While world leaders have taken to invoke the teachings of Jesus Christ in a desperate attempt to get anti-vaxxers to move the needle in the fight against Covid, South Africa is shifting its Covid-19 mitigation strategies to stop costly contact tracing and quarantines, with authorities saying they’ll conduct contact tracing only in case of a cluster …
Local scientists are making waves globally. Three weeks ago it was South Africa’s Covid detection scientists that alerted the world to omicron, potentially saving thousands of lives. Now they are investigating the “highly plausible hypothesis” that the emergence of new Covid-19 variants could be linked to mutations taking place inside infected people whose immune systems have already …
While you were asleep: Shoutout to South Africa’s scientists! Read More »
A formidable multi-tasker, a leader in the true sense of the word – it is no surprise that South Africans have chosen Dr Imtiaz Sooliman of Gift of the Givers as the Daily Maverick’s South African Person of the Year, with Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and the vaccinators as runners-up. In the 29 years since Sooliman …
While you were asleep: From good doers and villains to omicron and more omicron Read More »
As the rapid spread of omicron in countries across the globe is prompting a wave of new restrictions, scientists are beginning to piece together what gives it its evolutionary advantage. And while they are busy piecing the puzzle together, all countries are battling the pandemic differently. While Sydney is still shrugging off the Covid spike and resisting calls to …
While you were asleep: Seems we’ll have to learn to live with omicron Read More »
If 2021 was meant to be a better year than the coronavirus festival that was 2020, it has sorely failed to deliver on its New Year’s resolution. Perhaps the next 12 months will offer something a little more enticing, here’s looking at you 2022. The past 12 months has seen the pendulum of South Africa’s …
Opinions of the Day: Looking back at key moments in 2021 Read More »
South Africa, and especially the alcohol and tourism sectors, cheered the government’s surprise move to keep the country on lockdown level 1 despite the rapid spread of the omicron variant. Any other decision would’ve thrown shade on our pleas for countries not to punish us with travel bans and further constricted the economy which already suffered a worse-than-expected 1.5% contraction in the third quarter …
While you were asleep: From level 1 and omicron’s global chaos to rand’s relief rally Read More »
One year on and eight billion shots in the largest global vaccination drive in history against Covid-19 and we’re still searching for the right shield as the virus mutates and wreaks havoc across the globe. Sinovac, one of the most widely used vaccines in the world, has just shown to provide an inadequate shield against the fast-spreading omicron …
Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2021, capping off a rollercoaster year for the South African born tech magnate and the world’s wealthiest individual. Time’s Person of the Year isn’t always someone the whole world can easily get behind and Musk, 50, certainly cuts a controversial and sometimes divisive …
While you were asleep: Musk is Time’s Person of the Year Read More »
On Sunday, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICC) announced nearly 38 000 new positive cases of Covid-19 making it a new record number for daily cases, which easily surpassed the old record of 26 645 that came at the height of the third wave on July 3. But the NICC stressed that over half of the …
While you were asleep: Record Covid numbers and Ramaphosa tests positive Read More »
The environment or economic stability? A tough choice placed before environmentalists opposing Shell’s seismic survey along the Eastern Cape’s pristine Wild Coast as Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe accused protesters of oppressing South Africa’s economic development in the name of environmental protection. But it’s not that simple. The environmentalists argue you cannot solve one …
While you were asleep: Between the devil and the deep blue sea Read More »
