by Saman Indrajith

People are dying in their hundreds daily owing to the blunders of the government which did not listen to the experts, the JVP said on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters in Pelawatte, former Kalutara District JVP MP Dr Nalinda Jayatiss said that the reasons were to be found in an inability to learn from what was known about the virus and to act accordingly. Mistakes could have been avoided if the government had listened to the health experts and WHO, drawn on a wider range of expertise, and been curious about experience in other countries.

“We have serious doubts on the motives of the government’s failure because it committed blunders that would not have been committed even by a common man. It is not the manner a government would have acted. We have ten questions to ask from the government and hope that it will be able to answer them,” the former MP said.

Dr Jayatissa said that the ten specific questions over the present state of the country, to the government, were as follows;

01. Who decided to deviate from the National Vaccination Plan, prepared by the Health Ministry on the 18th of January 2021, and not prioritize the vaccination of the over 60 population?

02. Who were the officials at the NMRA and the specialist committee on vaccinations, responsible for the delay in importing the Sinopharm vaccine to Sri Lanka? What were the steps taken against them?

03. The vaccination program was delayed. The faith placed in vaccines was ridiculed by the promotion of so-called miracle tonics, namely the Dhammika Paniya. Government Hospitals were used for this purpose. Will the state officials, state ministers, members of parliament, and heads of media institutions who promoted this tonic be held accountable?

04. Who decided not to provide sufficient vaccine doses to designated MOH areas and thus create a rift among the health officers and the public?

Who decided the type of vaccine that will be administered in a particular area?

05. Will the government record statements over data discrepancies from those who make the allegations and also those at the receiving end of those allegations?

06. Approximately 1.1 million files mysteriously disappeared from the eNMRA cloud. These are matters related to health and national security. Who will be held responsible for this?

07. What is the position of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 prevention with regard to allegations over the pricing of PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests?

08. Why hasn’t the government decided to increase the number of PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests?

09. Health Professionals such as Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Dr. Paba Palihawadana, Dr. Sudath Samaraweera, Dr. Jayaruwan Bandara, Dr. Amal Harsha, Dr. Palitha Abeyakoon, Dr. Asitha De Silva, and several others were removed from their positions. When these high ranking officials in the health sector were gaining experience on how to face this pandemic, who decided to replace or fire them?

10. There are serious warnings made over the new South African Variant. So, who decided to allow Indians to come to Sri Lanka, while such a threat exists?