By: Robert Madoi
Prof. Pontiano Kaleebu was quoted on August 18, 2020 by the government-owned New Vision newspaper:
“[Africa will be] left behind” if it doesn’t participate in coronavirus vaccine trials.
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In an August 18 New Vision article, Prof. Pontiano Kaleebu is quoted trying to hash out a solution for Ugandan researchers who appear to be running out of road in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine. While the Uganda Virus Research Institute Executive Director was hardly sombre in his appraisal of Uganda’s prospects, he tethered any chance of success to “a historical collaboration” with Imperial College London.
The assiduously cultivated collaboration has seen inroads made in the development of the rift valley fever vaccine. Kaleebu says Uganda is keen on extending the feat of scientific alchemy to the pursuit of a coronavirus vaccine. “There is no guarantee that efforts to develop a local vaccine will be successful. That is why a number of countries are planning to test vaccines made elsewhere.”
With the limits of Uganda trying to solely develop a vaccine having become ever plainer, clinical trials of Imperial College London’s candidate vaccine have been scheduled to take place at the backend of this year. The London-based public research university is currently recruiting participants from the United Kingdom “to test its innovative, self-amplifying RNA vaccine for the first time in humans.”
Kaleebu says any characterisation of the likes of Imperial College London as parasites of the purest kind who are out to turn Africans into guinea pigs is unfortunate. “Since 1999 when we started vaccine trials here for HIV, there have been such claims (of participants being reduced to guinea pigs for risky experiments that only benefit the West). We have always explained that participants are volunteers and ethical, legal, and scientific guidelines are followed.”
It seems like yesterday when Africa erupted in outrage. Malawi had become the 50th country on the continent to find itself in the eye of the coronavirus pandemic’s storm. The development, days after ringing in April of 2020, left Lesotho, Comoros, South Sudan and São Tomé and Príncipe as the only African countries yet to report a case of the novel coronavirus. While a cursory look at that detail hardly turned up anything to provoke uncontrollable anger, statements by two French doctors — stripped down to the bare essentials — did quite the opposite.
The doctors were accused of racism after calling for coronavirus vaccines to be trialed in Africa. Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin Hospital in Paris, and Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm Health Research Group, both said on French TV that there was a case for testing out the vaccines in African countries. Ex-footballer and Ivorian Didier Drogba described as “demeaning” and “absolutely disgusting” any plans to take African people “as human guinea pigs.” Another former footballer, Samuel Eto’o from Cameroon, called the French doctors “assassins.”
Inserm said in a statement that the doctors’ comments were “the subject of erroneous interpretations.” This did not stop Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, from reducing the doctors’ comments to a hangover from a “colonial mentality.” In context as well as tone, Ghebreyesus’ carefully constructed narrative reflected his disdain for turning Africa into “a testing ground for any vaccine.”
Kaleebu, however, seems to imply that the results of such a stance can be disappointing. He told New Vision that turning Africa into a testbed for coronavirus vaccines will ensure that the continent is “not left behind.” The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention as well as World Health Organization (Africa) have, Kaleebu added, reluctantly come to this conclusion.
OUR VERDICT
African countries have indeed been encouraged to join coronavirus vaccine trials, with Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, saying in no uncertain terms that such an undertaking will ensure the continent doesn’t “end up at the back of the queue.” Clinical trials in Africa are notoriously low. The African Academy of Science for instance estimates that only two per cent of clinical trials conducted worldwide take place in Africa. South Africa became the first country on the continent to start a clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The candidate vaccine (Ox1Cov-19) developed by the Oxford Jenner Institute in the United Kingdom was trialed in collaboration with the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Another vaccine, NVX-CoV23, developed by US biotech company, Novavax, was also trialed in mid-August. Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and Director of the MRC Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, says the reason why “African scientists are [mainly] involved in the clinical manufacture of the [coronavirus] vaccine” is “a legacy of the past where there hasn’t been enough investments by governments [and] the private sector in terms of research and development around vaccines.”
With this context and background, we rate Prof. Kaleebu’s claim as true. Together with Prof. Roy D. Mugerwa (RIP), Prof. Peter Mugyenyi, and other colleagues, he shrugged off ‘guinea pig accusations’ en route to successfully conducting the first trial of an HIV-1 vaccine in Africa. This was shortly after the turn of the second millennium. Above all, there is a body of evidence that backs Kaleebu’s claim that Africa will lag behind in the event that it doesn’t take part in clinical evaluations of coronavirus vaccines.
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Our sources
The New Vision, Uganda seeks partnerships on coronavirus vaccine, August 18, 2020
Imperial College London, Imperial’s Covid-19 vaccine trail, June 30, 2020
Imperial College London, Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub, Annual Report 2019
TRT World Now, French doctors discuss testing Covid-19 vaccine in Africa, April 2, 2020
ESPN, Coronavirus: Drogba, Eto’o slam doctors’ talk of testing in Africa, April 3, 2020
BBC Africa, Coronavirus: Africa will not be testing ground for vaccine, says WHO, April 6, 2020
WHO Africa, WHO calls for equitable access to future COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, July 9, 2020
African Academy of Science, Clinical Trials Map, Accessed September 1, 2020
University of Oxford, Coronavirus vaccine: steps towards a safe, effective and accessible vaccine, August 25, 2020
Reuters, Novavax begins mid-stage study of COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, August 17, 2020
The Conversation, Pasha 78: South Africa’s second COVID-19 vaccine trial explained, August 26, 2020
Robert Madoi is a senior journalist, editor and academic based in Kampala
