08-15-2020, 08:38 PM
African countries generally do not have well developed public health departments. There isn't much testing. I can't imagine the statistics are dependable.
Other things to consider: Life expectancy in Africa is MUCH lower than it is here. For example, in Nigeria it is about 54 yo. There just aren't that many people over the age of 70, which is the age group with very high mortality. Another issue is that autoimmune disease is much less common in most of Africa than it is in North America and Europe. Different diets and more frequent parasitic infections are thought to be contributory. Since it is the inflammatory response that kills you most of the time with Covid 19, this could explain the low death rate. I doubt there is a different resistance to infection, but there is likely a different outcome from infection.
Other things to consider: Life expectancy in Africa is MUCH lower than it is here. For example, in Nigeria it is about 54 yo. There just aren't that many people over the age of 70, which is the age group with very high mortality. Another issue is that autoimmune disease is much less common in most of Africa than it is in North America and Europe. Different diets and more frequent parasitic infections are thought to be contributory. Since it is the inflammatory response that kills you most of the time with Covid 19, this could explain the low death rate. I doubt there is a different resistance to infection, but there is likely a different outcome from infection.