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Talking Points
COVID lessons from a contrarian Sweden
Throughout the pandemic, Sweden took its own path by keeping businesses open and most children in classrooms while other countries were locking down, writes...
How to minimise the negative effects of Nigeria’s incessant strikes by doctors
Doctors’ strikes, such as those occurring regularly in Nigeria, tend to be met with public outcry and appeals for them to abide by their...
Political will: The vaccine against Big Tobacco in Africa
There is overwhelming evidence against tobacco, dating back decades, that we already have instruments to fight it in place – we just need the...
Activists: “Sugar tax is working and should be increased’
The Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) has repeated its call for the Treasury to enact its initial proposal of a 20% health promotion levy on...
Long COVID is ‘exaggerated’ and ‘overblown’
Despite a number of studies pointing to the persistence of COVID symptoms in large numbers of those who have recovered from the infection, another...
British GPs and practice staff quitting over face-to-face appointments
Senior doctors in Britain have warned that practice staff and GPs are quitting after an unprecedented wave of abuse from patients and weeks of...
COVID1-9 pandemic is the deadliest event in US history
The COVID-19 pandemic is the deadliest event in American history, with its death toll of 703,000 people surpassing that of the Civil War (620,000)...
Tanzania discards prayer and herbal concoctions in favour of vaccines
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanzania’s president and health minister, rejected vaccines in favour of prayer and “natural remedies”. With the demise...
Portugal’s military key to making it the world’s most vaccinated country
Portugal is the most vaccinated country in the world with about 85% of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in just nine months, and...
Public health in Africa: Neglect, dependency and now a ‘moral tragedy’
Public health in Africa has been a story of neglect and dependency, says Dr John Nkengasong, the first director of the Africa Centers for...
PANDA’s ‘misleading and pseudoscientific’ claims drive vaccine hesitancy
Actuary Nick Hudson heads PANDA, the most high-profile group driving vaccine hesitancy in South Africa, writes Nathan Geffen, editor of GroundUp. It’s been spreading...
Denmark scraps all restrictions, thanks to a COVID ‘super-weapon’
For Danes, COVID-19 is officially over. Last Friday (10 September), the country lifted all of its last pandemic restrictions, with the government having declared...
Traditional medicine ‘needs equal funding to tackle COVID’
There is an urgent need to institutionalise traditional medicine, not just to tolerate it but to give it an equal chance and research funding...
Study identifies 579 genetic locations linked to anti-social behaviour, addiction
An analysis of data from 1.5 million people has identified 579 locations in the genome associated with a predisposition to behaviours and disorders related...
Oxford Vaccine Group: Delta renders herd immunity ‘mythical’
Reaching herd immunity is “not a possibility” with the current Delta variant, says the head of Britain's Oxford Vaccine Group in a report in The...
Research turns to potential affect of COVID vaccines on menstrual cycle
While many of the side effects of a COVID vaccine are known and well publicised, thousands in the US think that they may have...
WHO’s vaccine head on why the rush for COVID booster jabs is premature
When the World Health Organization (WHO) recently called for a moratorium on giving COVID-19 booster shots except in rare circumstances, it cited vaccine inequity...
Traditional medicine ‘needs equal funding to tackle COVID’
There is an urgent need to institutionalise traditional medicine, not just to tolerate it but to give it an equal chance and research funding...
Study identifies 579 genetic locations linked to anti-social behaviour, addiction
An analysis of data from 1.5 million people has identified 579 locations in the genome associated with a predisposition to behaviours and disorders related...
Unpacking COVID vaccination's effect on fertility and sexual functioning
Rumours and myths about the COVID-19 vaccine effects on reproduction and sexual functioning have spread across social media platforms, where people swop rumours of...
Biden administration wants boosters for most people 8 months after vaccination
US President Joe Biden's administration has decided that most Americans should get a coronavirus booster vaccination eight months after they received their second shot,...
Cubaʼs health system in acute distress as COVID cases soar
Cubaʼs health care system, long a source of national pride, is in acute distress, writes The New York Times.
After fending off COVID-19 last year,...
Scientists fumble for explanations as breakthrough infections rise
Medical scientists are struggling to pin down the reasons for the surprisingly high number of vaccinated people who are getting breakthrough COVID-19 infections, writes...
SAMJ: Vaccine hesitancy has little to with the rantings of a cardiac surgeon
The media, both social and otherwise, has been full of the irresponsible rantings of a well-known health professional against the COVID-19 vaccination in the...
Only Africa’s leaders can staunch Africa’s medical brain drain
Despite international interventions to staunch Africa's long existing medical brain drain, the key issue is that the continent’s leaders will have to exercise strong...
Oxford Vaccine Group: Delta renders herd immunity ‘mythical’
Reaching herd immunity is “not a possibility” with the current Delta variant, says the head of Britain's Oxford Vaccine Group in a report in The...
Research turns to potential affect of COVID vaccines on menstrual cycle
While many of the side effects of a COVID vaccine are known and well publicised, thousands in the US think that they may have...
WHO’s vaccine head on why the rush for COVID booster jabs is premature
When the World Health Organization (WHO) recently called for a moratorium on giving COVID-19 booster shots except in rare circumstances, it cited vaccine inequity...
COVID-19 herd immunity. It’s not going to happen, so what next?
Herd immunity is no longer a discussion the world should be having, writes Professor Shabir A Madhi of the University of the Witwatersrand in...
CDC warns: Delta more transmissible than Ebola, as contagious as chickenpox
The Delta variant is more transmissible than Ebola and as infectious as chickenpox, warns the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, writes MedicalBrief....
Realisation that COVID will be ‘a long warʼ sparks anger and denial
The prospect of a prolonged COVID-19 outbreak and constantly evolving roster of restrictions has brought back another feature of pandemic living — anger —...
COVID-19 in children: The South African experience and way forward
Surveillance data in South Africa indicate that the lower risk of COVID-19 infection, disease, death or transmission experienced by children is age-dependent – and...
Zimbabwe plays political roulette with vaccines
Despite a failing COVID-19 programme forcing the Zimbabwean government to allow private hospitals and clinics in infection hotspots to vaccinate, it insists the country...
The long and painful road to the Life Esidimeni inquest
On Monday an inquest began into the deaths of 144 mental health patients after they were discharged from Life Esidimeni into communities more than...
Asia’s COVID tsunami threatens to engulf the Olympic Games
Once envied for their ability to contain the spread of COVID-19, many Asian countries are now battling new strains of the coronavirus and case...
The long, slow collapse of South Africa’s top hospitals
Professor Daynia Ballot, head of Clinical Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, has three decades of experience working in hospitals in Gauteng. Writing...
Ivermectin is not a ‘miracle drug’ against COVID. Vaccines are
Ivermectin may well prove to be useful in the battle against COVID-19 but it’s no “miracle drug”, write Claire Berlinski and Yuri Deigin in...
Fourfold more US soldiers commit suicide than die in combat
Since 9/11, four times as many United States service members and veterans have died by suicide than have been killed in combat, reports NBC...
Benefits of mix-and-match approach to COVID-19 vaccines
There are a number of potential advantages to a mix-and-match approach to vaccination against COVID-19, writes Maureen Ferran, Associate Professor of Biology at Rochester...
Obesity paradox gets new support – Ventilator-associated pneumonia study
Against expectations, French researchers have found obese hospitalised patients were at no greater risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia than those of normal weight, writes John...