Herd immunity in Africa: Elections amid a global pandemic
I briefly reflect on the African dimension
of another equally controversial notion related to Covid-19 pandemic. Namely the
idea of herd immunity. Recently there has been
debate on herd immunity, particularly in the West. In the UK, Boris Johnson, for instance, touted
herd immunity as a possible strategy in addressing the novel Coronavirus
pandemic. It is a position that he seems to have vacated upon contracting and
surviving Coronavirus himself. We have pockets of other countries, such as Belarus,
that appear to have opted to take the herd immunity approach. Sweden has particularly
been one of the most visible in Europe as far as the debate on herd immunity is
concerned. Sweden’s stance has seen it grapple with challenges of death spikes in the recent past compared to
its neighbors amid arguments that its approach might work, after all.
Africa has not featured prominently in the
global discourse on herd immunity. Perhaps, this has been overshadowed by the rather
more prevalent debate on whether or not Africa will survive the pandemic if and
when it finally hits the continent. While this is the case, there are a number
of countries in Africa that seem to have opted for herd immunity in their approach
to the management of Covid-19 pandemic. Whether this is deliberate or not is
not my focus here.
One of the pointers to a possible herd
immunity stance whether the authorities vocalize it or not, is the measures
that they put and/or refuse to in place. Allowing people to go on with their
lives without any strict restrictions, comes across as one of the ways you can tell
that a country’s leadership is perhaps opting for herd immunity. We have seen a
few countries in Africa opt against lockdowns, for instance. We have equally
witnessed others even go on with socially intense activities. For example, there
are, at least three African countries that have opted to proceed with electoral
processes amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Benin just concluded holding its local
elections. In Malawi, campaigns for a run-off following
the nullification of the Presidential elections earlier in the year are on top
gear. Burundi is equally deep into a hugely
polarizing electoral process having had its public go to the polls on 20th
of this month. Burundi has continued to downplay the impact of Covid-19. The
government of Burundi has even controversially expelled WHO officials from the country and
claimed that it would quarantine the East African Community (EAC)
election observers. Such decisions coupled with the dangers of the pandemic, means
little attention on the Burundi electoral process. This is withstanding the
fact that last time Burundi held and election (2015), the country witnessed police
unrest. Burundi’s decision to proceed with an election in the middle of a
pandemic, scare away external observers and eject WHO officials, could be
interpreted as government’s intention to cover up the actual Coronavirus
situation in the country as well as conceal any electoral malpractices. As
such, there can be more to the whole process. However, I narrowly focus on the
matter of herd immunity as a possible path that countries like Burundi could be
taking.
Images from all the three countries reveal
near nil social distance and/or any other measures of curbing the spread of Coronavirus
as politicians continue to hold massive campaign rallies. There are certainly
many more practices and examples from across the continent that point at a
possible herd immunity approach to Covid-19. I have highlighted elections
because of the sheer social intercourse that characterize such processes,
particularly in Africa. Nic Cheeseman has particularly intellectually agonized
over the dilemma of holding or not holding elections during the pandemic and
has illustrated the trade-offs that there is between health and democracy. My
argument is that lockdowns and social distancing measures are simply impossible
to implement during electioneering processes. Yet those are the measures so far
believed to be the most effective in curbing the spread of
Coronavirus. As such, countries that have chosen to proceed with elections have,
de facto, chosen to have people as much as possible move on with their normal
lives amid a pandemic. Which then justifies the claim that they could be
subscribing to a herd immunity school of thought, be it knowingly or otherwise.
Herd immunity in Africa: Elections amid a global pandemic
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
May 24, 2020
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