There’s no getting around trust

Trust in governance is built not only by doing what you say you will do, but by being authentic in what you say, and by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that what you say is in line with the facts.

Health Minister Renward Wells’ communication to Parliament this week, preceded by his statements on the COVID-19 situation a day earlier, are a textbook example of how to erode public trust, and how to weaken the hand of government’s pandemic response through a perpetual erosion of public confidence.

Upon advising parliamentarians that fewer than half of the country’s healthcare workers (45.5 percent) have been vaccinated for COVID-19, Wells said, “I believed that number was a lot lower. I’m happy to see where it is.”

That the health minister is so apparently disconnected from the vaccination imperative for healthcare workers that his idea of the number of those vaccinated was “a lot lower” than reality, makes clear why confidence on the part of many healthcare workers is low.

Wells implored healthcare workers to be vaccinated, referencing as indisputable “the influential role of health care workers as leaders in this fight”.

But these are the same healthcare workers who are continuing to call for productive dialog, and for meaningful consultation with government on the pandemic response and associated matters.

When recently questioned on why government had not engaged leaders of the country’s healthcare worker groups ahead of the national COVID vaccination launch, Wells derisively told the media that “the most important persons” were consulted.

Healthcare workers are leaders in the COVID fight and their influence is indeed indisputable, which is why government’s handling of their concerns and repeated calls for consultation is reprehensible, given what is at stake in the country’s deadly and unrelenting third wave.

On Tuesday, Wells insisted to reporters that bed space for COVID patients was not a problem, and that his ministry had its “hands around” the third wave.

Yet, on the following day he revealed to Parliament that bed capacity in the previous week reached a high of almost 70 percent; 15 acute care beds are occupied by COVID boarders unable to return to their residences; Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) is now over its capacity to care for patients due to staff shortages; the Doctor’s Hospital West COVID facility is plagued by nursing shortages; and the third wave has created “collateral damage” in the healthcare sector.

PMH erected an additional tent at the previous Samaritan’s Purse site several days ago to manage its growing number of COVID patients.

Those in need of currently suspended elective procedures at PMH are continuing to hang in the balance.

Twelve COVID deaths have been reported for the month of May, and we understand that at least another three yet-to-be reported deaths of COVID patients occurred in New Providence this week.

Total hospitalizations jumped from 39 to 51 in a single day between Tuesday and Wednesday; a third-wave high of 75 cases were reported Wednesday, children age zero to nine make up a share of COVID cases in the third wave which is triple that of the previous waves; and the country’s positivity rate hovers around 20 percent – four times the “safe” level established by the World Health Organization.

If this is what constitutes the ministry having its hands around the situation, then it appears the ministry is in need of more hands, and a more effective head.

Studies thus far suggest a reduced risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 if vaccinated, and an administration focused on fostering confidence in the vaccination program would devote efforts to expounding on benefits such as these.

Instead, Wells utilized a tactic this week that is the antithesis of trust-building, which is resorting to an appeal to morality and religion in one’s decision to be vaccinated.

What this conveyed to those stunned by Wells’ seemingly gratuitous attempt at prompting residents to take the jab, was that government’s assurances about vaccine safety must be untrustworthy, such that the health minister would seek to go as far as invoking God to spur increased vaccine uptake.

Demands and admonitions cannot take you in government where public trust has not put you.

Gains in the COVID situation are suspended in the abyss of a trust deficit, and there is just no getting around trust.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/theres-no-getting-around-trust/