Resist: Senator Wetangu'la calls on African leaders to reject COVID-19 vaccine test on continent

Resist: Senator Wetangu'la calls on African leaders to reject COVID-19 vaccine test on continent

- A section of the European nations and scientists had suggested that COVID-19 vaccine test be done in Africa

- They argued Africa had no capacity to fight the virus and hence the best place to launch the treatment test

- Senator Moses Wetangu'la, however, sharply disagreed with the European leaders arguing Europe was the epicentre of COVID-19 and therefore any form of treatment must start from there

- The senator urged African leaders to reject any attempt to use Africans as "Guinea pigs"

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Bungoma senator Moses Wetangu'la has condemned a proposal by a section of European nations and scientists that COVID-19 vaccine test should be done in Africa.

Wetangula's objection came barely a day after French doctors suggested that Africa was the best continent for the samples to be used because it is "incapable of fighting COVID-19".

READ ALSO: Guinean girl with COVID-19 who went missing in Tamale found in Accra

Resist: Senator Wetangu'la calls on African leaders to reject COVID-19 vaccine test on continent
Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangu'la has called on African leaders to reject COVID-19 vaccine test on the continent. Photo: Moses Wetangula.
Source: Original

READ ALSO: COVID-19: 925 people in mandatory quarantine in Accra to be discharged after testing negative

In a strongly worded statement, the FORD Kenya party leader called on African leaders to reject any attempt to use African people as "Guinea pigs".

"The epicenter of COVID-19(Coronavirus ) is China, Italy, Spain, France, US. Clinical trials on its possible cure must start there and not in any African country. African leaders must resist any attempt to use our people as Guinea pigs. Resist," he tweeted.

Resist: Senator Wetangu'la calls on African leaders to reject COVID-19 vaccine test on continent
Medics at Mbagathi Hospital preparing isolation room for COVID-19 patients. Photo: Ministry of Health.
Source: UGC

The proposal has irked many people on the continent with majority of Kenyans trooping to social media sites to slam European nations and scientists for attempting to use Africans as "lab rats".

Globally, there are over 1 million COVID-19 infections and a total of 59, 172 deaths recorded so far.

Out of these numbers, the United States (US) has the highest number of infections currently standing at 277,467 and the third-highest number of deaths at 7, 402.

Italy has the highest number of deaths standing at 14, 681 and second-highest number of infections currently at 119,827.

Spain has 119, 199 infections and a total of 11, 198 fatalities, being the second-highest number of deaths after Italy.

Germany has 91, 159 COVID-19 infections and 1,275 deaths while China, where the disease began, has 81, 639 infections and 3, 326 fatalities.

Africa as a whole has so far confirmed 212 deaths with most countries recording less than 1000 infection cases apart from South Africa whose case has hit 1, 505.

In other news, the Ghana Police Service has released nine trending videos of alleged clashes that happened between Ghanaian locals and Police & Army officers that are simply untrue.

Following a partial lockdown that was imposed by president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, there have been a number of conflicts between locals and armed officers assigned to enforce the lockdown.

Several videos surfaced on social media showing that the military and police officers mercilessly brutalized many Ghanaians but both the police and military forces debunked the reports, calling most of them fake.

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