President John Magufuli of Tanzania has warned the country’s health ministry against rushing into embracing the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines promoted by foreign companies and countries.
Magufuli warned that the vaccines could harm people. He, however, failed to provide evidence to justify his claim.
“The ministry of health should be careful, they should not hurry to try these vaccines without doing research, not every vaccine is important to us, we should be careful. We should not be used as ‘guinea pigs’,” Magufuli said.
“Vaccinations are dangerous. If the white man was able to come up with vaccinations, he should have found a vaccination for Aids, cancer and TB by now.”
Magufuli, a devout Catholic, advised Tanzanians to continue taking precautions, saying prayers and traditional medicine, including steam inhalation, were the way to deal with coronavirus.
He said, “We have lived for over one year without the virus because our God is able and Satan will always fail. The Health ministry should be cautious, and avoid the temptation to turn us into a country where vaccination trials are conducted freely,” he said.
“In a certain country, its girl children – aged below 14 years – were vaccinated against what was said to be cervical cancer, but it later emerged that the vaccination was meant to make them infertile.” Dr. Magufuli said.
He added: “Many countries have lockdown, but in Tanzania there are no plan of lockdown and we’ll never introduce lockdown because our God is alive and he will continue to protects us.”
The president also failed to address reports from Denmark that two of its citizens – who had visited Tanzania – had tested positive for the new Covid-19 strain from South Africa.
He instead blamed citizens who travel out of the country for “importing a new weird corona”.
Recall that Magufuli had in June 2020 declared Tanzania free of Covid-19. Since then the country has stopped publishing official data about the virus.
However, the Catholic Church has contradicted Magufuli and has warned Tanzanians to observe COVID-19 safety protocols.
“After successfully containing the spread of the virus last year, Tanzania was now facing a new wave of the virus spread,” the church said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Our country is not an island. We have every reason to take precautions and pray to God so that we can be saved from this pandemic.”
Over the weekend, Bishop Yuda Thadei Ruwaichi of Dar es Salaam said “Covid is not finished, Covid is still here. Let’s not be reckless, we need to protect ourselves, wash your hands with soap and water. We also have to go back to wearing masks.”