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The ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19 has nothing on the immortal global pandemic of racism.

This is why calls for the removal of Western sanctions on Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe to help these countries fight Covid-19, have fallen on deaf ears.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres went out of his way to write to G-20 countries calling for the removal of the sanctions which he said jeopardise health risks for millions of people and weaken the global effort to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The African Union Bureau of Heads of State and Government added its voice in the same month of April, calling for the immediate lifting of economic sanctions on Zimbabwe and Sudan to assist the two countries in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet still, America and her allies ignored these calls.

On Wednesday, World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and African Union (AU) chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa called upon the world to “quarantine” politics, including lifting sanctions on countries like Zimbabwe, to win the war against Covid-19.

They were speaking during the virtual meeting of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), in an Extraordinary Inter-Sessional Summit of Heads of State and Government, which was also attended by President Mnangagwa.

Said President Ramaphosa: “We believe that no country must be left behind. In this regard, we call for economic sanctions against Sudan and Zimbabwe to be lifted to provide the necessary space for these countries to devote their resources to the fight against Covid-19.”

Still, this latest call will be ignored. And there are no prizes for guessing why. Western countries will continue to ignore the call for the removal of economic sanctions which have a direct bearing on the capacity to fight Covid-19.

Of late, these countries have been burning following the brutal murder of an African-American man, George Floyd, by four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, on May 25.

Thousands of protestors in Western countries defied Covid-19-induced bans on public demonstrations by taking to the streets to speak out — in some cases violently — against racial injustice.

The raging protests in New York, London, Sydney, Tel Aviv, The Hague and other epicentres of racism are a true reflection of global outrage over racism. This outrage far outweighs the fear of contracting Covid-19.

Flattening the curve in the fight against Covid-19 has proved to be a realistic strategy but the racism curve cannot be flattened.

This is why Western economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are not being removed despite passionate pleas by the UN, WHO, AU and Sadc.

It is because the death of ordinary Zimbabweans due to Covid-19 does not mean anything to the imposers of these illegal sanctions. They just don’t care.

They don’t care about George Floyd, they don’t care about Africans in America, they don’t care about Africans in Africa.

Sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are like the racist knee of white police officer Derek Chauvin on Floyd’s neck. They are suffocating the economy, the health system, ordinary citizens.

Zimbabwe is saying “I can’t breathe” but the Chauvins of this world are ignoring her cry.