President Magufuli of Tanzania who has made it a crime to even speak about coronavirus is on a ventilator in one of Nairobi Hospital’s ten presidential suites after attempts to transfer him quickly to India were aborted.
Like Trump, like Johnson, like Bolsonaro, the Head-of-State covid-denier is near death. Trump and Johnson were saved by medicine unavailable in East Africa. Bolsonaro had a mild case.
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“Pneumonia is our code word.” Reports from Tanzania this weekend suggest the country is spiraling into a terrible covid situation, a “second spike” not yet seen in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Because speaking about covid is against the law, doctors, activists and the patients themselves are referring to the situation as a “pneumonia epidemic.”
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Truth is growing! Even in the covid-denial island known as Tanzania a courageous voice has sounded: “The chief medical officer and the rest of officialdom [in Tanzania] have been hiding Covid-19 related deaths, [but] now the funerals are exposing us.”
Jenerali Ulimwengu has been a thorn in the side of established Tanzanian governments for years. He survives the brutality and imprisonment of most other local critics because he hunkers down when he needs to, constantly extols as his guiding star the father and founder of the Tanzanian country Julius Nyerere, and … because he’s very popular on YouTube.
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We are in the pandemic nadir: Yesterday the CDC listed 118 of the 197 countries in the world as virulent, out-of-control hotspots, and a handful including South Africa received the dreaded U.S. travel bans.
But of all the countries of the world there is only one that has an aggressive policy prohibiting any vaccination whatever: Tanzania.
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This blog is for old people who want to travel to Africa or similar places. Since old people are often spunkier and certainly smarter than young people, young’uns wouldn’t be wasting any time reading it, too. Just get your macchiato or Glenfiddich, whichever relaxes you best, find a rocking chair or bean bag then take a deep breath. Some brain scratching required.
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Travelers beware. As vaccinations ramp up and we all rush to get the shots you might be leaving yourself in the cold if you plan to travel abroad, especially to remote places like Africa.
Vaccination will come much later to developing countries even as the virus continues to rage there. Authorities will require travelers arriving from abroad to prove they have a valid vaccination.
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So finally we have evidence of exactly when it is likely to be safe enough to return to East Africa: June 1.
This isn’t said exactly right. This is the date that the most reliable, experienced safari companies in Kenya and Tanzania believe tourists will really return. I agree, though I think it will be much more slowly than they do.
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Travelers are miffed by the new CDC guidelines reducing recommended quarantine for Covid-19 to 7 days, since so many countries continue to require a 14-day quarantine for Americans following their arrival.
Note carefully how other countries in the world interpret this shameful move by the CDC. No other major public health authority in the world has shortened the recommended quarantine period.
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Kenya reports 3,458 Americans have so far entered the country as “tourists” this year. Down from a normal 225,000 Americans annually. The 3400 seems high; the statistic is tentative.
Following Moderna’s announcement this weekend of a second highly efficacious vaccine, my internet cable was cut by workmen but not until a ridiculous number of clients contacted me about booking flights. My reply? Patience. The time has not come yet.
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Hey, You Northern Hemispheric Dude! Remember when spring turned to summer and for brief periods you forgot about the virus? Unmasked walks and picnics with friends?
Despite that not being such a good idea, your friends on the other side of the world are going through that right now, and just like you they’re pretending.
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Patience, travelers. Chafing at the bit leads to rash decisions. Rash decisions in travel lead to lost money and terrible experiences.
Waiting is not a traveler’s forte, but without it now you could doom your traveling future.
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The President’s incompletely known virus situation this weekend drove the media to explain “viral load.” This provides travelers excellent information for predicting when they might be unshackled.
Viral load is the “amount of virus in the blood.” As a critique of the President’s irresponsible behavior, and as an indicator for travelers, we need to understand it.
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Wild animals and wildernesses are seriously endangered by the pandemic … not from disease, but from humans.
Poaching is increasing worldwide… not as in the past for black-market animals, but for food. Equally important communities worldwide are reducing their support for wildlife conservation, because wildlife authorities are ignoring the increasing human/wildlife conflict.
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Less developed societies register less sickness from Covid-19 than developed societies. The science is mounting particularly from Africa and leading to considerations that achieving “herd immunity” is the best path forward for less developed countries.
The more and better you look, the more you find. South Africa and Morocco, for example which are pretty developed countries, report virus impacts more similar to Europe than Kenya or Cameroon. On the other hand, there are intriguing anti-body studies in sub-Saharan Africa which suggest something more might be at work protecting Africa.
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When Americans might travel to sub-Saharan Africa is covered in two reports available today, one from a consortium of American scientists and one from the South African government.
I remain personally convinced that our travel abroad will be dictated by when we are vaccinated and for most EWT-type travelers this will be in the first few months of 2021. The South Africans disagree on two fronts. First, they believe they can provide safe tourist services before a vaccine is available, and second, they do not project American travelers will be vaccinated before July, 2022, at the earliest.
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