FOR SOME weeks now a debate has been simmering about whether one particular aspect of the public health regulations should be relaxed.

In response to the ending of the state of emergency, commentators asked: what about beaches? Delivering his victory speech after Monday's Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections, Watson Duke said one of his first actions will be to propose the reopening of Tobago's beaches at the Executive Council.

'Nobody will give us orders from Trinidad any more,' the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) politician said, seemingly aware of the fact that it is for the central government to set out public health regulations across both islands.

Mr Duke's fondness for the sea is well documented. In 2017, he sought to protest the condition of the inter-island ferry service by attempting to swim from Tobago to Toco.

However, he would do well to heed the advice of the best PDP official in a position to speak about healthcare in Tobago. Dr Faith BYisrael has warned the island faces 'a dire, dire situation' because of covid19 and that Trinidad cannot afford Tobago's healthcare system buckling.

'We only have one hospital that seems to be on the brink of shutdown right now,' BYisrael said on Wednesday. 'So that is certainly priority number one for me.'

The health benefits of sea bathing are not just lore, they are well documented in several scientific research papers. Had the population been fully vaccinated, beaches might have been a source of comfort and stress relief.

But the reasons why beaches are closed are not related to some spiteful desire by the authorities to oppress.

Rather, these authorities fully understand that it would be irresponsible to open beaches, given the tendency of many people literally to let their masks slip (if they wear their masks at all).

Also problematic is the consumption of alcohol on beaches and at riverine spaces, as well as the propensity of people to gather in large numbers and to disregard the need for physical distancing (perhaps falsely emboldened by their being outdoors).

In fact, it is rhetoric such as that espoused by Mr Duke that has encouraged a culture of non-compliance with basic public health requirements in the face of reason and science. He has already said much that has damaged efforts to get Tobago's vaccination rate to a comfortable level.

It would be great if a system allowing small numbers of people to go to the beach at unpopular times such as very early in the morning is conceptualised and efficiently implemented.

However, it is also easy to see the risks involved in such a system, given the sheer number of people who might wish to take advantage of it, as well as the substantial resources that would be required to police it with anything more than lip service. Until the population follows the science, we'll likely all remain landlocked.