“Bill Gates We Are Not Your Lab Rats!” Africans Protest COVID Vaccine Trials Among Poor
Testing on an experimental COVID vaccine began on 2000 "volunteers" in South Africa this week, and protesters gathered at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to protest. This is the Oxford University's coronavirus vaccine trial from the UK, funded heavily by the World Health Organization and Bill Gates. The protesters burned their face masks and claimed that the tests were being carried out on poor people who don't understand the risks. "The people chosen as volunteers for the vaccination, they look as if they're from poor backgrounds, not qualified enough to understand" protest organizer Phapano Phasha said ahead of the event. "We believe they are manipulating the vulnerable", the activist and political commentator added. Community activist Walter Mashilo said the vaccine should be tested first on members of parliament and ministers’ children, not on poor people. “We are clear, comrades, we don’t want this vaccine (trial),” he said, addressing the crowd. “We are not going to follow a vaccine because we as healers believe that our traditional medicine is not given a chance,” said Sellwane Mokatsi, 32-year-old compliance officer, who is also part of the traditional healers’ organisation. Given the fact that there is not even an accurate test that can identify the COVID-19 virus, African traditional medicine is probably a far better choice of dealing with the sick in Africa.