The World Health Organisation has refuted claims that Africa will be used a a testing ground for Covid-19 vaccines.
The response comes after two French doctors suggested on live TV that they could use Africa as a testing lab for Covid-19 since Africans have no protective clothing and ICUs. They went further to compare Africans with prostitutes, insinuating they could use Africans as they used prostitutes during HIV/AIDS tests.
“Africa can’t and won’t be a testing ground for any vaccine, The hangover from colonial mentality has to stop,” said World Health Organisation Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The doctors’ remarks during a TV debate sparked outrage, and they were accused of treating Africans like “human guinea pigs”.
One of them later issued an apology.
When asked about the doctors’ suggestion during the WHO’s coronavirus briefing, Dr Tedros became visibly angry, calling it a hangover from the “colonial mentality”.
“It was a disgrace, appalling, to hear during the 21st Century, to hear from scientists, that kind of remark. We condemn this in the strongest terms possible, and we assure you that this will not happen,” he said.
Africans responded
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