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WEDNESDAY,APRIL8,2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O NEWS | A
As a surge of social-media disin-
formation begins to jeopardize
health efforts to fight the CO-
VID-19 pandemic, some African
countries are reacting with a new
tactic: criminal charges and
threats of imprisonment for the
spreaders of falsehoods.
The flood of conspiracy theo-
ries – largely on Facebook, Twitter
and WhatsApp – is hampering a
crucial campaign to expand test-
ing for the coronavirus in South
Africa, where many people are
now refusing to have it done.
It has also sparked opposition
to Chinese medical aid in Nigeria,
led to the destruction of a virus
screening centre in Ivory Coast
and triggered hostility to interna-
tional groups that are developing
vaccines.
South African police, in re-
sponse, have arrested eight peo-
ple for disseminating false infor-
mation, including a 55-year-old
Cape Town man who appeared in
court on Tuesday after posting a
message on WhatsApp in which
he urged people to refuse to be
tested for the coronavirus, falsely
claiming that the tests could
spread the virus. Under emergen-
cy laws, he faces up to six months
in prison if convicted.
In Botswana, under emergency
powers legislation, a man has
been charged with using Whats-
App to spread a false rumour
about a death from the pandemic.
In Kenya, a man was arrested
for allegedly publishing false
claims that thegovernment was
lying about a virus case.
Human-rights groups have
criticized the emergency regula-
tions as excessive and dangerous.
And the arrests seem to be ineffec-
tive: The disinformation has con-
tinued relentlessly, despite the
criminal charges.
Much of it is fuelled by a mis-
trust ofgovernments and scien-
tists. After the arrest of the Cape
Town man, Twitter was immedi-
ately filled with dozens of tweets
from South Africans who insisted
that his claims were correct.
But another reason for the pop-ularity of the conspiracy theorists
is their shrewd ability to tap into
the underlying anger over coloni-
al and neo-colonial interference.
After centuries of outside med-
dling in the continent, it has been
easy to convince many Africans
that foreigners are again targeting
them.
This led to one of the most ex-
plosive and widely spread false-
hoods: the much-repeated claim
that international organizations
such as the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation are using Africa as a
testing ground for a coronavirus
vaccine.
Trevor Noah, the South African
comedian and talk-show host,
said he received death threats
connected to the rumours after heinterviewed Bill Gates this week –
even though Mr. Gates said noth-
ing about Africa as a vaccine test-
ing place.
The African Transformation
Movement, a South African politi-
cal party with reported links to
former president Jacob Zuma,
sent a bizarre letter to President
Cyril Ramaphosa this week in
which it was suggested that Mr.
Gates was secretly plotting to “de-
populate the continent” by distri-
buting contaminated face masks
and using Africans as “guinea
pigs” for a vaccine.
Similar claims were made by
several popular Twitter accounts
in South Africa, including an
anonymous account with more
than 860,000 followers.South African health officials
said this week that the falsehoods
were hindering their effort to ex-
pand testing for COVID-19. Many
people were reluctant to be tested
and had to be begged to co-oper-
ate, they said.
The use of disinformation to
turn people against the testing
campaign is “destructive and
criminal,” said Siviwe Gwarube,
member of Parliament for the op-
position Democratic Alliance par-
ty.
Ryan Cummings, a director of
Signal Risk, an Africa-based polit-
ical and security risk consultancy,
said that the spread of disinfor-
mation has caused severe prob-
lems for health efforts in Africa in
the past. Health workers who
fought to contain polio outbreaks
in Nigeria and the Ebola outbreak
in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo were hampered by false ru-
mours that they were secretly in-
flicting harm on people.
“Disinformation of this nature
can spread faster than any virus
and ends up costing lives, both of
communities in dire need of med-
ical services and the front-line
workers administering health in-
terventions,” Mr. Cummings said.
Because of the frequent use of
encrypted messages to spread
false information about issues
such as the coronavirus, Whats-
App announced on Tuesday that
it will be imposing limits on the
forwarding of texts.
When messages have already
been forwarded to a chain of five
or more people, they will be
marked and limited, so that they
can only be sent on to individuals.
“We’ve seen a significant in-
crease in the amount of forward-
ing, which users have told us can
feel overwhelming and can con-
tribute to the spread of misinfor-
mation,” the company said on its
blog.ArrestsmountinAfricaoverCOVID-19disinformation
Severalcountriesturn
topoliceactionas
conspiracytheories,
distrustofgovernments
hindercampaigns
tocombatvirus
RiotpoliceconfrontprotestersinAbidjan,IvoryCoast,onMonday.Human-rightsgroupshavecriticized
emergencyregulationsinAfricancountriestoarrestpeopleaccusedofspreadingfalseinformation,calling
suchactionsexcessiveanddangerous.LUCGNAGO/REUTERSGEOFFREYYORK
AFRICABUREAUCHIEF
JOHANNESBURG
KIGALIFor Augustine Ngabon-
ziza, a survivor of Rwanda’s
genocide, it’s difficult not to
wonder whether God has be-
come more distant these days.
How else can one explain why a
country that always comes
together for the anniversary of
the killings is now confined at
home?
Every year on April 7, the
49-year-old Mr. Ngabonziza and
friends visit a memorial site in
the capital, Kigali, where they
lay a wreath for the more than800,000 genocide victims, in-
cluding his family members, and
pray for the dead. But on Tues-
day, 26 years after the genocide,
they could not go. The East
African country is under a na-
tional lockdown because of the
coronavirus and has deployed
police and military to make sure
people stay indoors.
“It’s terrible not to be able to
honour the dead,” Mr. Ngabon-
ziza told the Associated Press.
“We have gone through difficul-
ties, but this is horrifying.”The government banned the
Walk to Remember and a night
vigil at the national stadium,
among the most significant
events to mark the genocide.
The national commission for the
fight against genocide said even
group visits to memorials have
been suspended.
Instead, Rwandans followed
commemoration events on
television or social media as
President Paul Kagame lit the
flame of remembrance and
addressed the country.APRWANDANSMARK26YEARSSINCEGENOCIDEATHOMEAMIDNATIONALLOCKDOWNA battle is breaking out in Southwestern Ontario between
three long-term care facilities and local public health, with
health officials refusing to test elderly patients for COVID-
if they don’t have any symptoms.
The doctor serving the facilities says on at least two occa-
sions, Southwestern Public Health officials refused to pick up
swabs from residents who were transferred into long-term
care from hospitals.
The newly admitted residents were asymptomatic for the
coronavirus. The problem, Barry Roth says, is that elderly
people can carry the deadly virus without showing or being
able to express their symptoms, leading to fears of potential
outbreaks among the most vulnerable population.
“We want to know what’s coming into our facility. ... We
don’t want to stick our head in the sand and say, ‘Okay, let’s
wait and see if they get symptoms,’ ” said Dr. Roth, medical
director for Woodingford Lodge, which has three locations
and a total of 228 residents.
“Our whole goal during this thing is ‘Let’s keep COVID-
out of our facilities.’ These are our residents, we treat them
like I would treat my parents.”
Mark Dager, the facilities’ director, said the Local Health
Integration Network (LHIN), which helps co-ordinate pa-
tient care, asked the homes to take in elderly patients who
were in hospitals, even for the short term, to open up space
for a potential influx of new coronavirus cases. He also said
community admissions have not stopped amid the COVID-
pandemic.
“Our staff are coming to work each and every day and they
are presented with so much uncertainty,” Mr. Dager said. “We
need to do our due diligence and even swab the asymptomat-
ic individuals.”
Patients admitted to the facilities are automatically isolat-
ed for 14 days. But Dr. Roth said if all residents were tested, the
homes would be able to identify cases of COVID-19 earlier,
never missing a potential asymptomatic transmitter of the
illness. He said no one who was already admitted would be
removed from the home.
The battle comes as Ontario is being urged to change its
policy on admissions into long-term care homes to include
testing all residents, even if they don’t have any symptoms of
COVID-19.
Long-term care has been at the epicentre of the COVID-
crisis in Ontario. At Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon,
Ont., nearly half of the residents of the 65-bed nursing home
have died, while at least 24 staff members have tested posi-
tive. As of Tuesday, Ontario logged at least 51 outbreaks in
long-term care facilities across the province.
Ontario’s current directive for long-term care, from Chief
Medical Health Officer Dr. David Williams, states that testing
must be conducted “on every symptomatic resident and
staff,” including residents who are linked to a COVID-19 out-
break.
Dr. Joyce Lock, medical officer of health for Southwestern
Ontario, said she supports Dr. Williams’s guidelines for test-
ing only symptomatic residents. “We believe this approach
makes the best use of available resources and is in line with
the evidence and the guidelines,” she said in a statement.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical health
officer, said Tuesday that residents admitted into long-term
care can’t have symptoms or a fever, are quarantined for 14
days and monitored for symptoms twice a day. She said there
is no evidence people with the virus have been admitted
from hospitals into nursing homes.
Hayley Chazan, spokeswoman for Health Minister Chris-
tine Elliott, said Ontario can now conduct up to 13,000 tests a
day, and will look at testing more people, including those in
long-term care.
“We expect to have more to say about a new testing strate-
gy that makes full use of this capacity shortly,” she said.
DoctorsforOntario
long-termcarehomesface
offwithhealthofficials
overresidenttesting
LAURASTONE
QUEEN'SPARKREPORTER