How Resource-Poor Burkina Faso Deals With Covid-19

The vaccine can protect those vaccinated from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it can’t stop them from transmitting it, even if there may be no outward signs of symptoms. Tengandogo is a private facility that treats the country’s most critical patients, but since March it has treated people with coronavirus free of charge. Where the timing is concerned, the situation in Burkina Faso runs a close parallel with Sri Lanka. This country’s health care system could be better resourced than Burkina Faso’s. But just how close has it come to being overwhelmed?

- Gamini Akmeemana

The anti-Covid-19 vaccines now being rolled out across the globe represent a medical triumph and should reduce the pandemic to a level we can live with before this year is out. But they also raise a host of other, sometimes disturbing, issues.

To start with, in case those getting vaccinated can get complacent, they will still need to wear masks and maintain social distancing. The vaccine can protect those vaccinated from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it can’t stop them from transmitting it, even if there may be no outward signs of symptoms.

The world will have to live with those contradictions until a new super vaccine comes along. But such dampers clearly mean nothing to millions across the globe now rushing to get the jab, often using influence, subterfuge and outright lies to get priority and jump queues.

In Canada, millionaire Casino executive Rodney Baker and his actress wife Ekaterina Baker were fined $ 1800 for posing as locals at a remote settlement for elderly indigenous people to get Moderna vaccines. But White River Nation elders said the fine would mean nothing to such wealthy people and demanded tough punishment.

In Orange County in the US, two women aged 33 and 44 who wore fake glasses and makeup to look older, trying to cheat their way to the second dose of vaccine, were spotted by law enforcement officials who told them: “You’ve stolen a vaccine from somebody who needs it more than you.”

Among those who have gained notoriety for queue-jumping are Spanish generals, Austrian mayors, Peruvian officials and Lebanese politicians.