Tanzania Tests a Goat and a Pawpaw

General
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President Queries Tanzania Coronavirus Kits After Goat Test

By Reuters
May 3, 2020
Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.

Magufuli, whose government has already drawn criticism for being secretive about the coronavirus outbreak and has previously asked Tanzanians to pray the coronavirus away, said the kits had "technical errors".

The COVID-19 testing kits had been imported from abroad, Magufuli said during an event in Chato in the north west of Tanzania, although he did not give further details.

The president said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits. They had randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep, but had assigned them human names and ages.

These samples were then submitted to Tanzania's laboratory to test for the coronavirus, with the lab technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.

May 5, 2020
Samples from the pawpaw and the goat tested positive for COVID-19, the president said, adding this meant it was likely that some people were being tested positive when in fact they were not infected by the coronavirus.

"There is something happening. I said before we should not accept that every aid is meant to be good for this nation," Magufuli said, adding the kits should be investigated.

As of Sunday, Tanzania had recorded 480 cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths but unlike most other African countries, Dar es Salaam sometimes goes for days without offering updates, with the last bulletin on cases on Wednesday.

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Tanzania’s Leader Urges People to Worship in Throngs Against Coronavirus
President John Magufuli scorns social distancing, sees Jesus Christ as antidote to ‘satanic’ virus
By Nicholas Bariyo and Joe Parkinson
April 8, 2020 8:00 am ET
As most of the world goes into lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus, Tanzania’s president is taking a different tack: encouraging people to go pray in churches and mosques to quell a “satanic” virus that can only be cured by divine intervention.

For the past two weeks, the East African nation’s populist leader, John Magufuli, has been attending church services, telling cheering congregations that coronavirus cannot survive in the bodies of the faithful.

President Magufuli, we need leadership, not prayers
BY DEOGRATIAS MUNISHIAPRIL 27, 2020

Many lives will be lost unless the government changes course soon, writes the head of foreign affairs of Tanzania’s main opposition.
President Magufuli of Tanzania covid-19
President John Magufuli has said that COVID-19 “cannot survive in the body of Jesus” and urged them to flock to churches.

https://africanarguments.org/2020/04/27/president-magufuli-covid-19-we-need-leadership-not-prayers/

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I find it distressing that the pawpaw can become infected. :wink: My inlaws, along the KS/OK/MO border considered pawpaw jam as quite a delicacy, when they could source the fruit.

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I'm guessing that in Tanzania it was actually a papaya (tropical fruit) vs. the N. American pawpaw.
As a kid I was confused in early travels as pawpaw was often used as name for papaya in tropical areas.

So, pawpaw MAY still be safe! :wink:

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Tanzania could learn a lot from the U.S. by not employing prayers alone, but to invoke the more effective combination of thoughts and prayers.

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Even if the pawpaw does get the Coronavirus I believe the heat used in making the fruit into jam would kill the virus, now the freezer jam version might not be safe. I need to get one of these tests to see if my mulberries will safe to eat. /sarcoff