In his Thursday, June 24, 2021 column Front Porch, Simon says:
"There is a disturbing moral selfishness by those who refuse to be vaccinated, who contract the virus overseas, mostly in south Florida, then return to The Bahamas, potentially spreading more dangerous variants.
"This is worse than magical thinking. It is stupidity on steroids. There is no mask mandate in Florida, where the virus continues to spread, though not as widely as before. Though not at the astronomical heights of the last major wave in the US, the pandemic rages next door and globally.
"Let us call this travel by the unvaccinated what it is: selfish, mindless, morally irresponsible, reckless and dangerous! And it is unpatriotic! How can someone claim to love The Bahamas, yet contribute to putting our economy, society and health care system at risk because of unbridled selfishness?"
In just three paragraphs he rips Florida and "anti-vaxers".
Let's look at Florida numbers:
| Number | % in Population | ||||
| People Vaccinated with at least One Dose | 11,386,007 | 55.28% | |||
| People Fully Vaccinated | 9,597,221 | 46.59% | |||
| https://data.democratandchronicle.com/covid-19-vaccine-tracker/florida/12/ | |||||
| Est Population | 21,944,547 | ||||
| https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/florida-population | |||||
Meanwhile The Bahamas has 7 or 8 percent of the population vaccinated?
We traveled to Florida a few weeks ago now and found most people were acting very responsibly, quite contrary to what the press and Simon says.
This is not to say everyone in Florida or The Bahama is acting responsibly.
There are some people that might not be able to take the vaccine and there is a legitimate fear among others, while there is a vocal minority of "anti-vaxers".
Surely a reasoned approach to educating "anti-vaxers" instead of name calling and demonising is a more reasonable approach.
Visit Rick Lowe’s Nassau Institute archive here…
and at WeblogBahamas.com here….
