By Reuters Staff<\/p>\n
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 11 (Reuters) – South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng on Friday dismissed concerns that he might be endangering people\u2019s health by linking coronavirus vaccines to a \u201cSatanic agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that a senior judge had aired such preoccupations.<\/p>\n
South Africa has registered more than 22,700 deaths from COVID-19, by far the highest number on the continent. Worries quickly surfaced, in a country where new medical interventions are often controversial, that people might avoid vaccination as a result of the comments.<\/p>\n
After South Africa began hosting the continent\u2019s first coronavirus vaccine trial, anti-vaccine activists protested against Africans being used as test subjects.<\/p>\n
Two decades ago, then-president Thabo Mbeki famously questioned whether the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) caused AIDS, which has ravaged the country.<\/p>\n
Mogoeng, who frequently displays his avid Christian faith while performing his duties, prayed at a public event on Thursday that people should be spared any vaccine that sought to \u201cadvance a Satanic agenda of the mark of the beast\u201d.<\/p>\n
Addressing questions about this at a news conference on Friday to release a judiciary report, Mogoeng said: \u201cIf there is any vaccine that is deliberately intended to do harm to people, that vaccine must never see the light of day. I cry unto God to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mogoeng added: \u201cI don\u2019t think the vaccine must ever be compulsory … You can\u2019t impose a vaccine on people. Why should you?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sunday Times Daily news site quoted Wits University virology professor Barry Schoub, head of a ministerial advisory committee on COVID-19, as saying:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that someone of that stature is misleading people because vaccines are such a major part of controlling this epidemic and it is unfortunate that someone with such influence is opposing efforts to control it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The human rights organisation Africa 4 Palestine said the remarks \u201cundermine medical science and South Africa\u2019s position on the distribution of vaccines\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Mogoeng said he would not be silenced: \u201cI don\u2019t care about the consequences. We\u2019ve been quiet for far too long, toeing the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa hopes to receive its first coronavirus vaccines from the COVAX global distribution scheme in the second quarter of next year. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Kevin Liffey)<\/p>\n