1st January 2021 and Ebola, a thread

In December 2013 West Africa was hit by an outbreak of Ebola. Between then and January 2016, 11,323 deaths from Ebola were recorded, with a mortality rate of approaching 50%

Ebola is a Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (VHF), a group of diseases that cause death through uncontrollable internal and external bleeding. VHFs are diseases that hardened healthcare professionals fear

In one year, 2011, 9.5m Africans died with around 400,000 dying directly due to nutritional deficiencies

In the first two full years of the Ebola outbreak, $459m was pledged by international donors to fight the outbreak

Undernourishment in sub-Saharan Africa alone, rose between 2010 and 2016 from 181m to 222m people

Back home, the cost of measures introduced because of Covid has been £215bn to date and are estimated by the ONS to increase to £394bn for the full year to April 2021. These are the full costs, not just costs of treatment

A vaccine against Covid is expected to have been delivered to all of the UK population by the end of 2021

Brexit, by contrast, has cost the country an estimated £200bn so far, close to equalling in four years the £216bn of contributions that the UK made to the EU between 1973 and 2018

The effects of Brexit effectively begin in 2021, while the effects of Covid should largely end in 2021

So why does a disease that killed 11,000 people get more international donation than something that kills over 1,000 daily, and why does a disease with a claimed 1% death rate get more spend to alleviate its effects than a long-term economic blight?

Rich people.

Rich people - policy makers, members of Parliament, hedge fund managers can’t catch malnutrition on a flight they are taking somewhere.

Rich people - policy makers, members of Parliament, hedge fund managers can’t catch the effects of Brexit as it sweeps through the country in 2021. They are insulated.

Until they are affected directly, nothing ever matters. END/