Whatever politics might be going on with information just has to stop. Before now, NCDC shared particular details about cases like if it was a new independent case or from already confirmed cases. This has provided a factual counter narrative to misinformation out there. Now, it's a freefall... yesterday it was a man at LUTH, today it's a medical doctor in Osun whose infant child is positive and has supposedly spread it to many others including children and doctors/nurses treating the child at OAUTH. This is not the time for political PR, the relevant authorities should allow NCDC do it's job.
Firstly, as at Saturday, I think the Lagos State commissioner has verified the LUTH incident.
More importantly, on the issue of testing, as a friend pointed out, we need to know how many people have been tested, not just how many tests, as some people get repeated testing to confirm status.
The information gap and lack of coordination has left room for unverified sources to present critical information to the public and that cannot bode well for the purposes of fighting a scourge as this.
And yes, we need to understand why Africa seems to be having it a little better, with respect to critical illness of the infected. Maybe some of the myths we hear are true after all, like climate and age.
Lastly, the populace don't seem to take the lock down seriously. Are there reasons for these? What is the sociology of the Nigerian character that makes it less likely to feel the need to isolate too deeply?
Hi Emmanuel. Please share a link to the State Commissioner's statement if you have it so I can update accordingly. I agree with your point on testing, as the way it's counted technically includes repeated tests. We need to know the number of people tested.
On the populace, I can't say I know why people cannot internalize the seriousness enough to take lockdown seriously - the same can be said for social distancing. I will lean more towards economic considerations here - these measures are just too disruptive to how people make a living, hence they will test the enforcement to know if there is room for arbitrage.
Whatever politics might be going on with information just has to stop. Before now, NCDC shared particular details about cases like if it was a new independent case or from already confirmed cases. This has provided a factual counter narrative to misinformation out there. Now, it's a freefall... yesterday it was a man at LUTH, today it's a medical doctor in Osun whose infant child is positive and has supposedly spread it to many others including children and doctors/nurses treating the child at OAUTH. This is not the time for political PR, the relevant authorities should allow NCDC do it's job.
Firstly, as at Saturday, I think the Lagos State commissioner has verified the LUTH incident.
More importantly, on the issue of testing, as a friend pointed out, we need to know how many people have been tested, not just how many tests, as some people get repeated testing to confirm status.
The information gap and lack of coordination has left room for unverified sources to present critical information to the public and that cannot bode well for the purposes of fighting a scourge as this.
And yes, we need to understand why Africa seems to be having it a little better, with respect to critical illness of the infected. Maybe some of the myths we hear are true after all, like climate and age.
Lastly, the populace don't seem to take the lock down seriously. Are there reasons for these? What is the sociology of the Nigerian character that makes it less likely to feel the need to isolate too deeply?
Hi Emmanuel. Please share a link to the State Commissioner's statement if you have it so I can update accordingly. I agree with your point on testing, as the way it's counted technically includes repeated tests. We need to know the number of people tested.
On the populace, I can't say I know why people cannot internalize the seriousness enough to take lockdown seriously - the same can be said for social distancing. I will lean more towards economic considerations here - these measures are just too disruptive to how people make a living, hence they will test the enforcement to know if there is room for arbitrage.
Back to the point I made in an earlier post. This attitude towards lockdown is what you get for a microenterprise-powered economy.
Survival trumps covid.