Long spared the epidemic, Africa worries about the health and economic risks of the coronavirus
Caught up by the coronavirus, the continent is exposed to a double crisis which could give a brutal brake on its development.
His words that day were greeted with skepticism. During a presentation to the American Association for the Promotion of Science (AAAS) in Seattle on February 14, Bill Gates, the ex-billionaire boss of Microsoft now animating his foundation, had warned of the consequences to come, on the African continent, of the epidemic due to the coronavirus, then concentrated in Asia and in Europe, judging that it would be "even more serious than in China". The African continent as a whole, then, had not detected any cases of Covid-19. This remark had been considered as steeped in ignorance and value judgments, ignoring the recent improvements in the health systems of several tried African countries by the Ebola epidemic. But Bill Gates was not only referring to the quality of hospitals or the number of caregivers. He spoke of a more global and indeed disturbing impact. In fact, by some sort of curious coincidence, the first African-wide infected person was reported that day in Egypt. But she had been infected abroad. And for several weeks, this was also the case for the other patients, introducing the idea that the epidemic, an imported product, had no scope for extension in this part of the world.
Caught up by the coronavirus, the continent is exposed to a double crisis which could give a brutal brake on its development.
His words that day were greeted with skepticism. During a presentation to the American Association for the Promotion of Science (AAAS) in Seattle on February 14, Bill Gates, the ex-billionaire boss of Microsoft now animating his foundation, had warned of the consequences to come, on the African continent, of the epidemic due to the coronavirus, then concentrated in Asia and in Europe, judging that it would be "even more serious than in China". The African continent as a whole, then, had not detected any cases of Covid-19. This remark had been considered as steeped in ignorance and value judgments, ignoring the recent improvements in the health systems of several tried African countries by the Ebola epidemic. But Bill Gates was not only referring to the quality of hospitals or the number of caregivers. He spoke of a more global and indeed disturbing impact. In fact, by some sort of curious coincidence, the first African-wide infected person was reported that day in Egypt. But she had been infected abroad. And for several weeks, this was also the case for the other patients, introducing the idea that the epidemic, an imported product, had no scope for extension in this part of the world.
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