Former Chelsea football star Didier Drogba and former Barcelona superstar, Samuel Eto, are not happy with the comments of two professors of medicine who said the potential BCG vaccines for combating the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic should be tested on Africans in Africa.
The two professors, Professor Jean-Paul Mira, head of the intensive care unit at the Cochin Hospital in Paris, and Professor Camille Locht, research director at Inserm, stated this via a French television channel.
‘If I can be provocative, shouldn’t we do this study in Africa where there are no masks, no treatment, no resuscitation?’ Professor Jean-Paul said in French.
‘The same as for some AIDS studies where prostitutes try things because we know they’re unprotected.’
While Professor Camille responded in French saying: ‘You are right. We are currently thinking in parallel about a study in Africa to make this same type of approach with the BCG.
‘There is a tender process that has gone out or is going to go out. We will seriously think about that.
‘That doesn’t prevent us from thinking in parallel about a study in Europe and Australia.’
Samuel Eto and Drogba Play for Africa
In reaction to the comments of the professors, Samuel Eto took to his Instagram account and shared a clip of the television programme showing when the professors were making the comments.
In the caption, the current ambassador of 2022 FIFA World CUP, described the professors in French as “sh*t, urging them not to treat Africa as a playground.
In the same vein, Ex-Chelsea and retired Ivory Coast forward Drogba shared the video on his Twitter handle with a series of tweets.
In the tweets, the Chelsea legend reminded the professors that the continent of Africa is not a testing lab and Africans are not guinea pigs.
He wrote: ‘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 deep racists words.
‘Helps us save Africa with the current ongoing COVID-19 and flatten the curve.
‘Let us save ourselves from this crazy virus that is plummeting the world economy and ravaging populations health worldwide.
Do not take African people as human guinea pigs! It’s absolutely disgusting.
‘African leaders have a responsibility to protect their populations from those horrendous conspiracies. May God protect us!’
Let us save ourselves from this crazy virus that is plummeting the world economy and ravaging populations health worldwide.
— Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba) April 2, 2020
Do not take African people as human guinnea pigs! It’s absolutely disgusting…
