Stigma surrounding coronavirus could stifle response in Africa
02 August 2020
Arbitrary and sometimes harsh quarantine rules and a lack of information about the coronavirus have contributed to a culture of stigma around the virus in parts of Africa, which is approaching 1 million cases, AP reports.
Why it matters: Coronavirus patients were being treated “just like the way, early on in the HIV epidemic, patients were being treated,” Salim Abdool Karim, chair of South Africa’s COVID-19 ministerial advisory committee, told the World Health Organization last month. That's hampering nations' ability to control the coronavirus pandemic.
- Karim said it has lead to people avoiding testing for fear of being ostracized.
What's happening: People at one quarantine facility in Kenya told the AP their money was rejected by the staff and the surrounding community when they tried to buy food. At another, kitchen staff declined to serve sickened people.
- Central African Republic Health Minister Pierre Somse said humanitarian workers have been targeted because of beliefs that Westerners brought the virus to the country.
- Aid workers in Uganda said the vehicles used to conduct contact tracing, with horns and sirens, have instilled fear in some communities.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.