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A thread on infection rates in SA, & the whitewashing of CT’s position.
“We have higher rates because we have tested more people”
By Robin Petersen
“We have higher rates because we have tested more people”
By Robin Petersen
This spin on the high infection levels of COVID-19 in the Western Cape by Premier Alan Winde and other DA leaders, has gained significant social media traction on “white-twitter,” as the case for Western Cape exceptionalism is brought under a harsh spotlight.
For the DA evangelists, it is so hard to swallow that the Province governed for so long by the DA, and widely proclaimed to be the model of professionalism, excellence, wealth and efficiency, has become the national COVID hotspot.
So, the spin takes on almost a comic form.
So, the spin takes on almost a comic form.
“We are doing worse because, in fact, we are so exceptionally good and other Provinces, run by the nasty and corrupt ANC, are so bad! We have tested more than any other Province and we have reported our deaths better than any other Province (because we are so superb!)”
Comic, were it not so tragic.
The simple facts are as follows. Gauteng has tested more people than the Western Cape. Nearly 50% more. 127,030 have been tested in Gauteng, and 82,865 in the Western Cape.
The simple facts are as follows. Gauteng has tested more people than the Western Cape. Nearly 50% more. 127,030 have been tested in Gauteng, and 82,865 in the Western Cape.
Yes, as a percentage of their total population, the Western Cape has tested more people, 1,211 per 100,000 as opposed to Gauteng’s 837, but this does not, in any way, account for the massively higher number of recorded infections. In fact, it shows the opposite.
Gauteng has tested 127,000 people, and of these have identified 2,343 positive cases. The Western Cape has tested 82,865 and of these 10,035 are positive. The difference in infection rates is stark. One in eight tested in the Western Cape are positive. One in sixty in Gauteng.
The death rates are similarly significant. 166 out of the total of the total of 286 deaths have occurred in the WC. Gauteng, by contrast, has had only 26 deaths. Similarly, the no. of active cases in the WC is almost 60% of the total infection rate, while in Gauteng it is 25%.
The spin must stop. The hard facts must be faced. The WC has a problem. And like the USA under Trump, who uses a similar form of bluster to attempt to hide the brutal facts of his America made supposedly great again under his leadership,
The reality of the underbelly of the exceptionalist dream must be confronted.
