Dear Editor, let’s create an Independent Public Covid Watch Group.

Reading yesterday’s Cook Islands News (28.3.22) about our first confirmed Covid death is worrying. It was bounced around by Government officials clearly trying to shift the cause of death to anything but Covid is frightening. Even Bob William’s ineffective swipe added to the dust cloud of doubt.

Three elderly people have passed away in Rarotonga in the past few weeks, can the true cause of death be verified? Can the death certificates be double checked?

Experience shows public servants and Government employed health professionals are the easiest to manipulate by bullying politicians. The stench of active misinformation about Covid hospitalisation and more possible deaths is spreading gradually. Yes, it’s election year, so keep the Covid death count down, it looks bad for Mark Brown and his team otherwise.

We suggest the setting up of a Special Public Covid Watch Group, independent of Government and made up of retired doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and skilled volunteers. 

Please, all hands on deck, don’t just watch, write in to give this idea your support. God bless and save the people of the Cook Islands. 

Cook Islands Lives Matter

(Name and address supplied)

Reply – Te Marae Ora reconfirms the fact, as reported, that no one to date has died of Covid in the Cook Islands. Comorbidities were contributing factors to the death of an elderly male who passed away on Saturday. He was Covid positive when he died, but the cause of death was another disease. Patient confidentiality prevents any further comment.

Te Marae Ora has engaged a clinical team consisting of active and qualified resident and overseas clinicians to examine these cases and processes. It was not unexpected that people like “Cook Islands Lives Matter” would make the claims and assumptions they have made. It was also not unexpected and was discussed during the public consultations Te Marae Ora held late last year, that we should expect some people to be severely affected by Covid, but we are not at that stage yet.

The government has not in any way influenced Te Marae Ora officials to do anything other than report the facts, and, to suggest otherwise is offensive to the hardworking health workforce and is an example of “active misinformation”, the very thing this letter writer appears to rally against. 

Bob Williams

Secretary of Health