A controversy erupts when Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister, reveals that he’s been vaccinated in private, off camera, weeks before government procured vaccines arrived on island, and as part of a private initiative of a wealthy local family to import vaccines for their inoculation. The PM is cryptic and evasive about the issue, delivering snippets of information between radio interviews and Facebook comments weeks apart. When the fact that he's gotten the jab sinks in and the members of the public are outraged, he stonewalls the press. To make matters worse, he's been jabbed with the Moderna vaccine - a higher efficacy, and more costly brand which won't be procured by the government for the general population.

The debacle is the seeming straw that breaks the back of the Nurses' Association, already at odds with the government over issues to do with safety, pay, and working conditions in the COVID-19 era. It publishes a release calling him out, to which he responds by attacking the association as partisan, saying he showed leadership by taking the secret jab, and arguing he had no obligation to disclose that he had even done so. Our guests are an international anti-corruption advocate, a former minister of health, and a former prime minister. The host is Kieron Murdoch.

The guests are:

This programme first aired on NewsCo Observer Radio 91.1 FM on February 14, 2021.