SASCHA WIL­SON

As the nov­el coro­n­avirus con­tin­ues to trig­ger pan­ic buy­ing of hand sani­tis­ers and clean­ing agents, a Pres­by­ter­ian Rev­erend be­lieves once a vac­cine is cre­at­ed every­thing will go back to be­ing “nasty as usu­al” in Trinidad and To­ba­go. In his ser­mon at the Susumachar Pres­by­ter­ian Church in San Fer­nan­do , Rev­erend Daniel Teelucks­ingh said na­tion­al san­i­ti­za­tion and health care is every­one’s busi­ness. “Health for Trinidad and To­ba­go is the busi­ness not on­ly for the gov­ern­ment but for every cit­i­zen, rich and poor.” He called for leg­is­la­tion to ban pub­lic spit­ting. “There is a need for de­vel­op­ment in this coun­try, in my com­mu­ni­ty and yours, a new cul­ture. Even a law that pro­hibits spit­ting on side walks and road­ways, spit­ting in the car park be­fore you go in your car af­ter you come from the gro­cery, spit­ting in school yards, spaces used by the pub­lic, we need a law like that.”

He said right now peo­ple were con­cerned about wash­ing their hands, wear­ing masks and us­ing hand san­i­tiz­ers, but that will even­tu­al­ly be shelved.

“One of these days we are go­ing to put it away that is just the kind of cul­ture we have. We will stop be­ing care­ful once they find an an­ti­dote for this COVID-19, once we find the vac­cine every­thing go­ing back to nor­mal, nasty as usu­al. That has to stop. We can­not tell our­selves that clean­li­ness is a sea­son­al thing.” Teelucks­ingh al­so asked the con­gre­ga­tion to of­fer a prayer for med­ical ex­perts to find a vac­cine. “We have to say a prayer to de­liv­er us from evil, in­spire and open the minds and il­lu­mi­nate the hearts of those schol­ars, the med­ical sci­en­tists who are search­ing for vac­cines and cures.”

Not­ing the im­pact the coro­n­avirus is hav­ing the world, he said, “Every con­ti­nent and is­land peo­ple wear­ing masks, there is a short­age of masks. Peo­ple are quar­an­tine, peo­ple are cau­tioned. It is im­pact­ing neg­a­tive­ly on the whole in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, peo­ple are afraid.”