‘I should have used my mask’ says health minister

| 19/04/2022 | 87 Comments
Health Minister Sabrina Turner tours the Little Cayman Clinic with Nurse Charmaine Coore (from CIGTV)

(CNS): Health Minister Sabrina Turner has admitted that she should have worn a face mask when she made “an impromptu” visit to the health clinic on Little Cayman last month and was caught on camera without a face covering. Turner said the clinic was closed when she stopped by to thank the staff and there were no patients or other members of the public present.

However, the current mask mandate requires everyone to wear them when inside public places such as shops, schools and health facilities.

The government news channel, CIGTV, documented the trip by ministers to Little Cayman for last month’s special session of Cabinet on the island, and on Tuesday, 29 May, the Daily News Brief captured the minister breaching the mask mandate. A screenshot was taken by a viewer, who posted it on social media and sent it to some members of the press.

A press release about the circulation of the image and an article in the Cayman Compass said that Turner visited the clinic at the end of the day after the Little Cayman Clinic had closed. “Without proper context, I understand how the photo in question may appear,” the minister said. “In retrospect, I should have used my mask, regardless of the clinic being closed.”

The release concluded, “The Cayman Islands Government continues to encourage members of the public to follow public health guidelines including proper mask-wearing to control the rate of spreading the COVID-19 infection here in the Cayman Islands.”

Those regulations in relation to healthcare facilities state that they “may require any person who visits any of such places to wear a mask and a person who refuses to do so shall be refused entry”.

The minister’s slip has caused a public stir, given that many parents have significant concerns about the strict mask mandate in schools. Many people have been urging the government to at least lift that rule, especially now that the country has lifted most of its border restrictions and is allowing untested cruise passengers to disembark.

See the segment on CIGTV below:


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Category: Health, Medical Health, Politics

Comments (87)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    No s*** Sherlock!

  2. Anonymous says:

    In three years Sabrina and her like will just say ‘Caymanians first’ being the only people eligible to vote Caymanians will say ‘great idea’ and these half wits will be back in power, pandering that motto they have no intentions of upholding. Me first is the mantra of Cayman politicians, and me last! That’s why rules like masks don’t apply to them.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Leading by example… Of course Minister Turner didn’t even have enough class to take off her designer sunglasses inside either. She’s in it for her ego and not the people. Or else she would have been fighting to stop the speeders and the crack heads that live in her district from being menaces to us all.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    She’s in a hospital standing right next to someone wearing a mask and she didn’t think that she needed to wear a mask. Either she is arrogant or ignorant, either way unfit for office.

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  5. Sucka Free Cayman says:

    Sick and tired of unnnah if you dont want to wear a mask go somewhere else with unnah hocus pocus theory someone killing you or what?

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  6. Anonymous says:

    That’s what you call stupidity…. and poor ole Panton can’t do a thing , yet he disciplined Bernie, but can’t touch Sabrina (who actually broke the law). WHY
    Soon Coming….
    Sanders for Premier, as Bernie, Jay and Julie cross the floor and start the vote of no confidence in an already incompetent PACT, Mac keeps his seat Jon Jon returns to the opposition and gets back his ministry, Andre is s true independent, so he can move where he wants to. Issac will follow suit because they short changed him from the beginning.
    It’s politics….. nothing more.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    I wonder if the Premier will use the same excuse if he is asked about the picture being widely circulating on social media showing him without a mask on a Cayman Airways flight this morning.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Should Premier Panton allow the Governor to take action, if he did contravene the mask legislation? Sounds like a start to a press time question from CNS.

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      • Anonymous says:

        You only get press questions when you have a press conference. PACT demonstrates its transparency by avoiding those when there are likely to be difficult questions.

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    • Clark Gable says:

      Personally, I don’t give a damn.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Rather than Sabrina stating “I made a mistake”, she should instead be stating “I have realized, like most other countries in the world, that mask mandates are not effective and no longer required as they are not protecting us from any real risk. Oh, and also, cloth masks do literally NOTHING.”

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    • Anonymous says:

      4:25 pm: proper face masks when correctly worn do help to stop spread of infection. Have you ever wondered why hospital surgeons routinely wear masks?

      Aside from that, Covid transmission has been shown to move in opposite correlation with safety measures, of which mask wearing is a top strategy—That is, greater attention to precautions usually result in lower transmission levels.

      The minister is just wrong and she should just stop hedging. The staff above all need to be protected so they on turn can protect the patients. She sounds frankly a little ignorant. None of us can know at any given time, other than at the time of a PCR test, if we are covid free.

      Question: I assume the staff were wearing masks at the time of the visit?

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      • Anonymous says:

        That is complete garbage. Unless you are wearing an N or K95 mask or above you are doing absolutely nothing to stop the spread of Covid. If that was the case, why is it that China, with compulsory mask mandates and punitive lockdowns, have millions of infections? In fact, after two years of mask wearing all over the world, why hasn’t Covid disappeared?
        And if masks are so effective why is it that those who don’t wear them are a danger to those who don’t? Surely if masks work, they would work both ways.
        We are more likely to be seriously ill or even killed by poor food and personal hygiene practices than we are Covid, but we never cared when filthy individuals never washed their hands after visiting the bathroom, or kept food for hours in insanitary conditions.
        Perspective and proportion are needed here, protect yourself with a mask if you naively believe it works and let the rest of us get on with living.

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        • Anonymous says:

          There are lots of videos that demonstrate clearly how well masks work to catch and contain the wearer’s respiratory droplet emissions that are projected outwards to others, when combined with distancing. Are they infallible? No. Do they help screen out more droplets than no mask? Yes they do, and even the homemade cloth ones when made and worn properly. Surgeons don’t wear masks to protect themselves from the patient. It’s the other way around. Some people are too self-obsessed to understand how this works, even in season 3 of this.

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          • Anonymous says:

            There are lots of videos that argue the opposite. Get off You Tube and look around you, masks haven’t prevented anything and surgical masks are useless as most people don’t wear them correctly, or they wear them for too long. Surgeons wear them once and replace, not all day, or all week.
            Please explain why, if masks are so effective, that infections in mask mandated countries are growing, (China) but those who have dumped the muzzle are reducing, (U.K., Sweden)? Got a video for that?
            Just get vaccinated and get on living, if not wear the mask and live in permanent fear.

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            • Anonymous says:

              4:38 Arrogance and ignorance are jumping off your post as they compete for first place! I guess you believe too that the vaccinations protect you from catching COVID. They don’t. So is ignorance edging closer to the finish line to suggest that since neither masks nor vaccines work we should give up both?
              Oh and for your information, I am vaccinated and I wear my mask when indoors.
              The fact remains that from the beginning Sabrina was unfit to be minister of anything, most especially minister of health. She broke the law and she should resign or be removed from the position. Oh but I’m forgetting that Wayne, as Premier, broke the same law on an airplane, the evidence of which he was ignorant and arrogant enough to circulate with his selfie. Sorry Cayman Islands, you are in big trouble with this PACT of misfits at the helm.

            • Anonymous says:

              Well said. Surgical and cloth masks haven’t stopped the spread for the last two years, why should we now believe they will work now.

    • D. Truth says:

      Is there anyone involved in this B.S. who has a functioning brain?

  9. Anonymous says:

    It is over, It is over, It is over,It is over,It is over………… DO YOU HEAR THAT?????

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  10. Anonymous says:

    She should also use her brain, but first she has to make that trek to see the Wizard.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    In reality, Minister Turner’s “maskgate” may be trivial to other issues at hand in the entire public service, including more serious issues involving Ministers and perhaps more to come….a few years to go yet.

    However, Minister Turner has admitted her bad judgement and we can move on. Of note however is how another “media” source seemed to frame the mistake as one of “clarification”.

    A mistake is a mistake, just call it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Rubbish! Oh I nade a mistake on my impromptu visit to the supermarket!

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    • Anonymous says:

      It’s not trivial. People have been fined and others sent to jail for violating these laws. As they exist now they are essentially nonsense but if this government wants to threaten and admonish us and refuse to take laws off the books they should damn well follow them themselves.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    This woman is an embarrassment.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    We are probably all dealing with some level of COVID fatigue. Mistakes happen. What is important at this stage is that we acknowledge those mistakes and take corrective action.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Resign now!

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Maybe she was eating while walking around?

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  16. Anonymous says:

    US airlines have ended the masking requirement, as has the TSA at US airports.

    Time to end the random mandates in Cayman. I work in an accounting firm of over 200 people and no one wears masks, and we even have frequent packed meetings. No one, including me, is worried.

    ….But I have to wear one entering Kings Gym until I get by reception, then can take it off in the packed gym with a hundred heavily breathing people.

    And kids have to wear in school, but not after school when they get together with the same kids….

    Time to end the random masking rules here.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    I guess next time I break a law I’ll just say, “in retrospect, I shouldn’t have done that” – that should be enough, no need to charge me with anything.

    It’s time to change the mask mandate to optional.

    The police weren’t enforcing it before (which I think was the right decision) but now, even if they decided to, their hands are essentially tied as anyone could hold this up as an example of selective enforcement.

    Not to mention the ridiculous situation of allowing tourists to roam free while maintaining the ridiculous travel time requirements.

    Allowing laws that are not enforced to stay on the books makes a mockery of the legal system. It’s time to show some leadership. Once the cruise shippers were allowed back the “safety” and “science” arguments have lost all credibility.

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    • Anonymous says:

      We absolutely should be getting rid of the travel time requirements and pre-entry testing. If cruise ship passengers do not need to apply or be tested, why are residents and stay-over tourists that actually spend more money here being punished?

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      • Anonymous says:

        It’s unclear to anyone what Travel Time is supposed to be screening out of Cayman. Reality maybe?

        • Anonymous says:

          It’s just giving some locals government jobs. But they don’t do anything anyway – transfer them to another office where they can play on their phone all day.

  18. Anonymous says:

    Why didnt her Chief Officer catch it and advise her to put on mask?

    Or was she two weeks away as usual…

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Get rid of the mask mandate. No even wannabe “leaders” believe in it!

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  20. Anonymous says:

    It’s an unscheduled visit and after hours, yet magically the staff are all still there, and wearing full PPE to boot? Not that the regulations say that you can dispense with the mask wearing after normal working hours anyway. What gets me if she can go to the effort of putting on her shades ( inside a building) but not a mask.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Sabrina should have worn a mask to protect the public health worker she is standing less than 6 feet away from, inside a public health centre. She is the one that signed off on this shit and threatens SuperBowlers with fines…let her eat her own cooking and Byrne should be writing the $10,000 ticket and handing it to her (days ago).

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  21. Anonymous says:

    Sabrina cannot say it’s because she wasn’t asked and because the place was empty, does she think Covid signs out at 4:00pm or something ? Also there would have been signs up requesting visitors to wear a mask so she basically did not comply with the law. Waiting on the PACT code of conduct to kick in …. Another minister has broken the law

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  22. Anonymous says:

    What pathetic and insulting reason and excuse given by the Minister. Fine her at least!

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  23. Anonymous says:

    The Premier won’t do anything – he needs her support.

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  24. Anonymous says:

    The Great and Powerful Oz makes the decree last week that mask mandates are in effect and by not wearing a mask it is an offense. So, now that there is video proof and admission of guilt, will a fine be in order? Or is it yet another example of “rules for thee and not for me”?

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  25. Anonymous says:

    And this is not the first time. Check the feed at the lying-in-state at the House of Parliament of Mr. Benson. She was not wearing a mask!

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  26. Anonymous says:

    Following the ruling of a U.S. district court judge on Monday, the Biden administration announced that the Transportation Security Administration will no longer enforce the federal mandate requiring masks in all U.S. airports and on board aircraft

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  27. Anonymous says:

    At least her acknowledgement has some openness and honesty. Frankly it is better than I had expected.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Her response is excuses to try and wiggle out of taking responsibility for her “rules for thee but not for me” action. Had the full regulations been quoted correctly, it would reference masks are required where 6ft distancing is not maintained. Don’t think she’s that distance in the photo, or maintained it throughout her tour. Quite simply, she committed an offense and is now backpedaling.

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    • Anonymous says:

      LOL LOL LOL

  28. JTB says:

    No need to apologise.

    Just scrap the fcuking mask law.

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  29. Anonymous says:

    No need to wear a mask when the clinic is closed because covid doesn’t spread after hours right? Remember the govt has it’s very own science that no other country knows about.

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  30. ThIs WrItInG Is VeRy IrRiTaTiNg says:

    She probably thinks it’s ok to park in handicapped spots if you’re just going to be there a few minutes too.

    At a minimum she should be fined the maximum amount and it should be paid for out of her own money not some PACT or government slush fund.

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  31. Anonymous says:

    She demands everyone plays mask charades, then excludes herself because she knows how stupid it is.

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  32. Anonymous says:

    Will she be charged? After her finger wagging threatening everybody else who breaks the mask mandate?

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  33. Anonymous says:

    storm in a tea cup….she’s an incompetent fool…so what do you expect?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Shouldn’t this be an opportunity for our nonchalant Police Commissioner to be made to issue a public statement and hand her a SuperBowl-sized ticket in a press photo? Can’t even organise that it seems. Every day, more public confidence in RCIPS is meaninglessly wasted-away….like there’s a mountain of surplus they can draw from.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Or use the UK approach – police issue a ticket to demonstrate impartiality – politician pays it to demonstrate same – but then says it’s not a resignation matter because it’s all a misunderstanding and the current “crisis “ means it’s important that the health minister stay in place 😉

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    • Anonymous says:

      Fine her $10,000 or jail time. Remember the young lover’s trial? Why would this be any different?

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    • Anonymous says:

      How did she become Health Minister? Did she have ay relevant experience?

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  34. Anonymous says:

    Lol Health minister has to apologise for Not wearing a mask at the hospital..really you cant make this crap up. Says alot.

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  35. Anonymous says:

    Maybe she should just resign…

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    • Anonymous says:

      caymanians in cig or civil service don’t do resignations….why should they?…there are no firings either.

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