CLAIMS made by forex fraud accused Michael Amushelelo about patients in state hospitals receiving the coronavirus vaccine and then dying have been rubbished by the health ministry.
Amushelelo, who titled himself an “advocate of the poor’ in a video posted on social media, said he received the information from individuals working in state hospitals.
“As of last night I’ve been receiving disturbing voice notes. These are basically voice notes of individuals who are working in our state hospital, and to be specific, Katutura State Hospital.
“Many of them have informed me that the vaccine for coronavirus is actually here and many of them have observed that the people who have taken the vaccine many of them have started dying,” he said in the video.
Responding to the claims made by Amushelelo in the video, health executive director Ben Nangombe called him an “agent of chaos”.
“It is irresponsible as a young person who has got a large following putting out something like that; repeating information that is patently incorrect and repeating it as if it is the truth.
“Anybody with rudimentary knowledge about health would know that a vaccine is not something that is used for treatment. It is not given to people who are admitted in hospital. It is administered to prevent a person from contracting a particular infection.
“That’s why we are saying the people who are recording these audios are agents of chaos. They want to create chaos,” Nangombe said.
He said any information about the vaccine would be officially communicated through the health ministry.
As announced by health minister Kalumbi Shangula on Wednesday, Namibia is still in the process of acquiring the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.
In South Africa, the vaccine is still being trialed on a small demographic of individuals, and has not yet been rolled out to the general population.
“So, it is not true to claim that people are being injected with the Covid vaccine, because it’s not here. It has not arrived here. It is untrue, it is dangerous and it irresponsible,” Nangombe said.
He called on Namibians to be vigilant of misinformation and to seek authentic information from official sources, such as the health ministry and World Health Organisation.
He also urged the “agents of chaos” to rescind their claims.
“These people should actually take it upon themselves to recall their audios and apologise to the Namibian people for the confusion they are causing. It’s causing a lot of confusion and panic.
“Those people don’t have the best interests of the Namibian people (at heart). They are charlatans that are out there to cause confusion,” he said.
Amushelelo posted the video on his Instagram account on Thursday and it has since garnered 42 593 views.