When politics comes into the equation in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we don’t do well. That was the view of the country’s Health Attaché Dr Nomonde Nolutshungu who is based at the South African Embassy in Washington D.C.
Dr Nolutshungu, an epidemiologist and public health expert, believes the collaboration between her government and the United States during this pandemic has been strong as she navigates the best sources of information – including the World Health Organisation, US Centres for Disease Control and the broader US Government.
“You probably have seen the support with ventilators, now with oxygen and with the new medication that is coming up, remdesavir – SA is the first country to have a discussion with Gilead Sciences about how to make it available and accessible to SA. That’s the kind of work that we do from this end.”
She gained valuable insight into the relationship between science and politics when she worked in the Department of Health as a Cluster Manager for the HIV and Aids response in South Africa in the mid-2000s and reflected on how she has identified similar issues in the US response to COVID-19.
“Even here what we see coming through, you know the example of Ambassador (Deborah) Birx at the head of President Trump’s Commission dealing with the pandemic, you can see her straddling between the science and the politics of it because I’ve been through a situation like that too but because you understand that this thing needs to be done, some will beat you for sides with this side or that side, but you focus on getting stuff done on the ground.”
“Politicians Sherwin will always be politicians. Our role as public health specialists is to make sure we deal with the real issues, try and get the politicians to understand, pushing with scientists and with workers on the ground to do what needs to be done. Inspire the doctors, inspire the nurses, inspire the community health workers to push the work. Politicians can manage politics,” Dr Nolutshungu explains.
Preparedness for next pandemic
As the US Government discusses its latest stimulus package for a battered economy after a number of bills to the tune of trillions of dollars have already seen passage, the big lesson according to Dr Nolutshungu is how countries like South Africa prepare for the next pandemic.
“The United States has the capacity to call Congress and say we need another stimulus, they can do that. Can we? I’d say obviously no. We are not in that same position; so this virus has highlighted those disparities of development, particularly economic development between the North, West and the South. So we need to do a lot of work to ensure there is economic development as we deal with the pandemic as well.”
On the reopening of schools, she pointed to following WHO guidelines which are clear.
“All of the advice that’s coming from the WHO is applicable. And all of those advices actually do work as we have seen in the work that has been done in New York, in New York State for instance. So when politics comes into the equation, we don’t do well – that’s the experience in the other states. Now, they’re going back to lockdown and we don’t want to get into that situation in SA.”
And as economies continue to reopen, South Africa’s health attaché in Washington believes broad-based antigen and antibody testing and the importance thereof cannot be understated.
“We don’t have enough antibody testing at this point even at the early times in the Eastern Cape where the hotspots were identified to be Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City, I was thinking already about sentinel surveillance but we didn’t have antibody testing at that time, I think that that is critical. Also, as we open economies now… antigen testing to find cases that are critical, particularly, for those with symptoms and those who come from the hotspots. So, testing, testing, testing – it cannot be overstated. I wish that all of the companies that are developing these tests could build up more capacity to make these tests available, that is a critical step in the management of this pandemic.”
Critical insights from a public health expert grappling with the cross-cutting experiences of representing Africa’s epicentre for coronavirus while also living in the capital of a global hotspot.
Dr. Nomonde Nolutshungu, based at the South African Embassy in Washington D.C. spoke exclusively to SABC’s Sherwin Bryce-Pease (Full Interview):
