Top news Model behavior: A new COVID vaccine is on the block – and the US scientists behind it decided to make it available to the world (read: no patents, no-frills tech transfer, and a round of applause from us to the makers, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine). Production is underway in India under the drug name CORBEVAX, and its inventors speculate that it will soon reach more people in middle- and low-income countries than those donated by G7 nations. It’s...
Did you know that #Omicron and Transformers (yes, those Transformers) have a lot in common? Omicron is the pandemic’s latest threat against us. And by hoarding the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, world leaders are allowing variants like Omicron to continue to grow and spread. That means Omicron may be the latest variant to spread around the world — but it certainly won’t be the last. Learn more and demand that leaders of rich countries share vaccine doses to end the pandemic...
In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege and honor to meet American presidents and leaders from all over the world, but Archbishop Desmond Tutu commanded more authority than any person I have ever known. His was borne not of faith, nor of religious hierarchy or the status of the positions he held; it emerged from who he was. He was fierce, and never hesitated to call out injustice, whether to comrade or foe. He was fair – always willing and...
Top news Africa rising: COVID-19 cases are surging across Africa, with many countries experiencing a fourth wave amidst the Omicron variant. In Nigeria, the number of daily confirmed infections over the past week jumped from 76 to 451, following the discovery of the new variant in the country. Both South Africa and Kenya surpassed the WHO high-risk threshold of 5% for COVID-19 cases, with South Africa exceeding a 30% positivity rate and Kenya at 6.5%. However, despite the surge of COVID-19 infections in Africa, the number...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) allocated $650 billion worth of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to its members in August, and activists are pressuring rich nations to channel, or recycle, their SDRs to low- and middle-income countries to help them recover faster from the COVID-19 pandemic. Advocates for the recycling of SDRs argue that low- and middle-income countries, especially in Africa, should benefit more from the new SDR allocation as their economies have been badly battered by the pandemic. As a result...
In Cape Town, the team at the Women’s Legal Centre are champions of women’s rights and staunch defenders of women when they’re at their most vulnerable. They are at the forefront of changing South Africa’s legal landscape. And as South Africa’s only African feminist law centre for women’s rights, they are making huge strides, especially for black women. “We call it ‘feminist activist lawyering,’” Seehaam Samaai, the centre’s director, said. “It’s very important for us to ensure that the courts,...
Top news Vaccine bandits: A black market for vaccines is undermining Kenya’s vaccination campaign, just weeks before a mandate goes into effect. Corrupt officials are diverting vaccines, falsifying records, and smuggling vials (to mostly remote areas) for $30 to $50 each. These vaccine bandits create significant health concerns: the doses are often transported without adequate refrigeration, they risk contamination, and they aren’t being administered by healthcare professionals with proper sanitation or precautions. The Kenyan government offers doses for free to its citizens, but...
South Africans are furious over re-imposed travel bans after the Omicron variant was detected in South Africa on 24 November. The UK was the first country to announce a red list of countries that citizens were prohibited from travelling to. This list includes South Africa and Botswana – the two African countries with the first confirmed cases of Omicron infections – as well as Angola, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The US, EU countries, Canada, UAE, Australia, and...
Top news Omicron rising: Health officials in South Africa announced Wednesday that the Omicron variant has become the most prevalent version of COVID-19 in the country. The number of cases doubled from Tuesday, and test positivity climbed from 10.2% to 16.5%. In Gauteng province, early analyses suggest that COVID-19 cases and test positivity are increasing faster than in previous waves. While hospitalizations in the country are also rising, it’s too soon to draw conclusions about Omicron’s transmissibility and lethality, and officials are urging caution. On Wednesday,...
Earlier this month, seven ONE Champions and one ONE staff member attended the YouLead Africa Summit in Arusha, Tanzania, where they discussed the future of the continent and the importance of youth representation. The YouLead Summit is an annual forum of young leaders, mentors, government policymakers, civil society, and other partners from all over Africa to craft responses to the continent’s rapidly growing youth population, their challenges, and opportunities. Happening since 2017, the forum is the highlight event to the Youth...