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The Tanzanian president openly expressed his doubts over covid-19 vaccines on Wednesday and accused people vaccinated outside the East African nation of bringing new infections into the country.
“If the white man were able to come up with vaccines, then AIDS vaccines would have been brought, tuberculosis would be a thing of the past, vaccines against malaria and cancer would have been discovered,” President John Magufuli said at an event in His hometown.
He also warned against using Tanzanians as “guinea pigs” for vaccines.
Magufuli, who offered no evidence to substantiate his doubts, has been widely criticized for declaring the coronavirus defeated in Tanzania. The country has not updated its number of confirmed infections since the middle of last year: 509
But now other authorities in the country, including the Catholic Church, appear to be backing down as parts of the African continent see a sharp second surge in viral infections.
Magufuli also suggested that the vaccine donations are part of a plot to steal Africa’s wealth: “Don’t think that you are loved so much. Tanzania is rich. Africa is rich. Everyone wants a piece of it.
In the past, the president has told Tanzanians not to implement social distancing while encouraging them to use untested herbal remedies to treat the disease. He also questioned the credibility of the viral tests given.
Some people who opposed the government’s position that Tanzania was coronavirus-free have been arrested and charged.
Magufuli won a second five-year term in an October election that opposition leaders called a “massacre of democracy.”
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