The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made it very clear on Monday that Africa will not be a testing ground for a vaccine against corona.
He responds to rumours that western governments and pharmaceutical companies will test their vaccines against the coronavirus in Africa. A storm of online protest broke out in recent days.
Africans are not guinea pigs, it said, no vaccine trials in Africa! Is or will Africa be the playground for the experiments of the pharmaceutical industry?
It is a television debate on the French news channel LCI – last Wednesday – that stirs things up. In the debate, two top doctors discuss the effect of an existing vaccine against tuberculosis. That could also help against corona.
Tests should provide more clarity and will be conducted soon by health professionals in some European countries and Australia.
But those health workers can already protect themselves against the virus without a vaccine, Dr. Jean-Paul Mira concludes in the debate. He is head of the Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Paris. He wonders how reliable those tests are.