Budget cuts and outsourcing content have affected the amount and quality of science journalism. Scientists should learn to communicate their own findings directly and clearly to the public.
The HIV/AIDS response played out over a much longer trajectory than COVID-19. But it is, in some respects, a shining example of what can be achieved when countries and people work together.
If the world is single-minded and focuses purely on combating one pandemic, forgetting others, the effects of other morbidity and mortality on healthcare systems will be seen for a long time to come.
The giant leap in the number of people accessing HIV treatment would not have been possible without task shifting from medical doctors to less-specialised cadres such as nurses and midwives.
Extreme heatwaves aren’t systematically monitored in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This leads to unnecessary and premature deaths which are often unrecorded.
If you’ve tested positive for COVID-19, a public health officer will call you to interview you. It can be confronting – but it’s important to answer the contact tracer’s questions as best you can.
While South Africa should pay careful attention to all its existing trade and economic relations, particular attention should go to its intra-African economic relations.
As the world waits for vaccines against COVID-19, testing wastewater can give communities and smaller locales, such as school districts, valuable signals about infections trends.
Currently there is no specific antiviral drug to treat COVID-19 and no vaccine to prevent it. Most treatment strategies focus on symptomatic management and supportive therapy.
It is essential to add genomic data from all global populations - including Africa. This will ensure that everyone can benefit from the advances in health.
Hospitals are losing staff to quarantines as rural COVID-19 cases rise, and administrators fear flu season will make it worse. And then there’s the politics.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand