Tanzania’s President John Magufuli says the vaccines against the coronavirus could harm his nation. He has warned health officials against acquiring Covid-19 vaccines, saying, “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.”  Magafuli added, “We should not be used as guinea pigs.”

According to the BBC, the President of Tanzania, 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.”

President Magufuli encouraged Tanzanians to continue taking precautions, to pray, and to use traditional medicine, including steam inhalation. He said, “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 protect us.”

A devout Catholic, Magafuli had last year declared Tanzania coronavirus free, despite Tanzania having ceased publishing official data about the virus in June last year. The BBC reports that he did not, however, comment on the Catholic Church’s concern about the recent spike in deaths in its urban parishes. The Church believes a new wave of the virus spread after it had been successfully contained last year.

The president also did not mention reports from Denmark that two of its citizens had tested positive after returning from visiting Tanzania, for the new Covid-19 strain from South Africa. According to the BBC, Magafuli blamed those who had travelled out of the country for “importing a new weird corona”.

Umm Muhammed Umar