Nancy Solomon: I'm Nancy Solomon in for Tanzina Vega. This week on the show, we've talked about disparities in global vaccine distribution, and the continent of Africa is one glaring example. According to NPR, countries there have administered less than 2% of global vaccine doses despite making up 17% of the world's population. To date, the African continent has seen a relatively low number of reported cases, but scientists fear this may be due to an undercount. That could lead to uncontrolled spread and mutations of the virus. In Kenya, cases rose significantly in March and hospitals have been running out of oxygen. Today, we're going to hear from Beryl Akun, a doctor in Nairobi, Kenya, with the African Medical and Research Foundation. Dr. Akun, thanks so much for being with us.
Beryl Akun: Thank you.
Nancy Solomon: What are you seeing there in Kenya in terms of COVID cases?
Beryl Akun: Currently, we have rises in numbers of COVID cases. Just like you've said, the hospitals are full, we have run out of ICU spaces for our patients. Things are not looking really good. We also have quite a rise in the number of everyday deaths compared to what we had previously. It's pretty bad down here.
Nancy Solomon: What's daily life like in Kenya right now in terms of the pandemic? Are things shut down or are people out and about and in restaurants and that sort of thing?
Beryl Akun: We are actually on a partial lockdown as I speak. In Kenya, we have things called counties, which I think in your country could be things like towns, something like that. Different towns that have high numbers of COVID patients have been locked down, so no movements within those towns, or outside those towns. Restaurants have been locked out, bars are not functioning, public vehicles have been halted, the movement. Our lives have been affected quite a lot because people who are dependent on these kind of things, on the vehicles to travel into their businesses and different kinds of livelihoods come from different kinds of activities.
Most of these activities have been halted here due to COVID. It's really affected people because people have lost their jobs. People have had to be sent out of their homes because they cannot pay rent, it's affected as much. Economically, socially, financially, in all ways. We're not going to church, even spiritually, because the churches are closed as well.
Nancy Solomon: It sounds very difficult. Let's talk about vaccinations, what's been the access in Kenya so far to getting a vaccination?
Beryl Akun: Kenya received the first shipment of vaccines, which were a million doses. This was meant to be for healthcare professionals, first. They were supposed to get the first priorities. Then we go to the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, then if any other vaccines, we have any extras, they'll be given to others. We are a population of up to 50 million, so the 1 million doses we got are like a 10th of what we are supposed to be getting.
Pretty much, there's a rush, we have the vaccine, but people are fighting for it. Even the healthcare professionals, not everyone has gotten vaccinated, yet. Already there's a rush, we are running out of it. Most hospitals are already complaining of running out of stock of the vaccine.
Nancy Solomon: What about the cost? These vaccines were supposed to be free of cost, what's happening in Kenya around that?
Beryl Akun: The vaccines were supposed to be free and actually are supposed to be free, but due to large numbers of patients and demands of this vaccine, some hospitals are already taking advantage of this situation. It depends on how much money you can give so that you get the vaccine because you want your parents vaccinated, you want your grandparents vaccinated. There's quite a number and Nairobi being the capital city of Kenya, most people prefer bringing their old folks to Nairobi to get the vaccine.
This is increasing the number of demands of vaccines in hospitals. Most hospitals with high demands, they prefer to charge so that to control the traffic that's coming in for vaccination, because when it's free, everyone else is going to get there when they put a price tag to it, it's going to push away some people. Especially the private hospitals, some of the public hospitals, they are already charging the vaccine which is supposed to be free for everyone.
Nancy Solomon: It sounds like then there must be an enormous inequity in terms of who is able to get vaccinated if the system is being kind of weeded out because of those who have money.
Beryl Akun: Yes, that's true.
Nancy Solomon: What are you seeing in terms of hesitancy about getting vaccinated there?
Beryl Akun: At first when the vaccine arrived, because of what we used to hear of the side effects and the complications and everything that could arise because of the vaccine, guys were scared. People were scared, and very few people actually went there voluntarily to get the vaccine. After we saw quite a number of people who went for the vaccine and they're just fine, now people have accepted the vaccine, and everything else is just flowing. Now there's a rise of demands and people wanting to actually get vaccinated from all around the country.
Nancy Solomon: What does your hospital need and the people of Kenya need right now when it comes to getting COVID-19 under control?
Beryl Akun: Proper education about COVID to everyone else. Not everybody really is aware of this COVID. Up to date, we still have people who are doubting if there is COVID or not. First of all, the government and the Ministry of Health should put into place a team that goes out there to educate people on COVID. Number two, we have charges that were imposed on the COVID tests. They charged exorbitantly for that, very high prices, up to 10,000 shillings to charge for a COVID test. Number three, we now have the vaccine around but because they are not well informed about what to expect with the vaccine, they tend to shy away from it because of the simple, simple complications or simple things that come after the vaccination.
Nancy Solomon: In terms of the government action that you talked about, like the need for education or the need for regulating these private markets, what are the obstacles for the Kenyan government from doing that? Is this a resource issue or is this a politics issue? We had enormous problems in the United States, with the Trump administration giving mixed signals about the epidemic early on. I'm trying to understand, how much of this is economics versus political belief system?
Beryl Akun: I think most of it here is a political belief system. I'm not really into the government and the system, but from what I hear here, we are getting donations that are COVID-related. We got donations when COVID first came, we are still getting donations from different countries, even the PPEs that we lack, we got a donation from, was it Jack Ma or somebody? We got a whole shipment of PPEs, which we never received.
At some point, they turned out to selling it. The people who received it brought it to the market and started selling the PPEs to us, things that were supposed to be given to us for free. I think it's more of the administration and the political system other than anything financial or economical.
Nancy Solomon: Is that causing any reaction from the citizens of the country, is this destabilizing the political situation there?
Beryl Akun: The political situation looks pretty stable, before we had this second lockdown, we had our first lockdown when this thing first hit hard. When we had our first lockdown, things were under control, people told, "You wear your mask, make sure you're protected, maintain the social distancing, avoid shaking hands," and everything else that we needed to do. Most people followed those rules. There was a documentary that was done with one of our news presenters that showed actually how the donations that we receive regards COVID are being squandered by the politicians. People got tired. Then people said, no. It's at that point that people started not believing that there is really COVID in the country.
Guys just became careless, those who used to wear masks stopped wearing masks, people just started mingling, and things just became chaotic. I think that's why we have the surge we have right now. Because even our politicians, they went out there and started holding their political rallies. Our political rallies hold quite a number, like up to 10,000 people. There's no social distancing. There's no putting on masks. People started mingling, and when the third wave came along, we have a lot of numbers, and actually, currently, we are blaming the government for getting us to where we are right now. It's just that they don't listen to us or our representation is not as strong as it should be, but we blame them much for where we are right now. They really messed us because of their political needs. They started calling on the rallies, getting people into large numbers, dishing out money, so they messed everything up again.
Nancy Solomon: I hope things improve there soon. It sounds very, very difficult. Dr. Beryl Akun is a doctor in Nairobi, Kenya, and the African Medical Research Foundation. Thank you so much for joining us.
Beryl Akun: Thank you, too, for having me here.
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