COVID-19 one-minute poll
(CNS): It has now been more than six weeks since the Cayman Islands closed its borders and was put under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time we have had the opportunity to listen to the local daily press briefings, as well as to learn about what is happening in other countries. There are essentially two crises happening, the first being public health and the efforts to save lives, and the second being the economic crash that is a direct result of those efforts.
With so many contradictory views in the world right now and so much fear and frustration, we thought it was time to get a snapshot of how people in the Cayman Islands feel about this worldwide and seemingly never ending crisis and how the local authorities are dealing with it. The survey below takes approximately one minute to complete. If there are any questions or issues that you would like to see in the next survey, please leave them in the comment section below.
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Category: Opinion Poll, Viewpoint
I just wish they would be more inclusive and start a Covid-19 suggestions email. There are many professionals right here within the community who have time and resources to assist not only on strategy but on sharing the burden generally. But there’s no way of getting that message across to the leadership.
To his credit, we have heard Alden both apologise and admit that he was wrong on several accounts. It’s that humility that earns him my greater respect.
He is not perfect, and leaders have a very difficult calculus of factors and effects to balance at every turn. The strategic choices will not always be elegant or seem perfectly principled to every stake holder.
I do generally trust that he is making decisions that work towards the overall interests of everyone in the Cayman Islands.
I may be proven wrong – but for now I feel that he’s done a good job of looking at the big picture.
After all the mistruths that were dished out during the bigazz dock fiasco I would not believe anything he says!
He was doing great right up to the rant about the MOH the other day. That was really disappointing. MOH was OK until the CMR article. Now it seems like every scripture and quote is a veiled threat aimed strangely not at CMR where it all started, but at Wendy for asking if it was true. Totally appalled from that point on.
No, sometimes you can’t be responsible for the actions of others, but you could definitely deal with the fallout better. They could have said they didn’t know about it but would investigate and follow up if true, and moved along to the next question. Instead it got (and continues to be) way too personal.
This conduct is not befitting behaviour for any politician. But then again, we have seen several examples of inappropriate behaviour from others over the years. When allowed to prevail things become the norm. People don’t get upset or point fingers provided such misdemeanors are dealt with fairly and treated no differently (or held to a higher standard) than regular members of the public in the same situation. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.
Why is India not included in the last question?
Why bother with a survey where people can vote 500 hundreds of times? The numbers are useless. If the survey is meaningless, why pay it any mind anyway?
CNS: There is no indication that anyone voted multiple times. Nothing is foolproof but SurveyMonkey has a pretty good reputation.
Did any of us really need a survey to know that the Jon Jon is a national joke at this point in time? Everyone on the island knows it. The Premier is what he is and he’s who we have for now. He was doing ok for a while but he’s biting off things for which he’s not qualified and he makes mistakes but is too proud to ever apologize when he’s wrong. People have become hateful and divided, because of the Premier and Jon Jon’s tone. That’s the real failure of this government. Most other things can be argued either way. Nobody has clear answers. There has been stupid things, like opening liquor stores but shutting down pool service and landscaping that can be done by a solitary worker contactless, or closing the beaches because the police are incapable of policing them, when three of four rcips stand like pilons spraying hands at the grocery queue. The devil is in the details and that is a problem with this government. Other than that I’m just tired of all of them.
Funny to watch the numbers in the survey. You can be sure the Premier has mobilized the political party troops to stuff the ballots lol! Trust the comments. Nobody supports this bunch.
At 10:11am yesterday (29th Apr) I took screen shots of all the question results/data and the same today (30th Apr) at 11:40.
Splitting the average of the two highest and two lowest responses yesterday there was an approx 3% deviation. Today it sits at about 19%. What’s maybe more remarkable is questions with the two highest participation #’s in today’s results. Without jumping to speculation it would be interesting to understand if it’s just dynamics of answering the survey or whether CNS is able to shed any light.
Yesterday at 10:11,
Q1 – 654
Q2 – 656
Q3 – 657
Q4 – 655
Q5 – 654
Q6 – 657
Q7 – 653
Q8 – 655
Q9 – 657
Q10 – 655
Q11 – 646
Q12 – 629
Today at 11:40,
Q1 – 2814
Q2 – 2812
Q3 – 2528
Q4 – 2361
Q5 – 2582
Q6 – 2400
Q7 – 2450
Q8 – 2433
Q9 – 2276
Q10 – 2272
Q11 – 2232
Q12 – 2393
CNS: I think what you’re looking for is the trend analysis, which I can’t figure out how to include in the public results. Do you want this for every question? I’ll find some way to include it in the article we write.
Thank you very much for the response CNS.
Please don’t trouble yourselves, no doubt there are much better ways to use your time. It was a question to possibly answer only if any data were easily at hand. I’m more intrigued purely from a standpoint of the ability to use ‘a survey’ as a tool to snapshot sentiment to the related topics without ‘interference’. With the greatest respect and appreciation for what you do it appears what we see might require more scrutiny. ie as of 15:17 approx 600/650 are more concerned about the job our Premier & MOH are doing than financial concerns of their own as well as the Cayman economy. Whilst this may indeed be true either way it’s certainly eyebrow raising. Thanks again, no need to post this one up unless you feel it’s worthy of your readers interest, permission to edit if you do.
CNS: It’s not a problem. I’m sure you’re not the only one who is curious. I may yet find an easy way to make this public.
Lol. Trust the numbers not the comments.
I’m happy to say that I “have confidence in the Health Ministry” as when it comes to making real policy decisions, the minister by and large seems to follow guidance from his informed staff. Or so it appears. The Minister – not so much.
The Minister and his acting CO are both out of their depth. The matters which they do not comprehend are astonishing. Thank God for a well educated Premier. Let us forgive the Premier for the political stunt of backing moronic behaviour. He is trying to keep his government intact in these trying times.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/29/who-lauds-sweden-as-model-for-resisting-coronavirus-lockdown/
I think the Premier will be pretty pleased about these results. He expresses the level of criticism that is leveled at the government during the briefings, but actually the majority of people are supportive.
Where there appears to be overwhelming agreement is in the performance of Dwayne Seymour – he is just hopeless and contributes nothing except a load of bible twaddle! Why doesn’t the Premier just exclude him from the briefings? Most of us switch off anyway when the MOH starts to speak – idiot!
I’m sure they’ve had their bots flooding the site. The majority can’t possibly be this stupid, can they? Although…
I’m sure he will be happy, although it’s no surprise to anyone that he has support. The people that matter to him are the ex-pats with money, who prop up this insignificant island with billions of dollars. He could care less about the lowly service workers from the tourism industry and restaurants. The financial sector, lawyers and accounting people are all still working at home. None of them have to really care about the local economy, although I’m sure some do. They’re smart people who are here to exploit the tax jurisdiction and they already know very well that they’ll be fine when this is over, no matter how many locals starve because of the Premier’s Covid management. So, it’s obvious why he has so much support. The locals aren’t educated enough to do anything but follow the Piper, while Dart and the rest of the big money are waiting patiently in the wings, looking to buy up more of the island at a massive discount, while the locals go broke and eat corned beef and rice with the Premier.
You sound like an envious hate filled looser who life left by the wayside.
Wow, not sure why you’re so offended.. Granted, the message wasn’t delivered on a silver platter, but rather in a very brutish manner. Nonetheless, what the person says is very, very true. Sorry that it’s over your head. By the way, it’s “loser” not “looser”. Looser means not snug, not tight-fitting.
So let me put it in language that you may understand:
Point 1. Premier doesn’t give a rat’s a$$ about the small people of the Islands.
Point 2. Premier does give a rat’s a$$ about the people in the Financial Services Industry (the industry that legally hides the sometimes legal, sometimes illegal money)
Point 3. Locals keep electing the same a$$holes over again.
Point 4. DART going to buy up much more of your Island, at a discounted price, as many of the Locals go broke
Point 5. You keep doing what you’re doing, electing the same a$$holes over again, and they will lead you like the Pied Piper into insolvency (that means you have no $$$ left), so that you’re daily meal will consist of corned beef and rice
Umm, correction…you’re daily to “your” daily…
And then the vultures will feed.
If this Island is so insignificant then I suggest you get the hell off it.
Awe you gonna cry? The truth hurt
If course they care about local economy, they want bars and restaurants to be open, shops to buy the things they want and people to wait on them.
Everyone wants the local economy up and healthy
Right now the financial sector is your economy, your bread and butter. They’re prepared because they have international offices and already have disaster recovery policies in place that allow for remote working. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you or bear grudges just because some businesses are better prepared than others.
Q12 is silly. Of course none of us knows the answer, so why can’t we just say “don’t know”?
I suspect this is a CNS back-door attempt to push the “countries with female leaders are doing so better that those with male ones” so-called argument.
CNS: If you don’t have an opinion you can just skip the question. Clearly, lots of people do have an opinion. I could have listed a large number of countries but instead chose four that had implemented very different approaches. I was not thinking of the gender of the leader and obviously your second paragraph is not a conclusion that we would come to from just four countries. You’re seeing agendas that aren’t there.
My thumb is for CNS.
Agree. There was something to be learned in the framing of the questions, the answers, and our own answers, hopefully. Insightful poll. I think this is a really useful to get a cross-section of the public view. I would like to see polls more often.
Thank you CNS!
Should have had in the pole how many of us turn off the daily brielfd when Seymour starts talking, I for one do. Since the beginning he’s just talked sh@te.
I can see out of spite the Premier with all the negative comments made against him and Seymour the curfew being extended, he’s that vindictive.
I would still like to hear from the opposition regarding the apparent breach of curfew.
His confidence rating says it all. Premier should remove him from the panel.
Buh bye John John!
Why do you need to hear from the Opposition ? I want to hear from the Police !!!
I just wish we could drive to exercise. If people are pulled over and use that excuse they should be in the proper gear. If not, give then a ticket. They can fight it? If people can drive to get food any day they can still use that excuse so give us our driving back for exercise, please.
Should we make a list? I think we should. In no particular order of importance, proposed phased change, assuming continued negative test results:
1. Access to sea, fishing and swimming including watercraft, to be limited to one family per craft, or 2 people.
2. Allow single-person contact businesses to reopen: hair & nail, pool maintenance, small construction and repair, appliance/tv..etc sale and delivery. Masks and distancing, at least for now.
3. Travel to exercise location and back.
4. Keep the letters shopping thing. Keep it for bank, hardware store and everything else, except delivered goods.
5. I don’t know about where YOU all live, but where I live those that need the most protection seem the least likely to accept it. No groups above 3 for now. Just let it wait a bit more.
6. Hardware, book, craft stores open. Maintain minimal person count in the stores.
7. Agree to continue to take this seriously until we have firm confidence that this wave of CV is whipped.
8.Take a breather, rest up. Get our shutters and stuff checked. Fix stuff that has rusted from last year — hinges, hooks, screens, frames, etc. Lend your neighbors a hand if they need it. Now would be a great time to talk to them, even though they’ve been a real shit a few times in the past.
9. Keep our seats and tray tables in their upright and locked positions for the duration of the ride.
10. Share with people who need it. We are in a transitional place, and we want to look back on this time and feel right about it, yeah?
Some of your ides suggest that you have no idea how social distancing works. Socially distant hair and nail services? Really?
Guessing they are in the salon business & want to work again!
The hair is a necessity for me, nails, massage while would be nice is not going to be something I’m doing for a VERY long time.
Sigh. Just tell them you are on your way to Burger King – you can wear what you like. Just shows how dumb the rules are when you are allowed to drive to pick up fast food 6 days a week even if they deliver, but not allowed to drive out to exercise on your own.
Anyone who has been here long enough knew that it was going to be hard to keep people off the beaches at Easter. I predicted that would happen it was so obvious. But many of us now suffer for the selfish actions of others. I think they have got their message across now. They should lift the beach restrictions with a warning they’ll be shut down again if there’s any further abuse of the regulations.
Some of the answers regarding governments plan for the economy are going to change from basically neutral to straight negative if something clear, realistic and logical isn’t put forth very soon.
Perhaps the comparison jurisdictions should have been with similarly sized island countries with similar demographics. If that was done the Faroe Islands, St. Lucia, and others would get the best reviews.
The best website clearly showing comparison data of how countries are doing on testing and outcomes is: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Examining the statistics there you can see that there are many other islands that have done far more testing per capita than Cayman has and therefore have a better handle on how to open their economies. Cayman is at roughly 2%. The Faroe Islands and Iceland are at 14%, the Falkland Islands are at 10%, Malta is at 7%, Gibraltar is at 6.5% etc.
One of the main questions we must always ask when given stats is “relative to what?”
Great job on pointing this out. The level of testing in Cayman is definitely at a much lower level relative to comparable locales than Dr. Lee would lead us to believe. We are wasting so much valuable time here and this lockdown is going to drag on forever at the rate of testing (and processing) that is currently going on.
CNS: Further to your question in a previous comment, I sometimes delete all or part of a question that is about a public servant because unlike politicians, they are unable to defend themselves. I deleted the first sentence because apart from anything else you got his specialty wrong.
I think we should order more test kits from S.Korea, keep enough to test the entire population and sell the rest to others needing kits.
I think that CNS was correct to ask for comment about the Heath Minister’s wife. We do want to know if it was true. Whilst I think he adds nothing to the briefings, I did have respect for his position and therefore did not publicly state my feelings about him creating a daily forum for what constitutes nonsense. Now he has no respect whatsoever. Freedom of the press is paramount in any democracy and this is not the first time Government has threatened the media. And no one has asked that if in fact the story was fake news, why was it not labeled as such and charges investigated.
Does not matter if it was true or false, public perception is everything and pictures speak volumes.
For question #12, I would add Taiwan as an option. Their response has easily been the best of any country.
Australia should also have been included.
I wouldn’t believe anything coming from China no matter what. They have already destroyed their credibility. For ANYTHING.
New Zealand also did well.
Thanks for this survey!
At the time of writing this comment, here is Dwayne “Joke Joke ” Seymour’s approval rating.. the one who dishes out gaypril jokes, calls women stupid before reading the bible, and cries at public criticism:
Yes – 16.95% – 129 votes
No – 68.86% – 524 votes
Alden seems to think you’re doing a good job. He na getting back in, legally, so only hope that we na so fool to vote you back in you homophobic and incompetent joke of a MoH. Respect goes both ways!
Don’t forget all that foolishness in 2011.
My only concern is there seems to be an inconsistency in some decision making.
We are in the charter industry and know that one company is allowed to have 14 hours a week to maintain their boats and we have been given 2 hours per week. And we have the same number of boats. Fairness and consistency!
We have appealed and told we are correct but they won’t change our exemption.
I had to sneak out to check on mine. At least I felt like I was sneaking.. If I had been stopped I was ready with a lie to cover what my quest was in case they randomly tried to make me an example… I will NOT let my boat sink!
And I’ll bet they will keep the sea closed for another month! Cha! They wouldn’t want anyone to be able to enjoy our main feature of the island! Grrrrr
If they thought about it, rather than treating us like children, (okay fair enough, those a$$wipes on Good Friday spoiled it for everyone) they would open the sea ASAP for our mental health!!!
12:11 I don’t think they are against people checking on their boats I think they just want people to run it by the police first. Business owners are being encouraged to check on their businesses due to a spate in break-ins. From what I can tell from listening to the press briefings businesses just need to let the police know before hand. As many boats are part of a business I don’t see this being a problem.
I like you miss the beaches. They were one of the few silver linings in all of this mayhem. Like you say unfortunately a few selfish people have ruined it for all of us. The beaches are too big to police so alas they will remain closed if people continue to be selfish and stupid. People caught drinking on the beaches should be forced into their own coolers and punted into the ocean but that would likely be counted as police brutality. Shame really…
My thumbs up was for your second para. Love your suggestion on what to do with the eejits who got our beach privileges revoked!
I think most of us have heard the James Bond theme in our heads at least once whilst sneaking around. I think we should all get two SNEAK PASSES. Good for any night or day.
Not everyone has access to the sea. I know it seems like a no-brainer, but a significant portion of our population doesn’t have easy access to the sea. I think we should do a hell of a lot better. For one thing, many of our elderly are too intimidated to go out, even when we are allowed to do so. I’m talking about going in the sea, which calls to them. For another, the access alone to the mother of us all, the beloved sea is getting truncated and closed off, and I think that’s a bunch of crap. I want access opened up, and encroaching condos can just suck it up.
Agree with you. As is often the case, a few turds screwed it up for the rest of us. There are many historical precedents not unlike these. There are places on Earth in which people were asked to act like adults, and for the most part, they did. Now that we understand what is at stake, I think we can collectively do better.
Put the actual hyperlink link to the survey. Click on it and it doesn’t work
CNS: Sorry, it’s been a while since I did a survey and I had forgotten that there is an issue with the embedded survey for some people – I think it’s Mac users if I remember rightly. I’ve added a link. Can you let me know if it now works for you? Thanks!