Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan says claims of a clash between him and interim Chief Medical Officer Dr. Autilia Newtown last week over newly updated COVID-19 regulations were blown out of proportion.
“I wouldn’t say there was a clash. I think that there was a challenge to the direction of the regs, and it’s a challenge that all leaders of the world have to deal with,” Bryan said on Friday night during a telephone interview with the Cayman Compass following the release of the new local health protocols.
The regulations, which were published Friday night, will see the lifting of pre-arrival testing and the removal of mask mandates starting 30 June.
Scrapped also were quarantine guidelines for unvaccinated Caymanians and residents upon return to the islands.
Bryan addressed social media reports suggesting that his questioning of the CMO was disrespectful and prompted Newton to threaten to resign after an apparent exchange during a closed door government caucus meeting last week.
He said, as a representative, he had to ask questions, which was “no different than public accounts committee, where you have to question people on their decisions and so forth”.
“Afterwards, everything is fine. That’s part of the job, so to speak,” Bryan added.
The Compass sought answers last week on the alleged clash and was informed by a Health Ministry spokesperson that they were unaware of Newton’s alleged threats to resign.
“You will be aware Dr Newton was brought on only as Interim CMO to fill the position until a new CMO was found. As soon as we are able to share an update on the progress of the recruitment process for the new CMO position, I can promise that you will be one of the very first people to hear,” the spokesperson added.
Newton is currently on leave and returns to duty on Monday. She will be the guest on next Wednesday’s Compass Facebook show The Resh Hour.
Varying science prompted questions
Bryan suggested that he was simply asking for evidence.
“There’s an assumption that there was a problem. I’ve never had a problem. I don’t think any of us had a problem. What we’re talking about here is a rumor by another media house that there were some bad blood,” he said, adding that the MPs’ line of questioning to Newton at the meeting was a reflection of what constituents want to ask.
“No country has the exact same regulations, which proves to you that not all scientists are on the same page, or it also proves that not all governments agree to the same science,” he said, pointing to the UK, which has a different set of rules.
The US, he said, also presents a different set of rules.
“You find some funny nuances where we change when the United States change. So you can’t say the science changes when the United States science changes, and there’s some irregularities that people talk about in question and as a representative, my job is to question on their behalf some of these irregularities,” he said.
One example, he pointed to, was conflicting information on the effectiveness of the vaccine a year on.
He said some reports suggest that the efficacy of the vaccine after one year had fallen.
“But yet still persons who were vaccinated with their resistance worn off are getting the benefits of persons who are not vaccinated by not having to quarantine when they come to Cayman and people see these things and these irregularities and they ask their representatives to challenge it,” he said.
Bryan said there is always going to be debate on where the balance lies, and the pendulum has to swing either “more into the protection health and safety from COVID to the freedoms of travel and movement, as well as economic value for business from a tourism and business perspective”.
“That discussion and final conclusion will have a little bit of back and forth, and sometimes even disagreement, but we still take the advice of the medical advisors, and we take it seriously,” he said.
“But we as leaders do still have to understand that people’s livelihoods and freedoms have been impacted by these choices, and we have an obligation to make sure we have the right balance.”
He added that it was no different than any other country in the world that had to have these discussions with medical advisors.
He pointed to the questions Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr Anthony Fauci had to face.
Fauci, he said, was probably one of the most well known advisors to a world leader and had to go through difficult questions.
“Some [questions] may be seen as questioning the medical science, but that’s how you filter down to get to your final conclusion of what’s best suited for the jurisdiction that you’re in,” he added.
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