The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the need to engage faith with science in the fight against COVID-19.
The Director General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said that faith and science should “go together” in the fight.
Explaining further, Tedros Ghebreyesus said “We know many religious leaders who would really advise their followers to follow their faith and at the same time use science. The two do not contradict; they go together… We will call on all religious leaders to be in this fight and save lives,” he stated.
This came to the fore when a Cameroonian journalist Simon Ateba of Today News Africa at an interactive press briefing organized on Wednesday 1st July 2020, questioned a panel of top WHO officials on the claim of a miracle by a medical doctor who testified in a viral video to receiving healing from COVID-19 after receiving prayers from Nigerian Pastor TB Joshua.
In response, Dr Michael Ryan, the Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme, affirmed the readiness of WHO to collaborate with bodies like The SCOAN to advance the cause of the war against the deadly virus.
“Certainly, spiritual leadership is very important in times like this,” Ryan stated, praising the role of faith-based organisations in providing accurate information to communities.
In the video, Ateba referred to, Dr Kameni Pierre – a gynecologist and obstetrician – receives prayer after affirming he was positive to coronavirus during an ‘Interactive Prayer Session’ organised by Emmanuel TV.
After ‘vomiting out’ the disease during prayer, the medical doctor held up his medical report days later confirming he was diagnosed negative to COVID-19.
Recall that Ghebreyesus had earlier echoed TB Joshua’s prophecy where he declared 2020 “the year of humility” in which “God would humble us with our challenges”.
“If this virus is teaching us anything, it is humility,” the former Ethiopian Minister of Health asserted.
Emmanuel TV’s popular YouTube videos, many of which show similar case of miraculous healing through prayer, have accumulated over six hundred million views.
VIDEO – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xPSbFU43PU
