Mark Wignall | Could COVID-19 derail Andrew Holness and the JLP?

At the very minute that I am writing this newspaper column, I am certain that the prime minister of this country must be thinking that after the huge win in September 2020, this time was not any way near what he figured it would be.

COVID-19 has messed up everyone’s head but, in reality, if I should determine that the prime minister of this country is just as confused like the rest of us, what should I do?

Let us be honest here, though. I live where I live and the PM lives where he lives. I say that to explain to you that I cannot vouch for the inner and deeper parts of Mr Holness’ brain activity. But we are in a time where the best hopes of the leaders must be placed forward if we are to escape the clutches of COVID-19 and its spawns.

I have hardly heard anyone speaking about the politics of these third wave COVID-19 politics. What I keep on hearing is derision and the extent to which it is taken to its extreme. Derision of Holness saying something, placing his words into the stringencies of the COVID-19 protocols.

At some stage the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will have to deal with a focus on what could be seen as failures on the whole COVID-19 fightback.

At some stage the JLP will have to decide how much it gives its focus to government and how much it floods the raw party apparatus and pleads with it to find immediate media-friendly solutions and finds the calming calamine lotion to relieve the stings of reality.

But, let me now address those who are gathered at that familiar room. You have moved beyond studying Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The biggest question facing the JLP at this time is this one. To what extent has our handling of the COVID-19 pandemic set us back in terms of tough political numbers?

All of us in this country know what we are going through. There are many people in this country who have not had any form of steady employment since the early months of 2020. There are many of those who have grown confused as the Government has moved through many iterations of lockdown and open ups.

At this time many of us are aware that our hospitals are running over capacity and our health professionals manning our public hospitals have worked to breaking point and beyond. We expect that the Government will have the magic wand to wave and solve that. And if there is no solution, in time someone or some people will pay.

Big man ‘fraid a needle

I had a brother-in-law in the 1970s who had a bout of grand mal epileptic seizure when he was 17 and never had another one until he was 33. And it was in the latter time I knew him.

I can distinctly remember me taking him, all 220 pounds of him and six feet two inches to the doctor. It was something connected to his epilepsy but not an actual attract. It required him to take and injection. Honestly, I nearly died laughing.

I was 26 years old, and as a skinny runt I could never understand a big hunk of a man bawling like him. “Doctor, it a go hurt mi. A beg yu. Do!”

I could not help it. “Yu is a big man! Act like it!”

In September of last year I was shot in a drive-by shooting. At the University Hospital, as I was being given what I assumed to be an anti-tetanus shot after I was being prepped to leave the hospital, the doctor and I had a brief conversation. It centred around needles and injections.

I have seen women ditched their handbags when we tell them that they will have to be injected. Another doctor I saw there who knew me gave me his personal view on hard drugs in Jamaica and needles.

“Think of it. Our people have dabbled in all sorts of mind-altering substances. Drugs. But when you really check out the really dangerous ones like, say, heroin that requires pumping it by way of a needle into a main vein, that is almost absent in Jamaica. People here are afraid of needles.”

Don’t be scared, be aware and strong

It was last Friday that this country got the news that the Delta variant of COVID-19 has arrived on our shores. Based on info coming out of the United States that 83 per cent of all new COVID-19 infections are of the Delta variant, a big marker and an obvious indicator point to where Jamaica is likely to trend in the next three to six months.

Many of us knew of this inevitability. From the top officials in the health ministry and just about every person connected to the government to the person at street level who had more than a passing acquaintance with important matters in Jamaica; they all knew of the reality.

Many young people aged 25 to 45 years old seem not to be tuned in to getting vaccinated. Most of the times they are kind to me because, as they say, they respect me. But in plain language they say, ‘nuh carry nuh $!!*! bout vaccine to mi!’

I do not know that this young cohort and an older set of 47 to 64 years old will change their ways. One set speaks about the power of their divine master. The younger set speaks about politicians being bloodsuckers and residents of Babylon.

This Andrew Holness-led Government will have to deal with all of these holdouts who have absolutely no use for him and his Government. Too many of the young are uneducated but, here is the big problem that may face you, Mr PM. More than a few of those are educated and highly intelligent.

Mark Wignall is a political and public-affairs analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.