Gambling with COVID-19 Makes More Sense: Ethical and Practical Challenges in COVID-19 Responses in Communalistic Resourc
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SYMPOSIUM: COVID-19
Gambling with COVID-19 Makes More Sense: Ethical and Practical Challenges in COVID-19 Responses in Communalistic Resource-Limited Africa David Nderitu & Eunice Kamaara
Received: 1 May 2020 / Accepted: 27 July 2020 # Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Pty Ltd. 2020
Abstract Informed by evidence from past studies and experiences with epidemics, an intervention combining quarantine, lockdowns, curfews, social distancing, and washing of hands has been adopted as “international best practice” in COVID-19 response. With massive total lockdowns complemented by electronic surveillance, China successfully controlled the pandemic in country within a few months. But would this work for Africa and other communalistic resource-poor settings where social togetherness translates to effective sharing of basic needs? What ethical and practical challenges would this pose? How would communalism be translated in special contexts to be useful in contributing to the ultimate common good? This paper uses examples from the current situation of COVID-19 in Kenya to address these questions.
Keywords COVID-19 . International best practice . Africa . Communalistic resource-poor . Ethical and practical challenges
D. Nderitu Egerton University, P.O. Box 536, Egerton, Rift Valley 20115, Kenya e-mail: [email protected] E. Kamaara (*) Moi University, P.O. Box 3900, Eldoret, Rift Valley 30100, Kenya e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to spread. By mid-April 2020, total global infections stood at more than 1.7 million and deaths surpassed 100,000 (World Health Organization 2020b). In China, the initial epicenter of COVID-19, stringent confinement of people living in high risk areas slowed down the spread of the virus (Lau et al. 2020). Consequently, governments across the world have been enforcing lockdowns, quarantines, curfews, and social distancing (de Figueiredo et al. 2020) combined with public health advice to frequently wash hands with soap or alcohol-based sanitizers, to wear face masks, and to avoid touching one’s face. While a combination of these measures is being touted as “international best practice”, these measures do not work in many African settings. In this essay we illustrate the practical and ethical challenges of each of these measures in communalistic resource-poor African settings and suggest a pragmatic paradigm in addressing the crisis in these contexts.
Practical Challenges of COVID-19 Response in Africa COVID-19 assumed a slow pace in the initial phase of the spread in Africa until the end of March 2020 (Johns Hopkins 2020) when infections rose significantly. As of April 29, 2020 a cumulative total of 34,610 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in fifty-two out of the
Bioethical Inquiry
fifty-four African countries (no cases reported in Lesotho and Comoros) and 1,517 deaths were confirmed (WHO Africa 2020). With more than 50 per cent of the world’s 700 million extremely poor people living in Sub-Saharan Africa (Singh 2020), the continent cou
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