The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will not seize to amaze us for the very wrong reasons.
Africans on Twitter have reacted to BBC’s outrageous theory over the coverage of the Coronavirus pandemic in Africa.
A tweet made by BBC was seemingly say racist, negative and propagates harmful stereotypes about the Africa continent.
The BBC had in a series of reports from the start of the pandemic to date presented reasons why the Coronavirus will either wreck havoc on the continent or why Africans were not dying enough from the pandemic using headlines such as ,“Coronavirus in Africa: Contained or unrecorded?”, “Coronavirus in South Africa: The lullabied before the surge? Coronavirus: Could African countries cope with the outbreak? among others.
The worst of it’s kind in recent times was on Thursday shared on the verified Twitter handle of BBC Africa posted with the slug linking low death rates on the continent to poverty.
It reads, “Coronavirus in Africa: Could poverty explain mystery of low death rates?”
The report written by BBC Africa Correspondent, Andrew Harding, said in part, “Crowded townships, poor hygiene. The impossibility of social distancing in communities, where large families often share a single room. For months health experts have been warning that living conditions in poor, urban communities across Africa are likely to contribute to a rapid spear of Coronavirus…but what if the opposite is also true? What if those same crowded conditions also offer a possible solution to the mystery that has been perplexing experts on the continent for months.
“What if- and this is putting it rather crudely – poverty proves to be the best defence against Covid-19.”
Incensed by the report and seeming association of Africa with poverty, Africans reacted by questioning the motive behind the story.
See screenshot below;
Notable among the response is that of @Maaziezeoke which says, “Can you stop this insults! You predicted we will all die because of lack of healthcare facilities, to your disappointment we survived, Now we have low death rate because of poverty?”
