Today I was live on @AJStream sharing a panel to discuss the #COVID19 "exception" in Haiti and the slow vaccine rollout. I want to talk a bit more about this: (THREAD)

The death tolls and confirmed cases are not a reliable indication of how much coronavirus is in Haiti. There have been fewer than 60,000 tests administered in Haiti compared to 1.3 million in the Dominican Republic (the two countries share roughly the same population size).

Tests can cost $90, there are few options for public and free testing. That's 37 times the median income. People aren't getting tested and die at home undiagnosed.

"Everyone just calls it “the fever”, said Dr. Ralph Ternier for Partners in Health, a Boston-based non-profit known in Haiti as “Zanmi Lasante” that has been offering free COVID-19 tests and care. “Most people won’t go to the hospital for a fever or flu.” https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2021/3/16/how-haitis-political-crisis-is-fanning-vaccine-fears

I spoke with a young woman whose sister died suddenly one afternoon in July. She had symptoms of covid-19, but also a history of asthma. When she arrived at the clinic in Lascahobas in the Central Plateau there was nothing to be done. She was 38, a mother of 7.

In hard to reach areas of the country, and in areas of the capital where there is violence and insecurity, people are not going to the hospital. And if they are it is too late. These deaths are uncounted and cases are underreported.

At the very beginning of the pandemic there was stigma if you had coronavirus. A source I interviewed for my article said he had hid out in the south of Haiti after displaying symptoms in March because he had heard a neighbor suspected of covid-19 had their house burned.

Between the $151 million missing earthquake aid and $2 billion missing Petrocaribe funds, a lot of hesitancy is linked to mistrust in the government. Ppl I spoke w/ believe that Covid-19 is just another way for the govt to get their hands on more money.

Another quote from my article: “Trust takes time to build,” @JStPaul1 said. “It is through the implementation of new policies – policies that actually are responding to the real need of the Haitian people.”

Yes, there are other pressing needs in the country: insecurity, kidnappings, a constitutional crisis. But you can't compare Covid-19 to cholera. These are not the same diseases.

The rejection of AstraZeneca vaccines: I heard of two other offers that were left unanswered by the govt. When speaking with sources who sit on the covid taskforce they reported that moving forward depends on the political situation.

In an unpublished report provided to me looking at funeral homes in Port-au-Prince. There was a 25 percent increase in deaths held in 2020 v. 2019, in the capital alone, unexplained. That's 10k more deaths. There is simply not enough research done to say "Haiti dodged a bullet."

We just don't have enough evidence or research looking into how many people have been affected in Haiti, and the world's opening up post-coronavirus depends on every country being vaccinated.

(I have lived and reported in Haiti for the last 5 years. Two of those years I lived in the Central Plateau, and spent my days visiting communities that were 12 hours away by foot).