Is this the way to reassure the suffering public?

If he gets asked about swabs, he tries to diminish what the rest of the world is doing, buying millions of swabs, because he doesn't appear to like them; he reckons there's no point, because a swab just tells you the current situation of a person, but the next day it might be different.

Is he telling us, for example, that there is no point in seeing doctors about anything because the next day the patient might be in a better or worse condition?

And if we don't know if we have enough swabs or not, what kind of organisation is that? One person says one thing and another says something else. And now it transpires that we are getting the wrong swabs - when we get them in sufficient numbers!

WHAT KIND OF SAMPLE?

Then, why spend - and how much? - in doing a random survey of a mere

400 people because whatever result you get, the situation the next day might be different, as the expert says. And are we being told that the sample used was not scientific as it should?

Then there's a Police superintendent called Tunbridge who may have given the wrong impression to some people by uttering words to the effect that he sees nothing wrong with people going to the beach, and then along comes minister Cortes and gives an emphatic warning: Don't go to the beach. What on earth is going on, apart from thanking everybody every other day.

Should we thank a policeman for directing traffic or what-have-you? I mean, it is as if anybody and everybody is a hero for doing his job!

We get told about the great planning that has been going on. Okay, it is not that nothing has been done and indeed many have done the right thing wonderfully and should be congratulated. Yet, we heard on Sunday that we are still dependent on other countries for this and that medical requirement. So?

And if you ask how many cross frontier employees are in the GHA and related institutions, there is not a factual answer - just that it is significant. What is significant? Don't they have the figures readily available, because in any organisation of repute you would know how many of your employees are dependent on the frontier etc? Particularly in such a sensitive and important organisation as the GHA, because if at any given time there are frontier problems, how would the GHA know how to fill the gap?

And what about this fixation about death? We were told on Sunday that we should make peace with our loved ones, as if we were all going off the next day! Is this the way to give encouragement and reassurance to a whole population that is going through such difficult times? Do you hear such defeatist attitudes elsewhere?

One is not saying that every Tom, Dick and Harry is not doing what he or she ought to do, in fact many must be doing more than they should, but there are those in the GHA who come across as if they are just covering themselves up about this and that.

BARE FACTS

And whereas in other countries, big and small, statistics are given with all the essential details, here we just get told that so many are confirmed cases. Just the bare facts. But why is the public not told what age groups are affected, for example?

Before signing off for today let me sincerely thank all those who are working hard and doing what they do...and even more. Do you get my message?

07-04-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR