Pandemic reopens old wounds between Africa and the West

Many hoped the interconnectedness of humanity would take on this incurable, infectious disease which does not choose race or ethnicity, with its terrifying reality of death tolls rising daily and possibility of world economy collapse.

Optimists believed the pandemic brought together divided societies to imagine a shared future. Some even called it the great equaliser.
Pessimists predicted a tightening of laws to keep out immigrants, closing of national borders and increased surveillance by governments. The virus infected equally, however the impact was based on socio-economic status, they said.
Racism manifested quickly as incidents against people of Asian origin began.
It, however, took a conversation on coronavirus by two French Doctors—Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group and Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris—on television to shatter “the we are all in this together” myth for Africans.