“Senegal needs greater capacity for pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing now and for the future. In the interim, it needs access to efficacious vaccines for its citizens. If this pandemic has taught us nothing else, it is that public health is global health. What happens in China, Senegal, or the United States can directly impact someone across the world.”
“The Seychelles needs to conduct urgent genome sequencing and surveillance to examine the effect of variants of concern and see whether the Indian variant is present. If the South African variant is dominant, the country needs to use a vaccine that works well against it.”
“At the outset of the pandemic, many in the West claimed that you should always choose to save lives over protecting the economy. In African countries, saving lives involves protecting the economy.”
“Presidents may not be constitutionally required to report on their health, but the secretive nature of all these deaths robbed countries of timely opportunities for reflection and frank discussions of health and illness.”
“Young volunteers leading COVID-19 campaigns are connecting with and engaging local leaders—women’s groups, teachers, priests, imams, village heads, healers, and elders—in their communities. Together they are devising microsolutions needed to isolate patients, care for the ill, implement social distancing within existing conditions, and support families in distress.”
“Fortunately, there are some positive examples African countries can draw on for inspiration. Nigeria’s use of community knowledge to transform its polio eradication strategy in 2012 offers a clear pathway to engaging communities at all levels – from leaders to traditional healers to families.”
“Death rates represent only a sliver of the pandemic’s unseen impacts on fragile livelihoods, socioeconomically vulnerable groups like migrants and women, and other efforts at democratisation in the Horn.”
“President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar announced that a plant-based tonic, Covid Organics, was an effective treatment for COVID-19. Scepticism over the claim was countered not with rigorous scientific evidence but politicised rhetoric.”
“When Kenya’s school closed, many children were left more vulnerable. Some local volunteers took it upon themselves to step in. Workshops have become central to the development of community-driven safe spaces where young girls can convene daily.”
“Africa’s low death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic may look like a triumph, but behind the numbers lies a hidden tragedy as the virus impacts women’s access to healthcare.”
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