“Rhetoric Vs Reality”: Confronting Difficult Truths in an Unequal Word through a Covid-19 Health-Care Lens
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Date
2020-10
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Abstract
The onset of the novel corona virus in Wuhan China, December (2019) and sporadic spread across the globe revealed gaping differences in the health-care of the “have’s and have nots”. Early indicators of the virus were linked to 44 cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology from 31st December (2019) through 3rd of January, 2020. It was only on 7th January that the novel coronavirus strain was isolated in China (WHO 2019). From these early uncertainties, 282 cases of 2019-nCoV were confirmed on January 20th (2020). In the western world, the escalation of the virus nearly crumbled existing health-care systems. With current global infections placed at 23,260,16, the virus has caused 805,802 deaths, out of these, 15,811,003 have recovered (Worldometer, 2020). The virus continues to display vast social and economic inequalities globally, even as states grapple to look for a cure. In Africa, the complexity in late reporting of the first case of Covid-19 explains unvoiced disparities. The first country in Africa, Egypt for example, reported its first case on February 14th (2020) way after the virus had stabilized in China and was ravaging Italy and Spain. Even then, when African countries started reporting the presence of the virus in their territories, the numbers were comparatively low. It could be argued that Africa is far behind in testing. As countries garner efforts to deal with the Covid-19 threat, there are evident cracks in handling of the health crisis in global south vis a vie the north. On a scale of contrasts, in Africa alone, endowed individuals could easily access treatment, they can afford to install equipment and purchase protective gears to use at home, as communities in rural and informal settings stampede to get free masks and food handouts. These disparities, echo similar contexts on the global scene, challenging the United Nations philosophy for an equal world. On July 18th 2020, on the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis and widening global inequalities, the UN Chief Antonio Gutteres pointed out the need for social protection inclusive of universal health care and basic income (Aljazeera 2020). As countries in the west advanced stimulus packages to cushion citizens from economic shocks occasioned by Covid-19, in some African countries employees were asked to take pay cuts to soldier an escalating health crisis. Through a qualitative approach to document analysis, this paper interrogates existing global social-economic inequalities envisioned through a Covid-19 health-care lens. It argues that perhaps the UN philosophy of an equal world exists only as rhetoric, comparatively to present realities. Instead, what we experience is unequal world.
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unequal world, rhetoric & realities, social-economic imbalances, health care, Covid-19
Citation
Radoli, L. O. (2020). “Rhetoric Vs Reality”: Confronting Difficult Truths in an Unequal Word through a Covid-19 Health-Care Lens