Fact-check: Remdesivir is Not a COVID-19 Vaccine
The claim that Remdesivir is a coronavirus vaccine produced to be tested in African countries is false.
Since September 2020, some social media users have been sharing posts showing medication with a label that reads “Not for distribution in the United States, Canada and the European Union.”
Many have claimed that this label on the images is proof that the global North is testing vaccines against Covid-19 in the developing world.
The photo started circulating on in several countries in Africa. “Wake up Afrika, this is not a cure but a trap to kill you or use you as ‘laboratory rat,” reads a published in September last year.
In the second image, the back of the box has a notice: “For use in the below countries only.” It lists 47 countries, all in Africa.
The post making the claims has been shared in groups with large followings and has had very high interactions since it started in September.
But are the claims of Remdesivir being a Covid-19 vaccine and it only being distributed in African countries true?
is not a Covid-19 vaccine, and it is an developed to treat infection by a range of viruses. The Covifor seen on the first images shared is the brand of Remdesivir drug.
The pharmaceutical company added, “Covifor is the first generic brand of Remdesivir which is indicated for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in adults and children, hospitalised with severe symptoms of the disease”.
In November 2020, , a specialised United Nations agency in charge of international public health, issued a , which said Remdesivir should not be used on the Covid-19 patients who are hospitalised. conditional recommendation
WHO added that “There is currently no evidence that Remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients.”
Licenced for distribution worldwide
Canada, the US, and the EU are not on the list, but this doesn’t mean Gilead isn’t distributing the drug in those countries.
Using the evidence stated above, the claim that the antiviral drug Remdesivir is a vaccine produced to be tested in African countries is false.
This publication was produced as part of IWPR’s Africa Resilience Network (ARN) programme, administered in partnership with the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), and Africa Uncensored. For more information on ARN, please visit the ARN site.
Originally published at https://khusoko.com on June 8, 2021.