The Covid situation is too serious to joke about or offer light suggestions. I think a real sense of panic is emerging in the community as the numbers increase. When there is a slight disturbance at times during performances to distract the audience, we hear the words “send in the clowns”. I don’t want to “yell” but there is a fire and if it isn’t stopped, it is going to burn the house down, so send in somebody — even the Queen.

Bermuda is a “First World economy” with state-of-the-art systems running with the giants and rating No 8 in the world for per capita Covid cases. We have lost the battle; let’s admit it and get help. We don’t have the luxury over the next two months to work out a plan; by then people could be dying on the doorsteps of the hospital.

Yes, at this point, I am an alarmist. We need to consider bringing in medical tents to set up at Botanical Gardens, military-style. Along with that, we need to import a Covid medical team of doctors and nurses for triage to augment our medical services. Our doctors and nurses have done as much as they can, and there is a limit. We should not push them beyond that limit, which is fast approaching.

I do not know the status on what amount of vaccine is available at present and for the very moment it is not the issue. The issue is containing this highly contagious Delta variant, which apparently is making people feel really sick. We can’t lock down for ever, yet lockdown is the only measure to date that is proved that have worked in containing the spread.

If the community cannot police itself, and instead wants to resist the theory on herd immunity, then the requisite measure is to prepare the medical capacity to deal with the consequences of that approach. The question for us is not to ask what the people are going to do with Covid. Rather, ask what Covid will do to the people if we don't have the medical support to sustain it.

This matter requires humility and decisive action. Inaction will lead to suffering and more deaths. This epidemic is not a political matter; it must be faced with the best scientific approaches available.