Africa was winning the Covid-19 battle. Then came rising death rates (and waves of misinformation).
" African states appeared to be faring better than many other nations during the Covid-19 crisis. Now, Africa has the highest infection-to-death ratio in the world, according to statistics released on Feb. 4 by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of deaths in Africa so far, more than 95,000 people, accounts for less than 4 percent of the global total. But the 2.6 percent rate at which people are now dying from complications related to Covid-19 in Africa is almost half a percent higher than the 2.2 percent global average."
Before continuing, let’s just look at just how bad things are in Africa:
Covid-19 deaths per million over last 7 days:
Africa 2.7
Asia 1.2
Europe 44.7
North America 53.3
South America 30.0
(data collected from Worldometer)
"“Our case fatality rate is becoming very troubling,” said John Nkengasong, the Africa C.D.C. director, reporting at a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that the continent now had the highest worldwide death rate. “It used to be the reverse.”
Dr. Nkengasong worried that the number of deaths—2.2 million worldwide lost to Covid-19 since the pandemic’s outbreak in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019—have had a dulling effect. “I would like us to continue to remember that these individuals, they are loved ones, they are sisters, mothers, brothers, uncles…to put a face to these numbers They are not just statistics.
“It would be a tragedy,” he said, “if we begin to normalize these deaths going forward.”"
For the ‘misinformation’, take Tanzania ‘for example’. But that’s the country that banned vaccines - hardly typical of Africa. Even so, if the reported death rate there per million is anywhere near correct, it is 1/100th of that of the main western populations.
The writer says it’s not correct.
@PontiusPrimate, do you have any insight into this?
The fact remains that the article purports to be about misinformation in Africa, and the only example given is in Tanzania.
I might be reacting too hastily - he seems to be mainly pushing vaccines but maybe the wider plan is to appeal for financial help; there’s always that nice ‘edit’ button