Kenyans Slam BBC Over Controversial COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Comments
The BBC has come under fire after one of their medical correspondents suggested that trials for the COVID-19 vaccine be carried out in Kenya should they fail in the UK.
It seems there is no end to the number of medical professionals from the West wanting to make Africa the testing ground for the COVID-19 vaccine. Recently, a medical correspondent for the BBC suggested that should the vaccine trial not achieve the "expected results" in the UK, Kenya would be the next option. Naturally, the comments have caused considerable backlash among Kenyans on social media.
Speaking on the BBC's World Service, Fergus Walsh said, "We could be careful not to over promise because we are desperate for this vaccine to work but the team in Oxford have a really strong record going back 30 years." Walsh went on to add that, "They have developed successful prototype vaccines against another type of coronavirus, MERS...which has done well in clinical trials, they've also developed vaccines against plague, malaria (now) if they don't get early quick results from the UK they are considering a trial in Kenya where the epidemic of the coronavirus will be on the rise."
The Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, which is involved in ongoing vaccine trials, has not responded to Walsh's comments or the subsequent public outcry.
Just last month, two French doctors caused outrage when they suggested on national television that the COVID-19 vaccine trials be carried out on Africans "a bit like as it is done elsewhere for some studies on AIDS."
While the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases on the African continent stands at 27 732 with at least 1298 reported deaths, the West is struggling to get a handle on their numbers. The US has close to 900 000 cases and a little over 50 000 deaths while the UK has surpassed 130 000 cases with over 18 000 deaths.
Here are some of the reactions from Kenyans on social media below:
- French Doctors Cause Outrage After Suggesting COVID-19 Vaccine ... ›
- Bobi Wine Offers to Airlift Mistreated Africans Out of China - OkayAfrica ›
- Africans In China are Being Evicted from Their Homes and Blamed ... ›
- African Countries With Confirmed Coronavirus Cases - OkayAfrica ›
- South Africans Call for Travel Ban Amid Coronavirus Outbreak ... ›
- Op Ed: Africa is Not the Center of The Coronavirus Epidemic and the ... ›
- Lesotho Confirms First Case of the Coronavirus - OkayAfrica ›
- Home-Made Alcoholic Concoctions Making South Africans Sick - OkayAfrica ›
- Home-Made Alcoholic Concoctions Making Some South Africans Sick - OkayAfrica ›
- Home-Made Alcoholic Concoctions Making Some South Africans Sick ›
- Op-Ed: Opening South Africa's Churches Amid COVID-19 Will Result in More Deaths - OkayAfrica ›
- Op-Ed: Opening South Africa's Churches Amid COVID-19 Will Result in More Deaths - OkayAfrica ›
- Madagascar's Education Minister Has Been Fired for Planning to Buy $2.2 Million In Candy for Students - OkayAfrica ›
- Madagascar's Education Minister Has Been Fired for Planning to Buy $2.2 Million In Candy for Students - OkayAfrica ›
- South Africans Are Not Impressed by Government’s Second Wave of Artist Relief Fund - OkayAfrica ›
- South Africans Are Not Impressed by Government’s Second Wave of Artist Relief Fund - OkayAfrica ›
- 43 World Health Organisation Experts To Land in South Africa as Coronavirus Infection Rates Peak - OkayAfrica ›
- In Photos: 'Covid' is Cape Town's New Informal Settlement for Those Displaced by the Pandemic - OkayAfrica ›
- South Africa Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Plan ›
- South Africa Suspends COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Plan Due to Resistant Variant - OkayAfrica ›
- Kenya's Government Threatens To Ban Non Vaxxed From Public ›
- Kenya's Government Threatens To Ban Non Vaxxed From Public - OkayAfrica ›
- South Africa Punished For Reporting New COVID-19 Variant - OkayAfrica ›
- Omicron Found In Europe A Week Before South Africa - OkayAfrica ›
- Madagascar's President Touts Tonic as Treatment for Coronavirus - OkayAfrica ›
- Burundi Continues with Massive Political Rallies Despite COVID-19 Outbreak - OkayAfrica ›
- Several African Countries Will Begin Easing Restrictions of COVID-19 Lockdowns - Okayplayer ›