Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has condemned the “racist” the comments by two French doctors who suggested a vaccine for the coronavirus should be tested in Africa.
“Africa can’t and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“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.
He added, “The hangover from such colonial mentality has to stop.”
Over the weekend, two French doctors Dr Jean-Paul Mira and Dr Camille Locht were hosted on French TV channel LCI and the duo suggested that the first medical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine should be done on on Africans first.
Dr Mira, from Cochin hospital in Paris, proposed that a medical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine should be carried out in Africa as it had been done in studies relating to AIDS.
The remarks were labeled racist by masses around the globe.