After refusing to take questions from the media since his last press conference was held on April 19, Prime Minister and part-time Minister of Health Dr. Hubert Minnis has finally decided to grace the Bahamian media with his presence once again.
Minnis, who has limited his COVID-19 updates to sometimes painful national addresses and “exclusive” interviews with the state-owned broadcaster, will hold a news conference on Thursday at 5PM, allowing a representative from each media house to ask two questions.
One can only hope he fired the writer of his two previous speeches.
Minnis appointed himself Minister of Health last month after Dr. Duane Sands resigned over a controversy surrounding
six Americans with Bahamas residency, who were permitted to disembark on New Providence despite the closure of Bahamian borders.
Minnis described it as a breach in protocol and informed Bahamians they would hear from Sands the following day. Rumor has it that Sands found out the same time as the rest of the country that he would be making a statement. The following evening, he offered his resignation though no one expected Minnis to accept it.
Maybe Minnis should’ve held onto the competent and accessible Minister of Health if he knew he wouldn’t be up to the task himself.
The country went from a health minister who took the media’s calls, actually showed up for Ministry of Health press conferences and could effectively articulate the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to a part-time minister who has failed to attend just one health press conference and struggles to pronounce words like “particular”, “respiratory” and “interval” despite constantly reminding the public that he is a medical doctor.
Dr. Minnis has held six press conferences since the first person in The Bahamas tested positive for coronavirus in March.
Maybe it’s time for the part-time Minister of Health to step aside and allow the real minister, who was one of the few bright spots in his inexperienced and bumbling cabinet, to stand up.