90% of Corpses Test Positive for COVID-19... Was Africa's 'Tragedy' Concealed? [Reading Science]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Last year, a U.S. research team visiting a large morgue in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, Africa, was shocked. When they conducted COVID-19 virus tests on the stored corpses, as many as 90% tested positive. This was a moment of harsh reality, revealing that Africa, which was thought to have suffered less from COVID-19 due to its relatively young population, was actually in a serious situation.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020, scientists feared massive damage in Africa, where medical and healthcare systems are poor. However, despite low vaccine distribution, the official damage on the African continent has been reported as not significant. The scientific community calls this the "Africa paradox." But circumstantial evidence has emerged showing that the actual damage caused by COVID-19 was much more severe. Long-term tests on corpses stored in morgues revealed that over 30% tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

According to the international academic journal Nature on the 25th, a research team from the University of Massachusetts in the U.S. investigated about 1,000 corpses at a morgue in Lusaka, Zambia, between 2020 and 2021, finding a COVID-19 positivity rate of 32%. Especially in the second half of last year, when the Beta and Delta variants were rampant, 90% of the tested corpses were found to have the COVID-19 virus. The problem is that only 10% of these had tested positive for COVID-19 before death, while the remaining 90% had not. It is possible to speculate that most COVID-19 patients died without proper testing or treatment.

The Zambian government’s official count of COVID-19 deaths remains only 4,000 out of a population of 19 million. However, from January 2020 to the end of last year, the total excess deaths in Zambia?that is, deaths exceeding the expected number under normal pre-COVID-19 conditions?amounted to 80,000, which is 20 times the official death count.

A similar situation is found in neighboring South Africa. The South African government reported that only 4-6% of the population was infected in two areas. However, a university research team in South Africa revealed through their own study that as many as 62% of the subjects had been infected with COVID-19 at least once between June 2020 and August 2021.

Professor Christopher Gill of the University of Massachusetts said, "80% of the tested subjects had never been hospitalized and lived in low-income residential areas. COVID-19 spread among people who were already stressed and unhealthy, and no one was vaccinated, wore masks, or received medical services." He particularly expressed concern that "thinking Africa is relatively safe from the COVID-19 pandemic could put people at risk and lead to viewing vaccine supply to African countries as not urgent."