An Inserm researcher and a head of department at Cochin hospital in Paris apologized Friday after comments made on the LCI chain, in which they questioned the advisability of testing a vaccine in Africa against the coronavirus. Their comments had angered many Internet users and organizations, including SOS Racisme and the Socialist Party.
>> Coronavirus: follow live developments
Tests in Africa, like "with AIDS, where among prostitutes"
In this sequence broadcast on Wednesday afternoon, Camille Locht, research director at Inserm in Lille, was asked about research carried out around the BCG vaccine for Covid-19. Invited on set, Jean-Paul Mira, head of the intensive medicine and resuscitation department at Cochin hospital, then asked him: "If I can be provocative, shouldn't this study be done in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatment, no resuscitation, a bit like it is done elsewhere on some studies with AIDS, where among prostitutes. We try things because we know that 'they are highly exposed. What do you think?'
The researcher replied: "You are right, moreover. We are thinking in parallel to a study in Africa with the same type of approach, that does not prevent us from thinking in parallel to a study in Europe and Australia ". "No, Africans are not guinea pigs!", SOS Racisme was then indignant in a press release, announcing that she was going to seize the CSA and denouncing "towards the black bodies a contempt". The association deemed the comparison with AIDS and prostitutes "problematic" and "unwelcome". The CSA confirmed to have been seized.
>> PODCAST - Coronavirus: find all the answers to your questions here
LCI does not wish to comment on these comments
"We expect from LCI an unequivocal condemnation of these unacceptable comments. We ask the Directorate General of Health and the WHO to shed light on the practices mentioned," reacted for its part the Socialist Party . Many internet users have also expressed their anger, in France and on the African continent. The Club of lawyers in Morocco has announced on its Facebook page its intention to "file a complaint for racial defamation".
Contacted by AFP, LCI (TF1 group's news channel) did not comment and referred to the responses from Inserm and Jean-Paul Mira. Inserm replied that "a truncated video was the subject of misinterpretation on social networks". Recalling that the tests would be launched in several European countries and in Australia, the Institute indicated on Twitter that "Africa must not be forgotten or excluded from research, because the pandemic is global".
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> How long are healthy carriers contagious?
> What are the side effects of chloroquine?
> Adulterated tests, false calls for donations ...: watch out for scams linked to the coronavirus
> Reading, board games ... How to stimulate your brain during confinement?
> How to avoid gaining pounds during confinement?
Apologies from researcher and doctor
Inserm clarified that "the conditions in which this interview was conducted did not allow (Camille Locht) to react correctly, he apologizes and wishes to specify that he made no racist remarks. The sole purpose of his intervention was to confirm that the epidemic is global and that all countries should be able to benefit from the fruits of research. "
"I want to apologize, ask those who have been struck, shocked, who have felt insulted by words that I have awkwardly made on LCI this week, my sincerest apologies, because these words in no way reflect what I am, what I have been doing everyday for 30 years now ", said in a press release from the AP-HP Jean-Paul Mira.