The association expressed concern over ‘quack cadre scientists’, saying Kadaga’s statements divert the population from known and effective preventive messages. They also questioned how the United States would give the patent of a potential cure to a country without a single case of coronavirus when the country has its own thousands of cases.
They also noted that the purported sanitizer hadn’t been approved by the National Drug Authority (NDA), which is legally mandated to do so.
“In Uganda, the only competent authority that can give permission for the entry and use of medicines in the country or oversee the testing of any medicine is the National Drug Authority. To our knowledge not any such testing, scrutiny or oversight of the medicine the speaker talked about has been undertaken by the National Drug Authority,” the statement adds.
UMA said because of the mandatory tests and trials the vaccine would have to undergo, the earliest any successful coronavirus vaccine can come on the market is next year around March. Ministry of Health also said they were unaware of Niazi’s spray and in any case, the permanent secretary Dr Diana Atwine said it would have to be subjected to trials and tests.
Hitting back, Kadaga said if the doctors from UMA “had brains”, they would have sought for details from her instead of calling Prof Niazi ‘a quack doctor’ and questioning his spray. Kadaga questioned why the UMA leadership didn’t find it necessary to engage her office on her comments about her coronavirus spray instead of running to the media.
“Yesterday [Monday], I informed members that some work is going on by some Ugandans to develop medicine in the country, but I would have thought that the doctors of the Uganda Medical Association had brains, they would have first come to me and said; ’we heard you talk about this can you tell us about it’ but they went ahead and issued a press statement,” Kadaga said.
Kadaga insists that Niazi’s sanitizer is effective, advanced and kills COVID-19 instantly. She also said those calling Niazi a quack doctor are simply expressing ignorance because he teaches through his over 50 books and 100 patents in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical field.
Kadaga accuses the doctors of trying to fight the new sanitizer to probably push the interests of other companies. She said Niazi’s sanitizer as safe to be applied on hands and surfaces without causing any health risks. She said the plan is to massively produce and distribute the product to stop the spread of COVID-19 all over the world.
“I do not deal with quacks. I do not think that there is any Ugandan scientist who has done the kind of work this professor has done. Professor Niazi assisted former US President Barrack Obama in designing the Obama Care and is an advisor of the Food and Drug Administration agency in America,” Kadaga said adding that, “I do hope that these three doctors; Dr Richard Idro, Dr Muhereza Mukuzi and Dr Misaki Wanyengera, will have the courtesy to apologize for issuing the press statement without first checking with me on what I was talking about.” she sais.
Kadaga has also faced a backlash on social media in Uganda and internationally with some questioning her intentions and accusing her of making President Museveni part of the scheme.
In pictures and videos shared on social media, Kadaga is seen posing for the cameras with Museveni, Niazi and Magoola promoting the spray. The president even goes as far suggesting that even when coronavirus eventually disappears, the spray would still be bought for guarding against other viruses.