COVID-19 mortality paradox (United States vs Africa): Mass vaccination vs early treatment

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality rate in 55 African countries is almost 4.5 times lower than in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) despite Africa having over 4.2 times more people. This mortality paradox is also evident when comparing Nigeria, a heavily populated, poorly vaccinated and weakly mandated country to Israel, a small, highly vaccinated and strictly mandated country. Nigeria has almost 4 times lower COVID mortality than Israel. In this Field of Vision perspective, I explain how this paradox has evolved drawing upon my academic, clinical and social experience. Since April 2020, I’ve developed and been using the Egyptian immune-modulatory Kelleni’s protocol to manage COVID-19 patients including pediatric, geriatric, pregnant, immune-compromised and other individuals suffering from multiple comorbidities. It’s unfortunate that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is still evolving accompanied by more deaths. However in Africa, we’ve been able to live without anxiety or mandates throughout the pandemic because we trust science and adopted early treatment using safe, and effective repurposed drugs that have saved the majority of COVID-19 patients. This article represents an African and Egyptian tale of honor.

Keywords: COVID-19; Early treatment; Kelleni’s Protocol; Mandates; Mortality Paradox; SARS-CoV-2; Nucleic acid based vaccines

Core Tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has claimed the lives of millions of people worldwide. Paradoxically, the highest mortality numbers were encountered in countries that adopted the Western approach of mass nucleic acid based vaccination and rapidly approved drugs such as remdesivir, molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid). In contrast, most developing countries that adopted early treatment using uniquely repurposed safe immune-modulatory drugs, as best scientifically documented in Kelleni’s protocol, experienced the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates. In this field of vision perspective, I aim to explain the COVID-19 mortality paradox by demonstrating our African scientific approach which rejected compulsory vaccination with nucleic acid based vaccines as well as many other Western mandates. Early treatment using Kelleni’s protocol has saved the lives of geriatric, immune-compromised and other comorbid COVID-19 patients, while young and otherwise healthy patients lost their lives in developed countries like the United States.