Haiti During COVID-19

Intro Music

Intro:[0:23] COVID-19 is a deadly pandemic that has ravaged economies, torn apart industries, and ripped apart millions of families. According to Researchers, in over a year, COVID-19   has hit poor and vulnerable countries the hardest, threatening decades of hard-won gains while exacerbating existing inequalities in the poorest countries. However,  apparently this does not apply to Haiti which only has 12,736 cases and 252 deaths. Today on A Conversation With Camari we will delve into how Haiti, a low income which lacks many prominent resources needed to contain a global pandemic in which many thought would ravage the country that has little access to healthcare has done such an amazing job in containing the virus compared to other countries. Joining us today is Moeisha Ciceron, who is of Haitian descent and was in able to provide depth answers as to what were some of the public health measures that Haiti took into place and here is what she had to say

[1:24]

Moeisha:[1:24] Haitian leaders were meeting with international health organizations such as the World Health Organization, to discuss precautions that they could take and encouraging them to shut down their borders in the beginning as well.  They didn't allow foreign visitors basically, shutting airports down because  they didn't want anybody who could possibly bring in the disease to bring in the disease. But unfortunately, their actions were a little delayed because it had already been carried into the country by tourists.

Camari:[2:05}  In 2019, Haiti averaged around 938,000 tourists with the industry bringing in an average revenue of around 703 million United States dollars. Having to close the country, effectively lost all revenue from one of the nation’s top industries, revenue that could have gone towards help with the next deadly natural disaster.

Music [2:34]

Camari:[2:47] During a Global Crisis such as COVID it is extremely important for a country to have compliance and leadership as Leadership has the power to make or break the nation and also withhold information, which is kind of sad because you'd think they'd want to express everything that is detrimental to the people of their perspective Country. Compliance is also seen as a necessity in surviving a deadly pandemic as citizens compliance can make the country look like New Zealand or the United States. Organizations such as the World Health Organization also recommend wearing masks in order to reduce transmission or further passing the virus. 2021, or the United States, which leads the world in cases. 

Moeisha: [3:10] There’s been civil unrest with the current leadership so a lot of crime a lot of looting and in these videos that I have been seeing I have not been seeing them wearing masks, I have not been seeing the being affected by COVID as much as I have seen it over here.

Music [3:32]

Camari: [3:50] The reason for this civil unrest is that according to https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/haiti-civil-unrest-mdrht017-dref-final-report Civil unrest over corrupt government and its policies since July 2018 has severely affected Haiti and has resulted in a social, security and economic crisis which further deteriorated its precarious humanitarian situation. This crisis is such an issue in regards to the country’s response to covid due to the fact  that according to https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2021/3/16/how-haitis-political-crisis-is-fanning-vaccine-fears this constitutional chaos  is overshadowing the country’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout,  thus provoking a vaccine hesitancy and  fewer immunitisations. The reason as to why Haiti having few immunisations is thai ts residents might  not be eligible for widespread vaccination until 2023 or 2024, according to estimates from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center in Durham, North Carolina, thus with so few residents being vaccinated could lead to a potential surge in cases if an individual who has the virus comes into contact with a Haitian

Moeisha: [5:13] . I really think that just because they have such low cases as well that getting the vaccine is really something that they're not pushing for. But as of right now, I feel like along as Haiti's keeping their numbers low and that they're being very mindful of who they're allowing into their country and just like screening properly and making sure that nobody is testing positive for covid is entering their country, and if they do decide to open their borders to someone who had covid in the past, comes and gets in contact with the Haitian person who hasn't received the vaccine, that might cause a spread. But I guess we're going to have to just see how that plays out.

Music: [6:04]

Outro: [6:28] Well that is our time for today   Moeisha thanks so much for joining us, we’d love to have you back and thank you to our listeners for tuning in today. A conversation with Camari is a conversation with the community. This podcast was produced by Camari Alexander for the Spring 2021 Global Health class at Guilford College.