Africa CDC Chief: 'The response to Covid on the continent of Africa has been exceptional"

France 24 is joined by Dr. John Nkengasong, Virologist and Director of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The Africa CDC Chief lauds Africa's political leadership for taking the pandemic very seriously from the moment it emerged in 2020. Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Nkengasong has worked closely with African heads of state and the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat. Despite limited resources, the African continent really came together, explains Dr. Nkengasong, and displayed a remarkable "ability to coordinate the (overall) response, to distribute diagnostics, to deploy responders, and to create platforms like the African Medicine Supply Platform (AMSP) and the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT). Whether it's Ebola or Covid-19, Dr. Nkengasong describes "certain core principles that guide all pandemics." He calls them The Five P's of a Pandemic: pathogen, population, political, policies, partnerships. And, speaking from 30 years of experience, the Africa CDC Chief proclaims "you can actually apply them from one pandemic to another."