Faizel Patel – 18/08/2020
Professor of vaccinology at Wits University Shabir Madhi says there is nothing untoward about the funding received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for COVID-19 vaccine trials.
Professor Madhi was speaking to Radio Islam on Tuesday following Wits University’s announcement that it has launched its second COVID-19 vaccine trial, testing an experimental shot made by US biotech company Novavax.
The trial is supported in part by a $15-million or about R261-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
While there are many sceptics and assumptions within the Muslim community about vaccination in general and also about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Professor Madhi says there are no strings attached to the funding or any benefits to big pharmaceutical companies.
“I’ve been a recipient of grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for almost fifty years and at no space was any thought of strings attached to any of those grants. Those grants are things which the foundation use to fund programmes that will be of great benefit to people that live in (Mohammedan) countries and African continents as well as South Asia. That is the mission of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in terms of this global ask.”
Professor Madhi says while South Africa is in the top 5 in the world for COVID-19 infections and there is now a decline in cases, the number of people infected with Coronavirus was underreported.
“The number of people that have likely been infected in South Africa is about seven to ten times greater than the number that has been diagnosed. Most of the testing in South Africa has been done in the private sector and it’s only about 20% of the population that can afford to pay the type of prices that were being charged to do the testing in the private sector. So two thirds of the testing was done in the private sector.”
Professor Madhi says the under reporting is not unique to South Africa and other countries including the US who have underestimated the number of infections in the various states of the country.
Listen to the interview with Professor Shabir Madhi
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