Clarissa Ward
speaker
326 appearances
5 recordings
4 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 4 Jun
Clarissa Ward’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Again, it's a town where a lot of people are passing through, a lot of displaced people passing through.
And so when it comes to things like containing the virus, contact tracing, isolating, keeping vigilant within these communities where people really are living kind of cheek by jowl about things like,
not touching the bodies of the dead, washing your hands constantly, not eating bushmeat or touching dead animals.
One of the big challenges has been to try to what the word that they use in French is sensitize local communities to the reality of this outbreak and also the importance of observing these basic principles.
Yes, the misinformation has been a big problem.
And actually, when we were in this town, the epicenter yesterday, Mongboalu, we stood on the street for a while and talked to people about what they think.
There is a perception, and of course, it's been bolstered by rumors swirling on social media,
that aid organizations are somehow profiting from this outbreak.
They call it the Ebola business.
And so that's one of the very common conspiracy theories that you will hear.
There's also a lot of anger because there are many traditions surrounding last rites and burials and wanting to wash and touch the dead before laying them to rest.
Of course, funerals are now believed to be the big spreader potential.
So local health authorities are not allowing people anymore to engage in those last rites.
And that has caused huge tension and sometimes outright violence between the community and these hospitals.
Well, first of all, I would say it's heartbreaking, but I actually thought I interviewed someone from Doctors Without Borders at this hospital in Mongboalu yesterday who has been doing this job for 25 years, going to all of the most dangerous places in the world.
And he said, you know, it's no different than going to a war zone where the bullets are flying, except that these bullets are invisible.
You can't see the disease.
You don't know where it is.
And
That is, you know, it raises a different set of concerns and challenges.
Showing 61–80 of 326 · page 4 of 17
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