COVID-19 denier in Tanzania?

On the 8 of June 2020, BBC and on Aug. 4 the New York Times, reported that Tanzania had stopped testing for SARS CoV-2 after the country’s president John Magufuli declared Tanzania free of Covid-19.

The President who is a former chemist and doctor is said to have secretly included samples from a goat and a papaya into the samples given to the test institute. When these samples tested positive, he fired the head of the testing institute.

The New York time wrote: “In May, the head of Tanzania’s national laboratory was dismissed after Mr. Magufuli questioned the efficacy of testing kits supplied by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr. Magufuli claimed that the kits had returned positive results on samples secretly taken from a goat and a pawpaw fruit.”

President Magufuli has also dismissed the use of face masks as useless but adheres to social distancing and hygiene efforts.

These days it’s difficult to tell what is true and what is not. Is this an accurate story or not? I don’t know. But it’s surprising that no media has followed up on this particular story. Especially since the country, according to Johns Hopkins international database, has had a total of only 21 deaths in COVID-19. So, is it a hoax or something to learn from and to emulate?  

Below are some statements by President Magufuli

Here, he talks about how his son was infected and recovered.

In this video, President Magufuli declares that there will be no more lockdown after a brief initial lockdown. 

And here about the samples from a goat and papaya.

And here is a longer video for the one who would be interested to follow up on the story in depth.

These videos are all several months old and it is intriguing that they are not translated into English and even more intriguing is that they have not been commented by other media.