Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is standing firmly on her criticism of this country’s leading healthcare professionals and their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, maintaining her argument that the spike in cases in deaths is partly to be blamed on the “failed” team.

Persad-Bissessar received heavy criticism for her comments over the weekend, with Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley defending the team lead by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roshan Parasram saying: “These public officers are the cream of our professionals who have come to our defence in this moment of great need.”

But speaking at her party’s Monday night Virtual Report, the UNC leader stood her ground, saying she refused to be “cancelled” for saying her piece. 

“Can you imagine if over the last 6 weeks 400 people had died because of crime? Everyone would have been on Gary Griffith’s throat, about the deaths from crime and other criminal activity calling for his head. He is a public servant just like the Ministry of Health’s propaganda team,” Persad-Bissessar told her supporters.

“Yet when the Ministry of Health’s team is called out for 400 people dying in the last 6 weeks, the PNM propaganda machine uses fake outrage to cover up their failure,” she continued.

Acknowledge that all Covid-19 deaths could not have been avoided, she said: “However, I am quite sure that many could have been avoided if there was proper accountability instead of propaganda by health officials during this crisis.”

The Opposition Leader also continued her condemnation of government’s overall response to the pandemic, including its vaccination plan and what she referred to as severe economic fallout and an unfair burden on citizens.