New Corona Worries

Masks were common even before COVID-19

With the news that our country in the Sahel is relaxing its COVID-19 restrictions, it’s time for me to get out some of my Corona virus musings and worries. I’m rejoicing with our friends there who are excited the mosques and churches have been opened up again for gatherings, and the capital is no longer under curfew. But I’m also more worried than ever for them because the cases have been slowly growing every day for the past two months at about 10-20 a day. And those are only the reported numbers from people who have been tested. It was strange that after two early cases in our city (the second largest city in the country), there were no more cases reported there for more than a month and a half. That has been worrisome to me, added to the rumors our friends have heard of suspected cases being turned away from the main hospital, with people offered money to go rest and quarantine themselves in their houses instead of being tested and treated. It’s hard to believe that could actually happen, but with the lack of cases it seems like a possibility. Another concern is all the other social factors that make social distancing almost impossible to maintain in this culture. Visiting others and greeting neighbors/family members every day is built deeply into the culture. Secondly, the overwhelming majority of the people work to gain money for the day, which gets their families their food for the day. It’s not possible or likely for them to have anything stored up or saved ahead for a disaster like this. 

Social distancing is unlikely to be adopted
when sitting on the same mat and drinking
from a common tea cup is so ingrained
in daily life (tea pouring in background)

I am also haunted by one of the last conversations I had when in the Sahel with a church leader. Although he was taking COVID-19 seriously, he was also resigned that only God could prevent it from taking a huge toll in our country. He was not optimistic that people or the government would be serious enough about Corona virus precautions because those would inevitably cut too much into people’s livelihood or social and religious customs. He also compared it to the seriousness of the spread of Malaria. Every year tens of thousands of people die in most African countries from Malaria. It’s well known how Malaria spreads and how using mosquito nets greatly reduces the likelihood of sickness. And it’s also well known that Malaria carrying mosquitoes mostly bite around dusk and dawn. But sadly this doesn’t motivate most people to sleep under freely distributed mosquito nets, stay indoors at the dangerous times, and doesn’t prompt governments to make curfews during those times. If they don’t do it when tens of thousands die from Malaria, it is hard to envision that they’ll be too serious or dedicated to such drastic measures for another easily spread disease until it proves to be exponentially more dangerous.

Recently I looked up the death figures to see that approximately 300,000 people die in our country a year and it’s estimated that 50% of those are from Malaria. So we’re talking about 150,000 reported Malaria deaths every year in a country where there are now 87 reported COVID-19 deaths. While I certainly think the COVID-19 deaths could balloon to 150,000 in the next year if the spread goes unchecked, it still seems unlikely to have that high a toll in a country with around 21 million for population. When framed like that, it is alarming, but also realistic that the government and society overall isn’t willing to do bigger things to ensure COVID-19 doesn’t spread, since they aren’t taking similar disruptive precautions to stop the spread of Malaria.

-- El Padre