I've been thinking about that "Africa has been spared from Rona" nonsense from NPR.

About the narrowness of it. About the lie.

We have not been spared job losses.

Poor people were starving in their houses.

Low-income neighbourhoods have been demolished.

Girls have been raped. Some have been impregnated.

We don't yet have a full picture of domestic violence incidents, but I suspect they are high.

Workers have been forced to make impossible choices: to choose unsafe work conditions or not to work.

Friendships have been destroyed.

We don't have numbers, but I suspect many people have experienced mental health crises.

As reading Prof Benton's work taught me, we cannot imagine that Rona is one thing that requires singular focus.

Babies and children have not received immunisations.

We know cancer patients had not been receiving treatment.

We know there's a blood shortage crisis.

We know Rona has intensified existing inequalities and created new ones.

Rona as mismanaged system. Rona as stolen money and equipment.

So that NPR report was not only wildly inaccurate. It was damaging.