Global multimedia project to link individual stories from MSF staff and patients about the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Latin America to Africa and from Asia to Europe, COVID-19 has cost millions of lives. At the same time, it has affected people’s ability to access essential health services. In many places, the devastating knock-on effects of the pandemic have left people without lifesaving assistance. MSF teams working in more than 70 countries around the world have often struggled to respond both to the direct consequences of COVID-19 and to other medical emergencies, while dealing with restrictions on travel and impacts on essential medical supplies.

The knock-on effect of COVID-19 is a digital campaign involving the key social media channels of the countries where MSF works and especially French, Spanish, English and Arabic-speaking Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels. All the stories collected in the different MSF projects, as well as the AV materials can also found on the website dedicated to this project on msf.org. The testimonies and other content will be added to that page.

The project features staff, patients and people from the communities, each with a different story to tell in 4 countries where MSF works.

· In Central African Republic (CAR), thankfully, the pandemic has not had the catastrophic direct impacts that were predicted. However, the knock-on effects on the fragile healthcare system have been considerable. Vaccination and treatment for diseases such as malaria, malnutrition and measles are just a few examples of lifesaving activities that have been forced to reduce.

· France - In Paris, many homeless people, including migrants and asylum seekers, have had to cope with changes to, or even the closure of, their usual care facilities or the associations that support them. MSF teams have been running mobile clinics for people living on the streets, many of whom are invisible victims of the knock-on effects of COVID-19.

· Venezuela, a country in which the health system has all but collapsed, COVID-19 has prevented even more people from accessing medical care, whether for chronic diseases or for emergency care for their children.

(coming soon)

· Bangladesh more than 864,000 Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded conditions in Cox’s Bazar district, and early predictions for COVID-19 were dire. As a result, many medical and humanitarian services were reprioritised or stopped. Fortunately, the catastrophic predictions for a COVID-19 outbreak did not materialise, but the indirect impacts are harshly felt.