Why has Peru had such a bad pandemic?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Peru has suffered one of the highest excess death levels in the world. The government failed to take account of the structure of society and the needs of its people in its response to the pandemic. A culture of corruption and political turmoil are persistent themes that have led to an underfunded health system and a lack of focus how Peruvian people would be able to cope during the dark months of a deadly pandemic. Instead vast numbers of casual workers lost their jobs and started to trek home, taking the virus with them. Also remote communities were cut off by the freeze on transport and unable to get access to vital medical supplies, amid a dwindling supply of oxygen to treat them. We take a look at what lies beneath Peru’s terrible experience during the pandemic.
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Nathan Gower
(Peruvians protest at a political rally, March 25, 2021. Credit: Ernesto Benavides/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry with me, Tonya Beckett, each week one question for expert witnesses |
| 0:13.6 | and an answer. |
| 0:22.5 | Many countries have experienced high death tolls during the coronavirus pandemic. |
| 0:28.7 | The USA has had the most deaths, but it has a big population, and when you take that |
| 0:35.2 | into account, several countries, including Italy and the UK, have had more Covid deaths |
| 0:41.6 | per capita than America. |
| 0:44.6 | However, Covid death figures are all dependent on how much testing a country does and how |
| 0:52.0 | it defines a Covid death. |
| 0:55.4 | Many countries Covid death figures substantially underestimate the Covid-related death toll |
| 1:01.3 | in that country. |
| 1:03.9 | This is why statisticians often prefer to use what they call excess deaths. |
| 1:10.5 | This is the number of deaths from all causes during a crisis above and beyond what we would |
| 1:16.5 | have expected to see under normal conditions. |
| 1:21.2 | By this important measure, there is one country which repeatedly comes at the top of the list |
| 1:26.8 | of nations which have suffered the most, a country that rarely makes the headlines. |
| 1:35.2 | Peru. |
| 1:37.2 | So this week we're asking, why did Peru have such a bad pandemic? |
| 1:45.2 | Not one, the long walk home. |
| 1:50.6 | People were stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. |
| 1:55.0 | Our first expert witness is Valerie Paz-Soldan. |
| 1:58.8 | She lives and works in the city where she grew up, the country's capital, Lima. |
| 2:04.1 | I'm a Peruvian American social scientist that works for Tulane School of Public Health |
... |
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