Risky: Retracted studies still routinely cited in fight against coronavirus
In June 2020, in the biggest research scandal of the pandemic so far, two of the most important medical journals each retracted a high-profile study of Coovid-19 patients. Thousands of news articles, tweets, and scholarly commentaries highlighted the scandal, yet many researchers apparently failed to notice. In an examination of...
What is Africa’s gift to humanity in terms of democracy, science, law?
After the end of the cold-war, Washington and Brussels lauded Africa’s burgeoning democracy. And direct foreign investments poured into Africa. But things have changed. As you read this, Kenya’s is in the throes of a constitutional amendment. It is obvious the governing elite want to succeed itself. Two weeks ago,...
‘Community health workers deserve better this year’
Frontline health workers are expected to be honoured during the World Health Organisation’s International Year of the Healthcare Worker in 2021 in recognition to their selflessness in fending off Covid-19 pandemic However, the community health workers must be better-supported in their vital role to further beat back the global Covid-19...
Although concussions heal, some patients struggle at times to remember tasks
Italian physician Paolo Mascagni created a detailed atlas of the lymphatic system – including this drawing from his 1787 Vasorum Lymphaticorum Corporis Humani Historia et Ichnographic. Mascagni depicted the vessels in the meninges around the brain, but other scientists dismissed the idea, arguing that the lymphatic system was separate from...
Facebook’s oversight board to decide whether to give Trump bullhorn back
In the wake of this month’s violent insurrection at the US Capitol, Facebook suspended the account of the inciter-in-chief Donald Trump. On January 7, citing the danger that the president’s posts might incite further violence, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would keep Trump off the platform “indefinitely and for...
Research suggests mild head knocks can damage vessels that clear debris from brain
On a crisp September day, Zoe Aldrich walked onto a rugby pitch on a college campus in upstate New York. With her teammates surrounding her, she got ready for the kick-off and the pitch became a blur of coloured jerseys. A teammate passed Aldrich the ball and she started running,...
Patients with lingering symptoms need access to specialised clinics
Those of us who try to prepare communities for outbreaks of infectious diseases have a saying: Once you’ve seen one pandemic, you’ve seen one pandemic. In other words, each deadly outbreak is different and brings with it, new challenges. As members of a team that helps the nation’s largest public...
Despite high HIV awareness in western Kenya, cultural taboos undermine progress
While significant gains have been made in the fight against HIV-related stigma and discrimination, prejudiced attitudes still hold back people in rural Kenya from accessing healthcare services. Cultural inhibitions are still at play in the war against sexually transmitted infections (STI) and access to reproductive health services, further multiplying the...
Biden appoints bioethics and social inequality specialist to top science post
During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged that his administration would address inequality and racism. Now that he’s been sworn in as US president, his appointment of a prominent sociologist to the nation’s top science office is raising hopes that the changes will extend to the scientific community. Alondra Nelson,...
Government is neither slavery or freedom: It’s a system that rules beings
Government is neither slavery or freedom; it is a system invented or created to rule human beings by human beings If you have no rules, then someone or somebody has to create them, and then have methods of teaching them and enforcing them and changing them, whether that be physically...
