The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this week said World Health Organization is deeply concerned by the alarming levels of the coronavirus spread, severity & inaction. Today, WHO is confident that COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic. A pandemic is an epidemic that affects much more area and people. Dr Tedros, however, said it’s the first pandemic that can be controlled if only countries would prepare and be ready, detect, protect, treat and reduce transmission. Cases have been reported in many countries with Italy having the most deaths in Europe. Business owners across the globe are feeling the effect. Weeks before the first suspected case of the virus was reported in Africa, several countries in Asia were affected badly. In Europe too. Italy which was the first to ban flights from China, today stands as the most affected after China. It is evident there is a bias in dealing and reporting on the virus, especially when it comes to Africa. Literally, ‘why is Africa not on its knees?’ Today there could be scientists in a lab trying to understand the genetic composition of the African being that makes Africans survive this pandemic. We have seen Africa suffer wars, locusts, FGM, Ebola. Not even once did the rest of world wonder why ‘the UK has been spared by epidemic A or B,’ clearly just like many issues that have been segmented, there are diseases that for long had been considered ‘African’. The news is dominated by the coronavirus but for some countries in this region, locusts are still considered an epidemic. There are times I say a greater power protects Africa. I imagine what we would go through trying to handle a typhoon, considering we struggle to even get people to leave areas that are prone to mudslides, would it be easy to get them to move out of the way of a typhoon? I have silently watched on as the world is dealing with coronavirus and thought maybe we are being reminded that we are all human. Lately, European streets have been experiencing regular stabbings and I jokingly wondered why African countries had not issued a travel advisory. Now here are our ‘travel advisory’ brothers having to keep themselves confined in their homes on their soil and feeling helpless because it’s a situation that even their greatest minds cannot fathom. Such helplessness will make anyone feel terrible. God has an interesting sense of humour.
