The global scramble to thwart COVID-19 has a vast blind spot: sub-Saharan Africa. We have a story on this today, but to understand the problem, consider the following data points... (THREAD) https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-the-worlds-coronavirus-blind-spot-fears-of-a-silent-epidemic-11598806800

Sub-Saharan Africa’s 46 nations, with a population of a billion people, have conducted a total of 6.3 million coronavirus tests. That is less than the state of New York, which has conducted eight million tests.

African nations are averaging around 5,000 tests per one million people, according to data from the African Union, compared with nearly 200,000 in the U.S and 500,000 in the United Arab Emirates.

And this data is actually far worse than it looks when you consider that three quarters of tests have been conducted by just four nations—South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia—which have done a great job at testing and transparently providing data.

Some governments are actively suppressing info on COVID-19. Tanzania outlawed coronavirus testing & declared its outbreak defeated, even as 100s die monthly from unexplained "respiratory problems." Equatorial Guinea expelled the WHO, accusing it of falsifying new cases

In South Sudan, govt forces have barricaded 1000s inside refugee camps claiming they're infected but refusing to conduct tests. Last month in Zambia, 28 people died at home in a single day with Covid-19-like symptoms while waiting for a tests the govt says it is "rationing."

Then there's Burundi, where the 55-year-old president, Pierre Nkurunziza died suddenly in June. The government said it was a heart attack, but diplomats and medical professionals believe he was the world’s first head of state to die from Covid-19.

This information vacuum has significant economic as well as epidemiological consequences: it could prevent African economies from fully reopening for years, aggravating an economic emergency the United Nations has warned is already pushing tens of millions into hunger.

Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology at Witts University in Johannesburg, said the testing figures across Africa were so incomplete they were "meaningless." The International Rescue Committee puts it thus: "We are fighting this disease in the dark.”