A Catholic doctors lobby group in Kenya has advised church members not to accept the Covid-19 vaccine but instead practice steam therapy if they are sick.
According to local media, the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association (KCDA) says the vaccines are not necessary and have called on faith-based organizations to stop the vaccinations.
The medics say the only proven means of controlling the spread of the virus is wearing a mask, steaming for all symptomatic patients and ensuring all patients who have Covid-19 are put under strict observation for 10 to 14 days.
The Doctors Association took issue with the AstraZeneca vaccine due to its use of genetically modified organisms and use of lab-grown cells that descend from cells taken in the 1980s from the tissue of aborted human fetuses.
In a statement, the association chairperson Dr Stephen Karanja appealed to Kenyans not to take the vaccine, adding that it should not be distributed in the first place.
“It seems there is something Bill Gates has invested in that requires the whole world to be vaccinated. What that investment is remains the million-dollar question,” he said.
However, health experts cautioned that Kenyans should get the vaccine they are offered.
Dr Jeremiah Chakaya, a respected respiratory physician based in Nairobi, assured Kenyans that vaccines go through a rigorous process before they are licensed. He however, he said it makes sense for people to be hesitant in adopting new things.
“Kenyans should feel confident the product is sound scientifically. There should be no hesitancy,” he said.
On Tuesday, Kenya received one million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines making it the first East African nation to get a shipment of the vaccines in a bid to protect its 50 million people.
Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe assured the country there will be more medicine arriving and there was no need to fear. He also noted that vaccinations will be on voluntary basis and not mandatory.
This is not the first time Catholic doctors have rejected a vaccine. They were also opposed to a government campaign to vaccinate young girls against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in 2019 claiming that the vaccine can cause severe side effects, including brain damage, seizures or paralysis. The doctors also claimed the vaccine should have first undergone necessary clinical trials in the country.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been cleared by the European Medicines Agency, the World Health Organization, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board among other regulatory bodies.
“It has been made clear that the experimental vaccines will not stop infections or transmission of SARS-Cov-2 but will only reduce the risk of severe disease and mortality which the current treatment can do effectively and safely,” they doctors lobby said in a statement.
Their advisory however is not an official position of the Church and runs against a review approved by Pope Francis, who received a vaccine in January.
Similar suspicions date back in 2014 when Catholic bishops in Kenya said they suspected the tetanus vaccine which was being administered to women of productive age contained beta human chorionic gonadotropin, or beta hCG, which prevents women from becoming pregnant.
The bishops charged that the vaccine which targeted women of childbearing age and not to men, was being administered in a campaign sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNICEF that had been guarded by secrecy and deception.
Later in November, a joint committee formed of church leaders, medical doctors, and the parliamentary Committee on Health agreed to test samples of the vaccine at laboratories around the world. Preliminary test results showed that three of 59 vials of the tetanus vaccine contained beta hCG while others tested negative.