ISERP study featured in the Christian Science Monitor.
A new study finds societies with higher levels of trust have coped better against the virus. A country’s social compact helps in the healing work.
A year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, scholars are only now discovering why some countries have done better than others in containing the virus. The main reason isn’t better medical equipment or more money. Rather, according to researchers at Columbia University, the Brenthurst Foundation, and other institutions, it is higher levels of trust within a society.
... A number of countries in Africa stood out, which helps explain why a continent with 17% of the world’s population has had only about 3% of the COVID-19 cases globally. The study looked at Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, which represent close to half of Africa’s population.
“In those societies where trust in governments is historically low, greater reliance had to be placed on bottom-up approaches led by frontline health workers to disseminate the correct information,” the study found. “Africa’s health-care systems are largely nurse-driven, an asset that made bottom-up approaches workable.”
Read the full article here.
Read the ISERP study, led by Wilmot James: Epidemic/Pandemic Response in Africa: Covid-19 in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa
