Africa CDC’S responses to Tanzania unscientific and sickening
Opinion by Magafu Pamba, Toronto, Ontario – 10 May, 2020: I was astonished, baffled and deeply shocked by the sickening reactions made by Dr. John Nkengasong, Africa’s Director of the John’s Hopkins University’s Center for Disease Control (CDC), rejecting the new findings from Tanzania’s faulty coronavirus test kits.
“The tests that Tanzania is using, we know they are working very well,” Dr. John Nkengasong told journalists before any scientific or engineering investigations on the test kits. This is extremely frightening. I am not alarming a conspiracy but a scientist can hardly respond without first working on a complaint to verify the findings.
It is a considerable distress and shame that the media in Addis Ababa did not field reasonable questions on the CDC leader’s simple and unscientifically misleading PR answers.
Being a scientist, one could not expect “political” reactions from a respected, Western Educated fellow but every reasonable person wanted to hear a scientific response or apology when the claims are verified.
It is indeed sickening to reject the findings from the field before they are tested for their validity. It is only unlearning organization that rejects complaints from its customers. This was the best opportunity for CDC to rectify the mistakes on the kits it supplied.
“No other countries have made public complaints about the tests,” no one expected to hear this poor response from a scientist if it all meant well. These were the findings brought up by Tanzania, a serious African nation that that conducted its owninvestigation to establish the authenticity and efficacy of the coronavirus test kits.
We would not expect to hear some sweeping political statements from this respected scientist for the benefits of his pay masters.
He says, “Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, has donated thousands of tests kits, masks and protective gear to African nations and the equipment is being used across the continent. No other countries have made public complaints about the tests,” so what? Hang on; there is one complaint from a leader nation thatconducted its investigations on the efficacy of the test kits. Can’t this one complaint raises concern that would launch investigation on the efficiency of your test kits? How many complaints did you want? What if the rest of the countries did not bother to investigate the processes?
Tanzania prayed, seriously called on God for three days. Can’t you believe that this is the answer to her prayers? Much as American President Donald Trump and others called on national days of prayers, the Tanzanian leader called for three days of national prayers. The Muslims prayed on Friday, The Seventh Day Adventists prayed on Sabbath and the Catholics and Protestants prayed on Sunday. God provided leadership. Tanzania, among the world family of nations, discovered the scam.
Well, put this prayer plan aside, the nation is currently led by a Chemist. He is your fellow scientist, not a usual type; he is intelligent scientist and mathematician.
He applied his science knowledge to determine the validity of the coronavirus test kits. Why don’t you take time to address the problem using science instead of squealing political vapor which has catastrophic results on the lives of Africans, including those from your native Ivory Coast?
Africa and the rest of the world are thankful to the Tanzanian President, Dr. John Magufuli for uncovering this worrisome scam. The imported test kits were faulty after they had returned positive results on a goat and a pawpaw – among several non-human samples submitted for testing, with technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.
As Madagascar became the first country in the world to declare a vaccine and treatment for COVID 19, it is important that Africa prepared own test kits as well. This is why development of science in Africa is of critically important.
Africa has solutions for most world challenges. I hope the Madagascan tonic that appears to cure COVID 19 cases, inspire and embellish the confidence of other African countries seek to excel in science and technology. As one author puts it, indeed Africa is capable of becoming world’s largest economy.
