14 Dec 2020
Last week Prime minister Boris Johnson watched on as the vaccine was administered to a patient at Guys Hospital in London, a move that was interpreted by many as an endorsement of the vaccine.
The subject of the COVID-19 vaccine is very divisive and ethnic minority groups seem to be the most apprehensive. In a premier gospel interview with Muyiwa, molecular virologist Dr Garrick Wilson, traced this distrust back to the 1932 Tuskegee study adding that the use of Africa as a testing ground for medicines over the years had deepened the mistrust.
Although vaccines have been successful in eradicating diseases such as small pox, there is great concern about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, mainly because of the swiftness with which the vaccine was developed. There has also been a great deal of fear-mongering that the RNA technology used by Pfizer-BioNTech could alter ones DNA. Dr Wilson debunks this theory during his interview.
To sum up Dr Wilsons thoughts on the vaccine: ...We have a formulation that is promising not a formulation which is the promise.
Dr Wilson took time to answer some of the questions you sent in last week. You can watch the video below.
By Akosua Dwomo-Fokuo, Premier Gospel Presenter
Watch here:
The Luciferase COVID-19 vaccine scandal has fizzled out yet conspiracy theorys about the vaccine are still swirling around. Governments have gone to great lengths to educate the public on the efficacy of the vaccine but there is still a lot of scepticism. Former US presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton recently volunteered to get the COVID-19 vaccine publicly to help boost the general publics confidence in the vaccine.