英米　２年
Professor Christian Otchia, thank you very much for your very interesting presentation today. Nowadays, the coronavirus is prevalent in every country, but I was very surprised to see that the number of infected people in African countries is low compared to other countries. I thought that developed countries had better sanitation and better measures against infectious diseases, so the number of infections was lower than in developing countries. But now I know that there is no such relationship. I also found the false information about coronaviruses very interesting. I had heard that drinking alcoholic beverages can help prevent coronaviruses. We are expected to be able to choose between true and false information from a lot of information. If each and every one of us can take appropriate action against this pandemic, we will be able to live a bright future.

英米　２年
Thank you for your presentation today. The topic was unfamiliar to me. I rarely have a chance to know about COVID-19 in Africa because the media rarely reports about it. I was surprised at the situation of COVID-19 in Africa. Compared to other countries, although the testing is also low, the number of deaths in Africa is very low. I also was surprised that though health care system isn’t fully developed in Africa, the recovery rate is high. I think people in Africa might have a strong immunity because they have experienced the pandemic of Ebola or Malaria. Ebola is a disease with higher infectious rates than coronavirus. Because of lack of infrastructure in Africa, some people are spending their lives in fear. I hope the vaccine will be distributed to people in Africa as soon as possible. As Professor Otchia said, there are also many pieces of fake news about coronavirus. I’ve heard about drinking alcohol protects people from get a virus. If this is true, perhaps many people will recover!! Our life-style has totally changed, but we have to keep active at not getting infected and be careful.

英米　２年
Today’s speaker was Christian Otchia and the topic was the COVID-19 situation in Africa. I didn’t know very much about it because the Japanese mass media seldom reports on it. Therefore, his presentation was fresh for me. It surprised me that in fact in Africa rumors and conspiracies, for example, a Chinese laboratory had made the virus intentionally and distributed all over the world, have been spread. This surprised me because the tendency also exists in Japan. It was not limited to COVID-19 and the American Presidential election. True information and false information have flooded our world. How on earth can I keep my media literacy in such a chaotic world?

英米　２年
Today’s topic was also interesting. I had not known that the rate of the COVID-19 is low in Africa, so I was surprised, and I thought I should get much more information to learn of other countries’ conditions related to COVID-19. The possible reasons of low rates in Africa is relevant to the warm temperature, little testing, and the experience with the Ebola virus. I was convinced by the explanation. Also, I was impressed that people make the best use of their past experiences, including the cases in South Korea. Japan should follow their example. In addition, I was very surprised at the condition of African hospitals and Professor Otchia’s explanation about the “White elephant”. It is too scary for some to go to hospitals even if they feel very bad with some virus. In this way, I could know somethings that were new for me, but very important things during this pandemic.

英米　３年
Thank you very much for your presentation today. It was packed with many insights I have been long curious about. I personally have grown an interest in the field of economics since last year and it was a pleasure to see a demonstration of development economics put into action using the case of COVID-19 in Africa. This pandemic has divided the world population into two groups: those who can work from the comfort of their home and those who must enter the survival mode and go out and run the risk of death. This was clear enough from the beginning of the pandemic and quite predictable to be honest in all countries no matter whether they are considered developed or not as this is a matter of income inequality, and thus, not surprising. The point of view that this presentation took, however, has intensively dragged my attention to this over-discussed topic, as it was filled with facts about African countries that I frankly had never heard of before, providing negative and positive impacts COVID-19 had on African countries. The idea of educating people through the local radio and the push the pandemic has had on African countries’ backs towards development was a completely fresh take to know about. Hopefully, although this has been a tragic time, this pandemic will become a new beginning to the world economy and may develop into one that includes African countries in a fairer manner.

ドイツ　１年
Thank you for the interesting presentation. I’m glad I was able to attend today’s class. After class I wanted to gather more information about COVID-19 around the world because the information I’ve been getting so far is all about Japan or rich countries. I learned about the situation of COVID-19 in Africa for the first time in today’s class. The most impressive topic was about vaccines. “Rich countries will get access to the COVID-19 vaccine earlier than others,” you said. I was able to understand that fact, but I didn’t feel comfortable with it. The world economy is now unstable and many people are suffering at the same time. Therefore I think we need to help and learn from each other to survive now. For example, infectious diseases occur frequently in Africa, so I think that decisions such as blockades are quick. I think that Japan could learn from this quick judgment. I hope we can work together around the world to survive the crisis of COVID-19 infections. To this end, I think we need to be interested in and act on the right news about COVID-19. I want to be careful not to be fooled by fake news!

中国　２年
The guest speaker told us repeatedly there is not enough strong evidence about Covid in Africa in today's lecture. Certainly, what newspaper or TV reports say almost has an academic basis. However, through his story, I learned that to talk directly with a person in charge is far more stimulating, realistic, and worthwhile. When he asked students the one word which describes life during corona, “boring” appeared on the screen in big letters, surrounded by 43 other negative words. Though, on the right edge, I saw in small letters “chance.” I thought it represents the portion of the lecture that shared the news that selling handmade masks is becoming a business in Africa. The masks in the photos on the slide had such cheerful designs, after class, I bought a handmade mask, stimulated by that. According to the shop owner, the products were made by people who lost jobs due to Corona in Kenya. So, the proceeds will be used for them and for donations to a school. It was the first time that I bought “fair trade” products. The happiness and energy given from their work Africa became my early birthday presents, so I hope the money and feelings from me will be Christmas presents for them.

国際関係　１年
Mr. Otchia, thank you for giving me an interesting presentation! I was very surprised that the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa is low. Before taking your presentation, I assumed that the rate of COVID-19 infections in Africa are high because there are some habits to share foods or something else in daily life. However, according to your presentation, it isn’t fact. In today’s breakout session, our team thought of two reasons why Africa’s COVID-19 rates are low. One is that Africans have enough physical immunity to prevent the COVID-19 infection because they might be used to infections. The other is that the number of visitors is low, so there are few risks of infection. After thinking of these reasons, I understood there are some reasons why there are less numbers of COVID-19 infections in Africa. It was interesting for me. Today’s class was a very good opportunity for me to break my stereotypes about Africa’s COVID-19 infections. Then, I have a question. I’m interested in your story that the hospitals in Africa are dirty, so people fear hospitals. Is that the same in urban hospitals? I studied in another class that there are developed cities which have high-rise apartment buildings in some countries in Africa, so I think it might be only true of the countryside.

看護　１年
I was surprised that death rate relating to the covid-19 is low in Africa. Also, the number of the infected people is low. In Christian Otchia’s presentation, the reason why the Covid-19 rate is low in Africa that he introduced are little testing, behavioral change and so on. I think there is also the reason that corresponds to the Covid-19 emergency in Africa is because they had gone through many other infections in the past. For example, in Western Africa, there was the Ebola pandemic in 2014, and in Congo there was a pandemic in 2018. According to BBC news, there are protocols about operation, isolation and treatment of patients that reflect experiences of past infections in Africa. So, they could better treat covid-19 quickly. For this reason, it is necessary that we think about proper handling of infections for the next infection or another emergency after the current covid-19 pandemic settles down.

留学生
COVID-19 is still alive and striking all the continents around the world. One of these continents is Africa, but the statistics of cases and deaths from COVID-19 is somehow lower than in other places. Today we listened to Christian Otchia talk about COVID-19 in Africa, and how it has been affected by this pandemic. We can see a big difference between Japan and others countries. Japan’s citizens listen to the authorities and believe what they say. On the other hand, people all over Africa don’t trust what media says - If they are told to do something, they do the opposite. This is because Africans are a part of a big informal sector where they have to go out to make money in order to be able to eat. Christian told us that some prefer to die from COVID-19 instead of hunger. There are others that can’t wash their hands because water is too precious there. But even if this is the case, Africa has lower cases and death rates compared to other countries around the world. What is the reason behind this? We explored different reasons, and one of them was that COVID-19 cases could be registered as malaria or any other sicknesses that has similar symptoms. Another reason was that probably African people have a higher resistance to the disease since they have been struck with Ebola before, a highly-lethal sickness. Many people are even afraid of going to the hospital, so they don’t get registered as a case. Testing can be really expensive too, and many citizens are not capable of affording it. There are many rumors about COVID-19 and how it can be ‘cured’ supposedly. Many of them can be really silly, but people prefer to choose those methods since many of them are easier to do and claim to be highly effective. We should not listen to these kinds of rumors, and always listen to what the official media says. But this is another difficulty for Africans since not all of them have access to the internet, or similar technologies. It is really intriguing to me to know why Africa has less cases, and it is a really interesting topic to discuss. I enjoyed a lot this presentation since it was so easy to follow, and you could hear the concern from Christian and his passion about this topic. I hope this pandemic ends soon so that we can stop feeling bored, lonely, or stressed about having to stay at home all the time. Even if that is the case, we can learn from Christian and use this time to develop a new skills in our lives, like he did with piano.