Guyana is currently plagued by two pestilent emergencies demanding immediate and effective collective action which is imperative for the health of the nation. One is international – the worldwide threat from the COVID-19 pandemic. The other is of local manufacture – the unwholesome canker threatening the body politic which arises from the crudest and most open election rigging that the nation has ever witnessed.
The urgency to deal with the coronavirus has been expressed in public statements. There is a particular reasoned plea from Dr Mikhaila Puran-Xavier, general physician attached to a private hospital in George-town, who did not mince words in imploring the public to take COVID-19 seriously. “For once in our history since independence we need collectively to get together as one” to prevent its spread or “a lot of people are going to die,” she said. She sees the need for the imposition of “a mandatory lock-down . . . because people aren’t listening.” Guyana, with its limited capacity, will struggle to contain it. “Look at Italy”, in particular, Spain or the UK; “first world countries with first world health care systems [that] are buckling to their knees,” she added.
