I was so appalled by these racist remarks, Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine – Dr Tedros, Director General WHO

Over the weekend, a video of two French doctors Dr Mira and Dr Camille Locht from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) proposing to test the Coronavirus vaccines in Africa circulated on social media.

“If I can be provocative, shouldn't we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, and no resuscitation? A bit like it is done elsewhere for some studies on AIDS. In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves," Dr Mira said.

Dr Camille Locht agreed with Dr Mira, saying; “You are right, we are in the thinking of a parallel study in Africa to use this same approach with BCG placebos."

The proposal has attracted a lot of backlash from all over the world, with people labelling it racist. The World Health Organization (WHO) has come out to condemn the doctors for their remarks, and said that their proposal can never be supported anywhere.   

“Last week, some couple of scientists said that the testing ground for the vaccine would be Africa. To be honest I was so appalled and it was a time when I said we needed solidarity. This kind of racist remarks would not help. It goes against the solidarity,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization.

He added, “Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine. We will follow all the rules to test any vaccine or therapeutics all over the world using exactly the same rule. Whether it is in Europe or Africa, or wherever, we will follow the same protocol. Human beings will be treated the same way, equally.

Dr Tedros also said that the hangover from a colonial mentality has to stop, and WHO will not allow this to happen for “it was a disgrace actually and appalling to hear that kind of remark during the 21^st century from scientists.”

Dr Tedros condemned the remarks and made an assurance that it will not happen in Africa or elsewhere in any country. Proper protocols will be followed and human beings will be treated as human beings because we are all human beings.

Africa is the least COVID-19 affected continent.