Spike in the number of scientists studying Covid awes researchers
For many researchers, the choice to spend decades working in a lab or in the field comes from a desire to help – to expand understanding of how life works or to improve human health. So, when Covid-19 emerged, many scientists dropped what they were doing and switched their focus...
In digital age, there is real need to protect the rights of Black and brown people
As an early member of the Black Lives Matter Global Network in the Bay Area, I was among the leaders responsible for managing several BLM Facebook pages and I witnessed the inequity first hand. I spent hours each day from 2014 until 2017 removing violent racial and gendered harassment, explicitly...
Banning White supremacism is not censorship, it is accountability
Early last month, in the wake of the fatal incursion of an angry, mostly white and male mob into the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, Facebook and Twitter blocked Donald Trump’s accounts. YouTube followed with a temporary ban, which it has continued to extend in the weeks since. According to...
Coronavirus: Fomite transmission is possible, but it just seems to be rare
In 1987, researchers at the University of Wisconsin – Madison put healthy volunteers in a room to play cards with people infected with a common-cold rhinovirus. When the healthy volunteers had their arms restrained to stop them touching their faces and prevent them transferring the virus from contaminated surfaces, half...
Coronavirus rarely spreads through surfaces; so why are we still deep cleaning?
When Emanuel Goldman went to his local New Jersey supermarket last March, he didn’t take any chances. Reports of Covid-19 cases were popping up across the United States, so he donned gloves to avoid contaminated surfaces and wore a mask to prevent him inhaling tiny virus-laden droplets from fellow shoppers....
Drug firm AstraZeneca recognised as top employer in Kenya and South Africa
World pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has been recognised as a Top Employer in Kenya and South Africa. The drug manufacturer, which has been in the news in recent months as a leader in the search for a coronavirus vaccine was picked for the 2021 Top Employers award by Top Employers Institute...
With just one horrific act, Kenya faces a nightmare she’s never dared imagine
For so long, Kenyan leaders have conditioned the populace to accept corruption. A collective state of mind exists in which the ordinary Kenyan has come to expect America, Europe and other foreigners to solve his pressing problems through all forms of aid. Call it a tragic dependency syndrome. The ordinary...
New report: Western sources still dominate how the Africa story is told
One-third of all African stories in news outlets on the continent are sourced from foreign news services, a new report from Africa No Filter, says. The How African Media Covers Africa report highlights the fact that stories about Africa continue to be told through the same persistent and negative stereotypes...
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,...
