Op-Ed: The Life You Save Could Be Your Own

Moleto A. Smith Jr., executive director of the St. Thomas East End Medical Center Corporation (Source file photo)

When I look around and see that so many people needlessly continue to contract COVID-19 and have exposed their vulnerable family members and friends to COVID-19, all I can do is shake my head.

This is a classic example of people repeating history.

It’s like the Exodus when Moses was charged with leading people out of Egypt. The people were fully compliant with him when it came to fleeing, but when they got to the other side of imminent danger, certain forces decided that they don’t need to be led; that they don’t need to follow rules or listen to the law or fall under any jurisdiction. They would just make up their own and do whatever they want to do, whenever it pleased them. The result was that they scrapped around aimlessly in circles in the wilderness for 40 years.

These forces are like the conspiracy theorists and nonsense pushers of today, whose primary purpose appears only to promote themselves under the guise that they are helping people stay safe.

The fact is that these forces have enabled too many people to stay unprotected and consequently have led to the current situation where community spread of COVID-19 is raging through the populations of many Caribbean islands, and other places around the world. They have enabled unnecessary misery.

They tell people that COVID-19 is a hoax; they tell people don’t take the vaccine; they tell people don’t wear masks or follow social distance guidelines. Yet they have nothing to offer but talk.

Please get protected. The life that you save, literally, could be your own!

Moleto A. Smith Jr.

Editor’s note: Moleto A. Smith Jr. is executive director of the St. Thomas East End Medical Center Corporation.