Native Colombia's fighting COVID without government

[Judi Lynn]

by Adriaan Alsema February 1, 2021

Colombia’s indigenous peoples have been relatively successful in their efforts to combat the coronavirus, despite the government of President Ivan Duque.

The pandemic caused major alarm among native Colombians as many of their communities live in remote areas and have little to no access to public healthcare.

Indigenous communities do have access to millennia of accumulated knowledge on medicinal plants that exist only in Colombia and in some regions autonomy.

Cultures that save lives
What may have saved countless lives is the one thing that all indigenous peoples in the Americas have in common.

Ever since the arrival of Europeans in 1492, indigenous authorities have been more than aware of the potential danger of microbes as they virtually exterminated their ancestors.

Consequently, few indigenous would be interested in conspiracy theories denying or downplaying the threat posed by a pandemic. “It’s not part of our culture,” businessman Erwin Liz of the Nasa nation told Colombia Reports.

So, while Duque was still consulting pseudoscientist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo in March last year, native Colombians were already weeks into lockdown and preparing an indigenous’ response with real scientists.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/native-colombias-fights-covid-without-government/