As I go to press, more than 264,000 people across the globe have died from the coronavirus. Over 1.2m have tested positive.
So far Africa’s figures are low, still under 2,000 dead, depending on who is counting, or testing.
Today the US surpassed 81,000 dead. There is no debate DJT, who still refuses to wear a mask in public and works in very close quarters in the White House has mis-managed this pandemic like nobody’s business.
So far, two people in the White House have tested positive, one of them Vice President Mike Pence’s spokesperson.
I am no fan of either Trump or his sidekick, but I hope they pull through these trying times.
Boris Johnson in the UK seems to have come out of hospital somber, and schooled about the virus. Lesson well learnt.
Let’s see how African leaders are handling the pandemic.
South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa surrounds himself with top-notch boffins.
In Liberia, President Weah has released a ballad about Covid-19 disseminating some sound medical precautions — all along dressed in sepulchral White and sways to a funky beat. Nothing wrong there. Liberia has cool music.
Now, listen to this : AndryRajoelina, Madagascar’s President , says the island of 26m people has a herbal remedy that will “change the course of history.” Bunkum.
Scientists in Madagascar are saying that Covid-organic as the concoction is called could actually harm people.
In comes President Alpha Conde of Guinea : he recommends drinking hot water and inhaling menthol. I am not making this up.
Not to be outdone in the theatre of absurdity, Nairobi’s governor, Mike Sonko has distributed miniature bottles of Hennessy, calling it “throat sanitizer”. I wonder if there are insane asylums in Nairobi. Seriously now.
Hennessy was obliged to deny that its brandy has antiviral qualities. I didn’t think so.
Enter Dr John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania: did I mention I like his name? The man has a doctorate in chemistry, but here is what he says;
“We are not closing places of worship. That is where there is true healing.”
Some of these characters have a good future in comedy.
Burundi refuses to lockdown “because it is a country that has put God first,” says a spokesman for Pierre Nkurunziza whose terms ends this month, at long last, having turned a once beautiful country into a basket case.
Other than Guinean President Conde who recommended inhaling menthol, no African president has recommended injections of disinfectant or suggested that scientists investigate whether doses of ultraviolet light inside one’s ass can kill the virus.
DJT is in a class of his own.
But bad advice from Africa’s clueless “Big Men” may still cost lives. Most of them have no business being where they are, to begin with, later on offer frightening and dangerous medical advice.
