COVID-19 Fallout: Africans Angry, Doctors Rebuked, Trump Defunds WHO

AFP/Getty Images/Time Magazine

In this pho­to tak­en on March 1, 2018, peo­ple walk in the “Lit­tle Africa” dis­trict in Guangzhou, the cap­i­tal of south­ern Chi­na’s Guang­dong province. — The com­mer­cial hub has long been a mag­net for for­tune-seek­ing Africans, but traders and stu­dents say they face unfavourable visa rules and increas­ing­ly heavy policing.

In the ever-increas­ing news around Covid-19 or the coro­n­avirus, a lot is hap­pen­ing. It’s hard to keep track of every­thing. Even while plen­ty of good things have hap­pened in the midst of the pan­dem­ic, such as how peo­ple are cop­ing with the virus, it’s the ones that cause unnec­es­sary pain that has gained the most atten­tion. The dis­par­i­ties, recrim­i­na­tions, and out­rage fol­low­ing some of these events are hard to miss.

African-Amer­i­cans, Peo­ple of Col­or Hit Hard by Coronavirus 

Just as the Unit­ed States has become the epi­cen­ter of the coro­n­avirus by record­ing the high­est num­ber of deaths of any coun­try thus far, so too are the dis­par­i­ties in those impact­ed by the dis­ease. In New York where a lot of infect­ed peo­ple have died, the reports show that Amer­i­can-Amer­i­cans, Lati­nos, and oth­er peo­ple of col­or have suf­fered the most. Black and brown peo­ple are dying at a dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly high­er rate than white or Asian New York­ers, accord­ing to this report from Vox.

Trump Blames WHO, Announces Cut to Funding 

Amer­i­can Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump announced that the Unit­ed States would cut fund­ing to the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO), the glob­al agency charged with mon­i­tor­ing and respond­ing to dis­eases around the world. Trump, who still does not think his administration’s slow response to the pan­dem­ic is to blame for its cost­ly impact on the Amer­i­can home­land, thinks it the WHO and the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment that is respon­si­ble for the rapid spread of the disease.

French Doc­tors Rebuked for Sug­gest­ing Africa as Test Ground for Covid-19 Vaccine 

Two French doc­tors heard on nation­al TV were quick­ly rebuked after one of them sug­gest­ed the African con­ti­nent would be a good place to begin tests for a vac­cine against the coro­n­avirus. Tele­vi­sion footage of the dis­cus­sion quick­ly cir­cu­lat­ed on social media. Reac­tions from Africans them­selves were quick and furi­ous, even prompt­ing the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO) chief, Tedro Adhanon Ghe­breye­sus, who is from Ethiopia, to denounce the idea as racist.

 Africans in Guangzhou Mis­treat­ed, Africans Around the World Fight Back

News reports that the African com­mu­ni­ty in Guangzhou in Chi­na are the sub­ject of a forced quar­an­tine by Chi­nese offi­cials over fears that they may be set­ting off a sec­ond wave of the dis­ease drew angry reac­tions all over the world. The reports which show how Africans in the city were forced out their homes by police and denied access to hotels caused a firestorm on social media, espe­cial­ly on Face­book and the What­sApp mes­sag­ing platform.

Across the con­ti­nent, Chi­nese offi­cials were quick­ly sum­moned to give an expla­na­tion for why this was hap­pen­ing. For­mer African Union ambas­sador to the U.S., Arikana Chi­hom­bori-Quoa in this inter­view used strong lan­guage to explain the sit­u­a­tion. She called on Chi­nese Pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping to imme­di­ate­ly take action to fix the sit­u­a­tion. The ambas­sador who is very out­spo­ken on how for­eign gov­ern­ments exploit the African con­ti­nent was uncer­e­mo­ni­ous­ly removed from her AU post in Octo­ber 2019.