduce the spread of COVID-19 that would otherwise occur if the country was opened. Most countries do have a complete lockdown. This government, rightfully recognising that COVID-19 not only has health implications but also economic, social and psychological implications, decided on a partial shutdown. That is, in itself, a difficult compromise. Also, COVID-19 is no respecter of man or status. Election observers can be infected with COVID-19, as a result, they have to comply with such restrictions which are being practiced around the world but with notable exception, Freedom House.

GUIDANCE 2: This practise is not unique to Guyana. As a matter of fact, it is now standard worldwide protocol for this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Caveat! While I may not be a virologist, I am a highly trained UK medical specialist with unlimited access to the most up-to-date medical guidance on COVID-19 and it’s underpinning evidence. None of PPP doctors or their surrogates doctors wannabe have had that training and clearly are not in my privileged position. There is absolutely no debate about that! The fact is that there are many unknowns about COVID-19. To date we have no idea if all asymptomatic patients with a negative throat swab are free of the disease. This may be as a result of the virus having not multiplied to numbers that are detectable by a throat swab. Therefore, an asymptomatic person who enters Guyana and has a negative throat swab cannot, with 100 per cent certainty, be considered to be free of the virus. Therefore simply doing throat swabs for the observers on arrival then have them observe the recount on account of a negative result is highly irresponsible and goes against WHO recommendations. Then there is antibody testing. Antibodies are produced during an infection and serves to provide immunity in most infections but not COVID-19. This antibody test is simply a blood test that if returns positive, suggests that the person has had exposure to COVID-19, in the recent past. As alluded to earlier, it does not mean that the person is immune to COVID-19. Also, as alluded to earlier but is worth repeating for emphasis, this is unusual for infections. Generally, having the antibodies confers immunity. What we do know? We know that the incubation period for COVID-19 is up to 14 days. This is the only certainty in the uncertain history of COVID-19. It is for reason that WHO recommended 14 days quarantine for anyone entering a host country from a country that has cases of COVID-19.This is the reason why it is being universally practised, with no exception. As result, it displeases me when I have to read the foolish and ill-informed writings of attention-seeking PPP propagandist on Facebook. This character is none other than Lenox Shuman, who foolishly wrote that the observers can simply have a “test” and off they go in the ACCC to undertake a recount. For me this is both highly irresponsible and ridiculous coming from someone who has aspirations to be President.

Sadly, this is not the first time he has spread propaganda on COVID-19. As a result I do have some questions for the attention-seeking and opportunistic propagandist. What test Lenox? Is that test a blood sample or tissue sample? Where was this test validated? What is the sensitivity of this test, Dr. Shuman? What is false negative rate? Dr. Shuman, why don’t you share your test with the rest of the world so that this ridiculous practise of quarantine can come to an immediate end? Lenox please consider these questions as an assignment coming from someone who knows what he is about. Please undertake it as a group assignment with those outdated, 1920’s textbook-reading medical doctors in PPP and their surrogate parties.

GUIDANCE 3: The cliche goes that prevention is better than cure. Unfortunately, in this case there is no cure. The fact is that medicine in the third world is not as advanced as in first world countries, with Guyana being no exception. Around the world there is a shortage of ventilators. The unfortunate reality is that if a patient has respiratory failure, they need a ventilator, NOW! Failing that and they will be dead in hours. Guyana has limited ventilators. Around the world there is a shortage of ventilators because of high demand. Therefore, it would be highly irresponsible to place the observers and GECOM staff lives at risk during the recount recognising this shortage. It is for this reason that prevention, as much as possible is critical. It is for this reason that social distancing is important. The theory underpinning this practise is that the virus cannot travel beyond six feet if an infected person coughs or sneezes. Secondly, avoiding crowds. The theory underpinning this is that with crowds, the practice of social distance is not possible. Let those characters in PPP tell us one crowd that they have been a part of and was able to maintain six feet gap with everyone around them. It cannot happen. Crowds, by their nature, are space suffocating. Also by simple statistics, the more persons present increase your chances of coming into contact with someone with COVID-19, hence the reason to avoid crowds. Hence the need to assess ACCC by PHEOC to ensure that there is space to comply with WHO recommendations.

Mr. Editor, I think our Prime Minister summed it up well when he wrote of opportunistic politicians playing politics with COVID-19. For me COVID-19 presented an ideal opportunity for the country to unite to fight this invisible enemy. Unfortunately that’s not the case, as the PPP run around the country handing out face masks rather than having a united front with the government. And those surrogates are no different as they literally fall over each other to disseminate PPP propaganda and play politics with peoples’ lives. The fact is that most of the world is on lockdown. All sporting events are cancelled because everyone recognises that human life transcends sports. There is talk of postponing the American elections or possibly have postal voting. Again, everyone recognises that human life transcends elections. The PPP has no respect for human life as is evident by the hundreds murdered while they were in power. In my opinion, the coalition is not afraid of a recount. In my opinion the coalition will confirm their win, by a larger margin, by having this recount. What APNU+AFC is afraid of is losing lives for this recount. To me that is being responsible. To me that is being humane. We can always have another election but if someone dies from this recount then that’s a life lost with no second chances.

Regards
Dr. Mark Devonish