*A French doctor has apologized after being accused of racism for suggesting that the first stages of testing coronavirus treatment start in Africa.
“If I could be provocative, should we not do this study in Africa where there are no masks, treatment or intensive care,” Dr. Jean-Paul Mira, who is in charge of intensive care at a Paris hospital, said in a televised interview on Wednesday, per New York Daily News.
“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,” he added.
Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group, agreed with Mira, noting that a study in Africa was already being considered, per Daily Mail.
“We are in the process of thinking about a study in parallel in Africa,” he said.
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Africa isn’t a testing lab you pieces of shit.
— John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) April 4, 2020
The comments caused outrage on social media with many viewers calling them racist.
“Africa isn’t a testing lab. I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racist words,” Ivorian soccer star Didier Drogba tweeted. “Do not take African people as human guinea pigs! It’s absolutely disgusting.”
Former footballer Samuel Eto’o tweeted that the doctors were “assassins.”
“Africa isn’t a testing lab you pieces of shit,” Star Wars actor John Boyega tweeted.
Mira apologized on Friday: “I want to present all my apologies to those who were hurt, shocked and felt insulted by the remarks that I clumsily expressed on [TV] this week.”
There’s no “the whole world is coming together” spin here.
Those who are cheering are cheering for the testing of the most uncertain version of this would-be vaccine on the people whose lives matter the least to them: the negroes.
It’s that simple.
— Ben Philippe (@gohomeben) April 4, 2020
The Inserm health research group claim the two doctors were been misunderstood.
In a statement the group said:
“Clinical trials to test the efficacy of the BCG vaccine against Covid-19 are… about to be launched in European countries and in Australia. If there is indeed a reflection around a deployment in Africa, it would be done in parallel with these. Africa must not be forgotten or excluded from research because the pandemic is global.”
The coronavirus has hit Europe and North America the hardest, with Africa having the smallest number of COVID-19 cases. Some believe this could be a result of poor testing.
Meanwhile, as reported by Complex, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine announced they have created a vaccine against coronavirus. Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals is also working with the Trump administration on developing a vaccine.
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