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Nairobi A controversial suggestion made by French doctors to test a coronavirus vaccine in Africa smacks of colonialism and will not be pursued, the deputy head of the African Union Commission said on Thursday.
“We condemn in no uncertain terms any attempt to come and try this vaccine on Africa and we reject it totally. The times of the colonialists are past gone,” Kwesi Quartey said at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
He noted that the continent has had the “least amount of casualties” from the virus - with a total of 572 deaths recorded by Thursday morning - and suggested that any vaccine be tested in the worst-affected places such as New York, Paris or Italy.
During a programme that aired on French television last week, Camille Locht from France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research and Jean-Paul Mira from the Cochin Hospital in Paris suggested Africa as a location for vaccine tests, saying that people there do not have masks, treatments or resuscitation. (DPA)
“We condemn in no uncertain terms any attempt to come and try this vaccine on Africa and we reject it totally. The times of the colonialists are past gone,” Kwesi Quartey said at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
He noted that the continent has had the “least amount of casualties” from the virus - with a total of 572 deaths recorded by Thursday morning - and suggested that any vaccine be tested in the worst-affected places such as New York, Paris or Italy.
During a programme that aired on French television last week, Camille Locht from France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research and Jean-Paul Mira from the Cochin Hospital in Paris suggested Africa as a location for vaccine tests, saying that people there do not have masks, treatments or resuscitation. (DPA)
