Dr Goodluck accused of making controversial statements

A VOICE NOTE denouncing the COVID19 vaccine and making derogatory remarks about residents in communities on the windward side of the island, lit up social media at the weekend.

People were up in arms particularly regarding terms such as dunce, country bookie, and dumb-ass people, which were used to refer to residents living in these communities.

It is widely held that the voice in the 2 minutes 19 seconds recording is that of Dr Michael Goodluck, Medical Officer for the Calliaqua district.

But when asked about it on Tuesday, April 6, Dr Goodluck told SEARCHLIGHT: “so they say but I don’t know anything about that,” adding further, “it doesn’t even sound like me.”

With the Health authorities engaged in an uphill struggle of resistance by a large percentage of the population to be vaccinated, the declaration by the voice that “this vaccine is bullshit, it ain’t doing nothing to people”, is unlikely to boost their efforts.

“Imagine it ain’t giving no proper immunization, you still getting COVID, you have to do everything the same and you run the risk of the vaccine killing yo backside”, declared the voice which sounded like that of a male.

Dr Goodluck told SEARCHLIGHT that he was “waiting on the right time” and wouldn’t take the vaccine right away “for personal reasons”, but felt the choice is up to each person.

“Whoever wants to take the vaccine they are free to do so, I am not going to tell them not to take it; if they want to take it I wouldn’t tell them not to, but I would not force them to take it,” explained the medical doctor who was called before the Medical Board on Tuesday.

People on social media appeared to be more angered by the labels used- the voice claiming that these Windward area residents are supporting the “world boss” and are “fricking dunce and poor”. Many clamoured for the person to be sacked.

The voice claimed, “people don’t realize that this fricking World Boss want us dead, he wish Soufriére could erupt and kill out people”.

Further, that these “fricking duncie head, nigga ass, country bookie people who keep voting for him- Everybody on the Windward side, they can’t see because they too fricking dunce and poor and that is how the man have them…”

The person behind the voice, also had his support on social media.

It is thought that the “world boss” referred to in the voice recordings is Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who used the popular moniker during the 2020 General Elections which the Unity Labor Party (ULP) won to form government for a fifth consecutive term.

On Wednesday, Minister of Health St. Clair “Jimmy” Prince, said that the Medical Board met on Tuesday in relation to the voice note.

He said he could not comment on the recording as he does not want to “prejudice” the investigation. Prince also stressed that he is leaving it up to the administrators to deal with incident.

This is not the first time that Dr. Goodluck has been accused of making controversial statements.

In 2016, when he was the district doctor attached to the Stubbs polyclinic, Dr. Goodluck was accused of being the voice heard in a recording complaining about the roads and the state of a clinic; while in 2019, another voice note alleged that Dr. Goodluck blasted what he considered the bad state of the Accident and Emergency (A& E) Department of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH).