In Madagascar, more will starve than die of the virus

Earlier this month, in his weekly address to the nation, our President, the former DJ and coup leader Andry Rajoelina, announced that Madagascar would shortly produce an injectable treatment for Covid, ‘a medicinal cure not just for Madagascar but for the world’. This was no great surprise to the people of Madagascar. After all, way back in April, when Covid had barely hit our beautifully remote island, President Andry launched Covid Organics, a miracle drink that serves as both a prophylactic and a cure to the virus sweeping the world. Covid Organics, also known as CVO, is based on a herbal remedy for malaria, artemisia annua, along with extracts from other local plants. While Madagascar has a wealth of endemic plant species, many of which have healing properties that remain under-exploited, artemisia was in fact imported from China, and now the drink is being manufactured in factories hastily erected with foreign investment. For many months, President Andry has extolled the benefits of his elixir. As the number of infections rose, the President confidently assured us that this was simply because not enough people were drinking it. After the first deaths, he said the same, then later, as the death toll mounted, he changed his tune to say that the real problem was that people weren’t drinking enough CVO. In July, when deaths reached triple figures, those of us lucky enough to have television sets and electricity watched as the President and his wife glugged down CVO on camera as if it were lemonade, smiling throughout in spite of its notoriously bitter taste.

While the World Health Organisation wrings its hands about the lack of clinical trials, Madagascar is bravely forging ahead. To date, 20 African countries have received shipments of CVO in its drinkable liquid form which has been marketed as an African solution for Africa.