COVID-19: How Africans Are Protected From Coronavirus Aside Hot Weather - Maurice Iwu

The President of Bioresources Development Group and a consultant pharmacognosist, Prof. Maurice Iwu, has pointed out other major factors that offer Africans some form of protection from the Coronavirus aside the hot temperatures in most parts of the continent. 

“An issue is high humidity in most African countries, not just hot temperatures. Because of the density of the virus in tropical Africa, it cannot travel far. That means the recommendation of two metres of social distancing does not apply here because the virus cannot go far,” he said. 

Iwu, who disclosed this to The Guardian, also raised the diet factor thus: “our food has more antioxidants. We take a lot of phytomedicines. A lot of our diets contain zinc, vitamin C and other antioxidants. People take all these on a daily basis without even thinking about it".

While explaining that there is also the social exclusion of Sub-Saharan Africa, he explained: “We are excluded from so many socio-economic activities going on in the West. The number of people who travel from just Milan to New York on a daily basis far outnumbers the air travels in most parts of Africa.

"So, the socio-economic exclusion from the global picture has protected us from the quick spread of the virus through frequent business travels and inter-continental movements.”

Iwu further cited the issue of seasonal flu vaccines common in most European and American countries, explaining that “most of these countries use flu vaccine. Once you take the flu vaccine and a new strain comes in, it will cause all the defence mechanisms to relax. This scenario makes most countries that use the flu vaccine more vulnerable to COVID-19".