The opposition People’s Liberation Party (PLP), headed by Dr. Daniel E. Cassell, has advised President George M. Weah to go beyond instructing the Health Ministry to come up with protocols and hold the COVID-19 testing company stationed at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) accountable for engaging in practices that are characteristic of criminal negligence, which has resulted not only into increased incidents and death rates but has overwhelmed the nation’s poor and very limited healthcare system.
According to the PLP, in order to protect the public from further reoccurrence, the act of gross criminal negligence on the part of the management of the COVID-19 testing company should be fully punishable by the law, and that the company be replaced with a reputable and trustworthy company.
In a PLP statement, approved by its Vision Bearer/Political Leader, Dr. Cassell, the party noted, “It is not enough to hold an emergency cabinet meeting and instruct the health ministry to come up with regulations and protocols. The crucial and decisive action that appears to be missing on your part is not holding the COVID-19 testing company stationed at the Robert’s International Airport accountable for engaging in practices that are characteristic of criminal negligence, which has resulted not only to increased incidents and death rates but has overwhelmed our poor and very limited healthcare system or infrastructure.”
The party emphasized that the public health and quality of lives of the citizens is the primary responsibility of the government, and therefore should be treated and prioritized as such. “This is an unfortunate predicament, as the vulnerable population and poor citizens of our nation are being re-victimized by another failure of our government to enforce the necessary public health regulations that could have prevented the spread of this new strain of COVID-19, as they are the most vulnerable ones who are at greatest risk of dying from this deadly disease due to un-affordability and inaccessibility to the needed medical services,” the PLP noted.
The PLP noted that it is unfortunate but yet so real that Liberia made so much progress in containing the incident rate of COVID-19 over the past several months, which in large has been due to lessons on interventions (testing and contact tracing) learned from the past Ebola epidemic in Liberia; however, those healthcare interventions and public health measures have been compromised by greed on the part of COVID-19 testing company, evidenced by reliable and credible sources, to an extent that individuals traveling back from countries such as India, which is considered “hot zone”, are bribing their way out of undergoing testing for fear of a positive test result, and this has consequently resulted to a catastrophic effect on the lives of the public as is being witnessed today.
“Considering the gross disregard of the current government and politicians to enact policies that would address the public health and medical challenges of our country at this time, the PLP will launch a mobile clinic that will be our own minimum way of making additional interventions in the health sector. The PLP Mobile Clinic will be headed by professional nurses, physician assistants (PAs) and other volunteers. Their focus will be helping our disadvantaged people, who cannot afford high medical costs as they are the vulnerable population. Additionally, in the coming days, the PLP will be donating several medical supplies to hospitals and clinics to help address the current public health crisis in our nation,” the PLP statement continued.
The party maintained that the lives of the citizens of Liberia, those of the visitors and foreign dignitaries are not to be bargained with for political, financial gains and/or special interest groups. “I strongly condemn the behaviors on the part of both the current administration and legislature as they are inhumane, cruel, ego-centric, greed-driven and at worst, what has gotten our country in the current deplorable state,” the PLP Standard Bearer, Dr. Daniel E. Cassell, noted in the press statement.