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africa - despite having a population 3x our size - has had only a fraction as many covid deaths that we have seen in the usa this year (53k vs 280k+). it was projected to devastate the continent
africa is home to over 1 billion ppl and comprises 54 countries each experiencing its own covid struggle. but as a continent, africa is held to low expectations that are unwarranted (and, frankly, quite racist)
age distribution of africans skews young and that was a huge buffer in preventing high death rates. but it wasn't just the death rates - reported infection rates in africa have been lower than on any other major continent
african countries benefited from health infrastructure and public compliance that linger from the 2014 & 2018 ebola outbreaks on the continent, along w systems in place for hiv prevention. countries had begun to prepare before the first case hit the continent
many african countries were able to close their borders to recreational travel quickly (rwanda shut down within one week of its first case) and rural africans (about 2/3 of the population) were safe in their insularity
prevention, testing, and treatment of symptoms were rolled out quickly and have been grounded in the same science we all know to be effective
despite all this, the new narrative is that the downstream effects of covid will hit the continent harder than anywhere else. i hope we'll be surprised yet again.
