African football legend Didier Drogba lashed out at two French doctors who have been accused of propagating racism by suggesting that coronavirus vaccines be used on trial in Africa.
Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris, and Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group, both said during an interview on French TV that there was a case for testing out the vaccines in African countries.
“If I can be provocative, shouldn’t we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation?” Dr. Mira said.
Dr. Mira added: “A bit like as it is done elsewhere for some studies on AIDS. In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves.”
You are right. We are in the process of thinking about a study in parallel in Africa,” Dr. Locht responded.
Drogba took to social media to condemn the incident saying it was “totally inconceivable” that such thoughts were still being entertained.
It is totally inconceivable we keep on cautioning this.
Africa isn’t a testing lab.
I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racists words.Helps us save Africa with the current ongoing Covid 19 and flatten the curve. pic.twitter.com/41GIpXaIYv
— Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba) April 2, 2020
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