A South African public health official has urged compatriots to ignore “fake news” that claims the coronavirus vaccines were designed to kill black people, noting that they are being taken by people from a variety of racial backgrounds.
Dr. Sandile Tshabalala, who leads the department of health for KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, made the remarks last week, according to South African news website Independent Online. He noted that it was odd that South Africans were questioning the coronavirus vaccine, when they were subjected to a variety of different vaccines from an early age:
“The truth of the matter is there is a vaccination programme in South Africa, which starts as soon as you are born. You get to be vaccinated from that time on until you are at least 14 years old.
“You get to be vaccinated with different vaccines, which themselves have different things in them and, as such, you are not even aware what is in this vaccine. But today you want to question this vaccine. That is not normal.
He also added that it was unreasonable to believe the COVID-19 vaccines were designed to kill black people:
“The reality of the matter is, if anyone wanted to kill South Africans using a vaccine, they could have achieved that long ago.
“So, it is mere fake news that now there is somebody who want to kill South Africans using any vaccine for that matter. If you’re saying it’s aimed at killing Black people… Everyone across the racial spectrum is getting vaccinated. Then, why would it kill only Black people? It does not make sense. So, there is nothing like that.”
In the U.S., data show that “[w]hile as of September 21, 2021, White adults accounted for the largest share (60%) of unvaccinated adults, Black and Hispanic people remain less likely than their White counterparts to have received a vaccine, leaving them at increased risk, particularly as the variant spreads.”
Some have cited mistrust within the black community of the medical profession and of hospitals as a reason for the lag in vaccination among African Americans.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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