By Sue-Ann Wayow
FORMER Member of Parliament Dr Tim Gopeesingh who contracted Covid-19 last year owes his life to Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram and other members of the health team and he should not be condemning them for their management of the Covid-19 virus.
On Monday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said he was both “disappointed and disgusted” by Dr Gopeesingh’s comments concerning the CMO.
On Sunday, at the Opposition’s press conference, Dr Gopeesingh said the Health Ministry and its officials were deceiving citizens into thinking, the best was being done for the country during the pandemic.
Deyalsingh said now was the time to put politics aside and he advised the population to ignore the negative messages being pushed by the Opposition.
He also was asking the population to condemn the political divide being channelled by the United National Congress (UNC) and the continuous attack on the medical professionals.
He said, “The Opposition of Trinidad and Tobago wants the government to fail in its Covid response so they could use that failure as a political vehicle to get back into office.”
Defending Dr Parasram, the minister said he was a public health expert and Dr Gopeesingh who is also a medical doctor was not.
He said if Dr Parasram was not recognised as a public health expert, he would not have been granted awards for his work including an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies UWI and the Express Individual of the Year in 2020.
Deyalsingh said, “These personal attacks which is now common with the UNC whether it is against high office holders is something that needs to be tempered and obliterated from our personal landscape.”
He said, “Dr Gopeesingh when he had Covid, benefitted. He owes his life to policies developed by Dr Parasram, Dr Michelle Trotman, Dr Maryam (Abdood-) Richards and Dr Avery Hinds but once recovered, the same doctors to whom he owes his life, he now finds that it is politically convenient for him to attack them at every possible turn.”
The health minister also reminded of Dr Gopeesingh’s recommendation when he was an MP to use hydroxychloroquine as a drug to treat Covid, the UNC’s recommendation in the Senate was to use “puncheon and lime,” and during the 2020 general election, “to build a dome over Trinidad and Tobago.”
Deyalsingh encouraged all in positions of influence to properly lead and to cause further division to a population that is already trying to cope with all the adverse effects of the pandemic.
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