Puerto Ricans nonetheless don’t have dependable ingesting water, and fears of contamination are rising

DAVID BEGNAUD:

The 2 males operating the ship instructed us that almost 87 p.c of the ship is empty. Sounds alarming, proper? They’ve 200 beds, and 87 p.c are empty.

Now, here is what they stated: We stand prepared for regardless of the authorities desires to do. We’re ready to be instructed by the federal government.

So, I went to the governor, and stated precisely what’s taking place. And he stated: “Look, I am not glad with what the protocol was from the start.”

He stated, initially, they had been prioritizing solely probably the most critically in poor health sufferers go to the Consolation. And he stated there was a layered course of that was complicating issues.

So, the governor, Ricardo Rossello, stated: “I began to take out a few of these layers, and I, stated, pay attention, take individuals on the ship who might not be critically in poor health, however want good medical care and might’t get it on the hospital, the place the lights are flickering and the A.C. will not be operating.”

That is what the governor stated.

Inside a matter of hours, I acquired a tweet from a third-year medical pupil who stated: “Let me let you know what a nightmare it has been to achieve the Consolation.”

He stated: “We’ve acquired a pediatric affected person who desperately must get off this island, both to a hospital on the mainland or to the Consolation.”

And he stated: “I went by Google and the native newspaper to seek out the quantity. I could not discover it.”

Now, right here is how issues work. Inside about half-hour of that tweet going out and that medical pupil’s story being posted, the governor’s spokesperson responded with numbers that ought to be capable to assist.

The underside line right here, William, is that asking relentless questions and the great work of journalism is what’s making a distinction there. It is nobody individual. There isn’t any heroic work that is being carried out by any journalist, apart from people who find themselves going again to the identical officers and asking a number of the similar questions, relentlessly searching for the correct reply that can make a distinction.