When outbreaks are big enough to overwhelm health-care systems, deaths soar, since even cases that might respond to treatment become deadly. Poor countries have fewer hospitals and doctors and less of the necessary kit, from ventilators to disposable gloves and gowns. This can lead to horrifying scenes like those witnessed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in April, when coffins ran out and bodies were abandoned in the streets.
Even poor countries can still do much to avoid such an outcome. As many have discovered, long-lasting lockdowns, ordered from on high, tend to be both hard to enforce and to come at a calamitous cost to the economy and to people’s overall health. But basic public-health campaigns, ideally in the hands of village councils, primary health-care clinics and so on, can promote practices like washing hands, wearing face-masks and social distancing. They can organise isolation for those with symptoms and press for amenities like clean water. Even in places where it is hard to empty the streets altogether, governments can ban big gatherings in confined spaces, be it sports stadiums or churches. And—cold comfort—once it becomes clear in any given country how deadly an uncontrolled outbreak is, the instinct for self-preservation will prompt people to isolate themselves, slowing covid-19’s progress.
Richer countries can do much to help. Some stricken places will need donations of simple supplies like testing kits and protective gear. Others will need debt relief, to free money to fight the disease. Humanitarian aid for war-torn countries and the refugees they create is even more urgent than usual. Better yet, the governments backing opposing sides in civil wars in places like Afghanistan and Yemen could urge their proxies to declare temporary truces, to bring a modicum of help to afflicted regions. Coronavirus outbreaks are deadly enough without the added misery of guns and bombs. ■
