ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS

February 2021 theStandard; The United Nations Population Division estimates that, by the year 2050, there will be 9.7 billion people on earth – around 24 per cent more people than in 2020. Huge population growth will occur in developing countries. To keep pace with population growth, the Food and Agriculture …

January 2021 MedicalNewsToday; Researchers have found that people with diabetes undergoing treatment with the medication metformin are at significantly less risk of death due to COVID-19 compared with those not taking the medication. The study, which appears in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, also found that African American study participants were …

January 2021 BloomBerg; Global gaps in access to Covid-19 vaccines are raising concerns that the continued spread of the coronavirus will breed more dangerous versions of the pathogen, weakening medical weapons and further crippling economies. In a race to catch up with emerging coronavirus variants, wealthy countries are already benefiting …

January 2020 BloomBerg; Like all new drugs, the vaccines that have been authorized to protect against Covid-19 come with some safety concerns and side effects. Many people who’ve received the first two Western shots deployed, one from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, and another from Moderna Inc., have experienced fever, headache and pain at …

January 2021 CNN; Despite hopes of widespread vaccinations this year, experts warned the start of 2021 would be a very rough time in this pandemic. It turns out the first two weeks have been abysmal. The United States just shattered its all-time records for the most Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and …

January 2021 CNN; A leading Chinese Covid-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech was just 50.38% effective in late-stage trials in Brazil, significantly lower than earlier results showed, according to a statement published by the government of Sao Paulo Tuesday. While the number exceeds the threshold required for regulatory approval, it …

January 2021 CNN; Most patients who had been hospitalized with Covid-19 still suffered a variety of symptoms — including fatigue and sleep difficulties — six months after infection, a Chinese study has found. The study of more than 1,700 patients treated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the …

January 2021 CNN; The discovery of important new coronavirus variants in the UK and South Africa began with a bet of a bottle of wine. In mid-November, Tulio de Oliveira, who leads a genetics lab in South Africa, began receiving anxious phone calls from physicians in the Eastern Cape province …

January 2021 CNBC; Viruses mutate all the time, so it’s no surprise that the coronavirus which emerged in China at the end of 2019 has undergone significant mutations as the virus replicates and spreads. But a new strain that has emerged in South Africa is causing concern. Like a variant …

January 2020 CNN; The coronavirus pandemic transformed the working and social lives of millions of European adults in 2020. Children too have suffered immensely, with months of confinement only giving way to some sense of normality when schools in most countries reopened in the summer and autumn. Now even that is under …