Why are most Africans not taking the covid 19 pandemic seriously?

Despite the fatalities caused by the covid 19 pandemic in the entire world Africans seem not to really take this diseases seriously. During the lockdown there were frequent movements to local stores even when there really was no need to go there. There were incidences whereby police had to chase away people from the streets.

The first reason why Africans seem ignorant is they have been living in agonizing poverty for years. To them one way or the other they are going to die. The have been cartoons making circles around social media whereby they say if you stay indoors you will die of hunger. If you go outside corona virus will kill you so either way it is a matter of choosing how you die.

Secondly unlike in countries like Italy and China were masses perished because of this pandemic, the death toll in Africa has been steadily increasing. A lot of families have not yet been directly impacted with the virus. They watch it on news and hear about it through social media platforms but have not actually seen how deadly it is. It’s hard to imagine something that you haven’t really gone through or you have just heard about until it actually catches up with you or the people close to you.

Another example of people not taking this pandemic seriously are the people in quarantine in Zimbabwe. There have been reports that they are demanding more condoms as they finished four boxes in 24 hrs. This proves they are not even practicing the social distancing of being at a least meter apart. People just have a mindset of thinking that they are immune to the disease. It’s easier to accept that covid 19 kills but people just cannot seem to accept that even people close to them could contract it or even themselves. It’s always others and not us.

The other reason why Africans seem ignorant about covid 19 is actually lack of education about the virus. Take for example people who are staying in rural areas where news travels a bit slow. The news got to them about the national lockdown because of the corona virus but they have no idea what that is or how it is transmitted or why it would require for them to stay at home. 

Either way people ought to stay safe or perhaps get more informed about the disease that way we can all avoid a huge catastrophe.