“The West ignores the stories of Africans in the middle of the Ebola outbreak”
“Once again, sensationalism and generalization seem to be the only ways that Africa can be presented in the West. Once again, my country, Sierra Leone, along with Liberia, Guinea and, as far as some are concerned, the entire African continent, makes news because of a crisis. Is this the only time we are relevant? Why is it that, once again, even those who have never set foot on our continent seem to think they know all about us?”
All the things, all the things. The way that the coverage of the patient in Dallas is taking a ‘well, we knew it!’ tone and exploiting the fact that there are some children who interacted with the man with ebola. The way that those articles don’t say until halfway down the page that no public health officials see any kind of threat to the US. The cover of Bloomberg Businessweek which is almost unbelievable (the article is about bureactratic redtape, the cover is about a bloody zombie apocalypse). Ugh, media, taking the narrative of least resistance. And now Liberians in Texas are experiencing racist comments.
So, two positive stories from yesterday!
“Wards were reconfigured to add space between beds, put in washing stations with chlorinated water and create rooms where doctors and nurses could carefully don and remove protective gear. They worked in teams of two so they could watch each other and prevent mistakes.
Also, according to a C.D.C. study released Tuesday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, inaccurate news media reports before the government began offering official information “created a nationwide scare.””
and
“Thousands of young educated but idle people abound since schools and universities have been closed for months. So it was no problem for Department of Children and Family director, Victor Fayah, to do recruiting for a non-paying job.
“We received the first 2,000 people and now we’re above 4,200 people,” Fayah said. “There is more people still coming in with their CV [resume] willing to go to all the counties, to go to the rural villages, to walk even, eight hours walk to get to some villages, to talk to our people in their language that they can understand, the best way that they can understand the issue of Ebola.””
