South Africa’s National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Monday sensationally claimed that there is a sinister plot to sideline Russia’s Sputnik Covid-19 vaccine in a move meant to give a head start to Western-made drugs.
Speaking during the 7th Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Parliamentary Forum taking place in the Spanish capital Madrid, Mapisa-Nqakula said the World Health Organisation was conniving with Western countries to isolate Sputnik by not giving guidance on the drug.
“It is not just certain countries but there is an agenda of isolating Sputnik as a vaccine because, we hear every now and then, that there is more information which is required from the Russians,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She said some countries have not been able to use the Sputnik vaccine because they have not received “a clear voice and clear guidance from the World Health Organisation as to exactly what the UN agency’s position is on Sputnik.”
“And the tendency is, therefore, for some countries to say that we’ll be guided by the World Health Organisation before using Sputnik, which was the first in the world to get registered,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The BRICS meeting is taking place on the sidelines of the 143rd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly that runs until Wednesday.
NM/jn/APA