Dear Editor,

Regardless of the COVID-19-related quagmire that led to his resignation, the former Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands deserves our appreciation for his historic, frank and passionate plea to make the nation’s wellness a serious and singularly important goal.

It could not have been easy for a Minister to look at a population that has the ability to re-elect or defeat him and say nearly 80% of you are obese. It took courage to say the reason we need a lockdown is because the Bahamian lifestyle is basically unhealthy and we have underlying conditions that could cause a pandemic to easily overwhelm our health care system and lead to an abnormally high mortality rate. It took fortitude to urge parents to do better, schools to change their menus, his own staff to commit to exercise and wellness.

On behalf of the executives, medical staff, and teams at our clinics in Nassau, Spanish Wells and Palmetto Point, Eleuthera and our Board of Directors, thank you for your courage, Dr. Sands, in the face of a fast-food loving nation to say the time has come to do better. May we all heed your plea.

We also wish the Acting Minister of Health, Prime Minister Dr. The Most Hon. Hubert Minnis, success. His fitness should serve as an example to the nation.