COVID-19 and Africa: Equations, Epistemologies, and Experiences

COVID-19 and Africa: Equations, Epistemologies, and Experiences

Wednesday 19 June 2024, 2pm – 5.15pm

University of Oxford / in person and online

Lecture Room VIII, Saïd Business School

Register to join the seminar in person

Online registration closes 15 minutes before the start of the event. You will be sent the joining link within 48 hours of the event, on the day and once again 10 minutes before the event starts.

Conveners: Tolulope Osayomi, Erica Charters

Speakers will include:

Tolulope Osayomi (University of Ibadan, University of Oxford AfOx Visiting Fellow); Caesar Atuire (University of Oxford, University of Ghana); George Ogola (University of Nottingham); Janet Seeley (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Wakiso, Uganda / Africa Health Research Institute); Philip Bejon (Kemri Wellcome Trust Research Programme); Ruben Andersson (University of Oxford); Emilia Antonio (University of Oxford).

Early speculations on the global patterns of Covid-19 forecast that Africa would be deeply affected, with many global health leaders predicting high rates of the disease alongside medical, social, and political crises. Yet, most regions in Africa reported relatively low morbidity and mortality rates during the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers have termed this phenomenon ‘the African Covid-19 paradox’ (e.g. Osayomi et al., 2021). Various explanations have been advanced, including geographic, demographic, environmental, political, and cultural frameworks, alongside debates over the extent and reliability of Covid-19 testing, modelling, and data.

This workshop will examine Covid-19 data and its debates as they relate to Africa, as well as the ways in which this region has been represented and modelled during the pandemic. Significantly, this workshop will also integrate experiences of the pandemic with its portrayal in both medical and popular media. In particular, the workshop will probe concepts such as the controversial ‘poverty-as-a-vaccine’ hypothesis, which suggested that endemic poverty in Africa conferred immunity against Covid-19. Bringing together researchers from the humanities and social sciences as well as medicine, the workshop will analyse medical data, medical experiences, and medical representations, interrogating what ‘Africa’ itself signifies within the field of global health.

PROGRAMME

13:45	Arrival and tea/coffee
14:00	Welcome from Erica Charters (Oxford); Overview of AfOx: David Kerr (Oxford)
14:05- 14:55	Session One: Chair: Erica Charters (Oxford) Poverty as a COVID-19 Vaccine: The Danger of a Single Ontology: Tolu Osayomi (Ibadam/Oxford) Changes in Adult Life Expectancy in a Rural African Population During the COVID Pandemic: Joseph Mugisha (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda), Rob Newton (York), & Janet Seeley (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda) Covid-19 as a ‘Politico-health’ Crisis: Reflections on Africa’s Economies of Information Control: George Ogola (Nottingham) WHO, and its Covid Missteps in Africa: David Bell (Leeds)
14:55-15:30	Discussion and Q&A
15:30-16:00	Tea/coffee and comfort break
16:00-16:40	Session Two: Chair: Toby Greene (Kings College London) Funding COVID-19 Research in Africa: Addressing Challenges and Planning for Future Pandemics: Emilia Antonio (Oxford) An African Reading of the Covid -19 pandemic and the stakes of decolonization: Caesar Atuire (Oxford/Ghana) Covid in Kenya: Philip Bejon (Kemri Wellcome Trust) The 'Wreckonomics' of Pandemic Policy: Ruben Andersson (Oxford)
16:40-17:15	Discussion and Q&A

Spatial and temporal evolution of COVID-19 cumulative cases (per million) in Africa. From Koanda, O., Yonaba, R., Tazen, F. et al. Climate and COVID-19 transmission: a cross-sectional study in Africa. Sci Rep 13, 18702 (2023).

Members of the People's Vaccine Campaign of South Africa (PVC-SA) protest outside the Johnson & Johnson offices in Cape Town, South Africa in March 2021. EFE/EPA/NIC BOTHMA.

Medical Humanities Research Hub