Elleke Boehmer, University of Oxford Across cultures, the self-making powers of storytelling are widely recognised. Steve Biko, the South African Black Consciousness thinker, once said that we need to speak from where we stand. Seeing the impact of our environment on our thinking about ourselves can change our thinking, he…

Opeyemi Salau, Ekiti State University Without doubt, there are several reasons to believe that our climate is changing. Records over the period of 1880-2012, indicate that the surface temperatures have risen globally. There has also been an increasing rate of the warming reported over the last 25 years, during which…

Oludayo Tade, University of Ibadan Six years ago, a cashless policy became fully operational in Nigeria. The aim was to encourage electronic transactions with a view to reducing the amount of physical cash in the economy. The logic was that this would minimise the risk of cash-related crimes. But a…

Tonny Raymond Kirabira, University of Portsmouth and Leïla Choukroune, University of Portsmouth The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently rejected a claim for financial compensation by former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) vice president Jean Pierre Bemba after he was acquitted of war crimes and crimes against humanity on appeal in…

Stephen Onyeiwu, Allegheny College COVID-19 is increasingly wreaking havoc on the health of Nigerians, but its economic impact may well be more devastating. Before the pandemic, the Nigerian economy was growing at an anaemic rate of 2%. The country has also been suffering from high poverty and unemployment rates. This…

Samson Femi Agberotimi, North-West University More than ever, the world is facing a challenge of non-medical use of prescription drugs among people of all ages, genders and occupations. Evidence shows that pharmaceutical opioids (tramadol, codeine, or morphine), barbiturates such as pentobarbital sodium, benzodiazepines (diazepam and alprazolam), and amphetamines are the…

As lockdowns are lifted, procedures are being put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Along with physical distancing, hand sanitisation and wearing of masks, fever screening is increasingly being set up as a requirement before entry is allowed into hospitals, shops, workplaces and schools. But there are physiological…

All over the world, the reach of digital technology is growing at an extraordinary rate, even in developing countries. Young people are growing up in an environment ruled by digital devices, the internet and social media. Research evidence indicates that using the internet and other technologies such as video games…

In a landmark action, Twitter has for the first time attached independent fact-checking information directly to two tweets from President Donald Trump. The president’s tweets make false claims alleging that wider use of mail in ballots will result in an increase in voter fraud. This is far from the first…

Qasim Rafiq, UCL and Martina Micheletti, UCLThere are 102 candidate vaccines being explored as a means of ending the COVID-19 pandemic, as of April 30. Eight of these have already made it to clinical trials in humans, and another 94 are in the pre-clinical evaluation stage. These candidates also fall…

For the second time this century, the interdependence of the global food supply is in sharp focus. In the first instance, the economic crisis of 2008 created high food prices and pushed an additional 100 million people toward hunger. For many, though, that crisis neither began nor ended in 2008.…

In most of Nigeria’s cities, there are visible piles of refuse that have built up on roads, river banks and swampy land. These waste dumps smell bad and are breeding grounds for germs that cause diseases. Perhaps less well-known is the electronic waste that’s becoming a serious problem in parts…

Evidence from low- and middle-income countries suggests that digital and mobile communication technology can improve management of diseases. It is also particularly useful in medical emergencies. It has the potential to increase access to healthcare where resources are scarce and systems are under stress. One aspect of this technology is…

Malnutrition is by far the biggest driver of ill-health and premature mortality in every region of the world. A slow-burn attritional problem, it does enormous damage. The COVID-19 epidemic that’s sweeping the world, meanwhile, brings a series of massive short-wave shocks. Both the epidemic and malnutrition will generate long-wave impacts,…

US President Donald Trump has announced the US is cutting its funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) – a decision that will have major implications for the global health response to the coronavirus pandemic. The US contributes more than US$400 million to the WHO per year, though it is…

Some countries seem to be weathering the coronavirus pandemic better than others. One country that moved rapidly to deal with the emerging threat was Cuba. Cuba has several advantages over many states, including free universal healthcare, the world’s highest ratio of doctors to population, and positive health indicators, such as…

The malam said: ‘there is no corona!’ We also say: ‘there is no corona!’ A video of crowds shouting this refrain circulated on Nigerian social media in late March. The “malam” or teacher they were referring to is Shaykh Sani Yahaya Jingir, an Islamic scholar based in Jos, Plateau State,…

One of the front-line defenses individuals have against the spread of the coronavirus can feel decidedly low-tech: hand-washing. In fact, it was 19th-century Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis who, after observational studies, first advanced the idea of “hand hygiene” in medical settings. The simple act of hand-washing is a critical way…

Apple and Google are collaborating on new technology that will alert smartphone users who have come in sustained contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Users will need to opt-in to the contract tracing system, which will use Bluetooth technology in both iPhone and Android phones in ways…

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, it has become clear that people need to understand basic facts about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to make informed health care and public policy decisions. Two basic virological concepts have gotten a lot of attention recently – the “infectious dose” and the “viral…

This is the week the number of people infected with coronavirus worldwide officially exceeds two million. Since this figure only relates to detected cases, the real number is likely much higher. The pandemic is ongoing, and while some countries begin confinement, others hope to ease it soon. At the same…

In Nigeria, 145 babies are born to every 1,000 girls aged 15-19 annually. Considering the population’s age structure, the adolescent fertility rate implies 1.6 million births a year in that age group. Nigeria has over 23 million girls aged 10-19. There is abundant evidence that if girls become mothers without…

Around the world, people are racing to design and manufacture much-needed ventilators to address a global lack of supply. One New York hospital has reportedly attempted treating two patients per ventilator out of desperation. On March 26, a joint statement published by the American Society of Anaesthesiologists advised in regards…

I wish I could let the language of the chained roar let loose rivers of rage to cleanse this land… And build for you a memorial ageless as your love. – Harry Garuba, Memorial wish, Animist Chants and Memorials: Poems (2017) Professor Harry Garuba died on 28 February 2020. Harry’s…

As a professor at Boston University’s School of Medicine and a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center caring for the most vulnerable in this pandemic, I’ve been asked a lot of questions about COVID-19. It turns out there is good science out there that helps us know what masks we need…