ATWOLI: Covid-19 pandemic: Better safe than sorry

When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in Africa in early March and April, many countries scrambled to prepare themselves by taking public health measures to reduce the risk of its spread.+

Many closed their borders and airports and instituted strict movement restrictions aimed at buying sufficient time to prepare their health systems to deal with this virus. Sporting and other entertainment activities were cancelled, as were religious services and educational activities.

Most countries instituted some form of testing and contact tracing to map the spread of the pandemic and manage its effects.

Unfortunately, a few African countries chose to go with one of several narratives whose aim was to minimise the perception of the risk posed by the pandemic and to ensure there was minimal disruption in human activities within their territories.

One of the more colourful narratives alluded to a conspiracy by any one or a combination of the World Health Organisation, Bill Gates, ‘the West’, ‘Big Pharma’, Anthony Fauci, the medical fraternity, vaccine manufacturers and even the devil himself to on the one hand reduce the population of ‘our people’, and on the hand to exert control and make money off the suffering due to this pandemic.

CAUTION DISCARDED

Another narrative held that the disease is no worse than the common flu, and any stringent public health measures amounted to an overreaction.

Burundi appears to have gone with the second narrative, arguing that there was even no need to routinely test for this infection or to restrict movement and activities in the country.

They went ahead and organised national elections after advising international election observers that they were welcome but would have to spend so much time in quarantine that they would not be able to effectively observe the electoral processes.

Burundian authorities allegedly kicked out WHO teams that had been supporting the health sector to plan for and deal with the pandemic.

An important distinction between faith and scientific fact is that you do not have to believe in scientifically described natural phenomena for them to affect you.

We all agree that it is foolhardy to test the veracity of the law of gravity by jumping off the top floor of the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

It would appear that the Burundian leadership believed that Covid-19 was not a severe enough illness to warrant the strict public health measures their neighbours had instituted.

CONTAINMENT MEASURES

Unfortunately, this belief is not enough to stop the spread of this pandemic. This past week there were media reports that a prominent Burundian personality and her bodyguards were airlifted to a hospital in Nairobi for treatment after testing positive for Covid-19.

It is a tragedy that while they have access to this life-saving intervention, the majority of Burundians do not, and may be suffering needlessly due to the reckless actions (or inaction) of their government.

This incident should serve to caution those of us who think that we have reached the peak of the pandemic in Kenya and should follow the lead of other countries and begin loosening public health measures.

All the projections suggest that the numbers will keep increasing, and that our large population of vulnerable individuals will remain at high risk of severe illness and death unless we keep the numbers of new infections low enough for our tattered health system to handle.

Like the man said, better safe than sorry!

Lukoye Atwoli is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Moi University School of Medicine; [email protected]