Rhodes University Virologist and member of the Provincial COVID-19 Expert Panel, PROF ROSEMARY DORRINGTON, explains the different coronavirus variants in circulation in South Africa. The nature of viruses is that they mutate over time – they evolve. Most changes don’t make too much of an impact on the viral lifecycle, but sometimes a change will often affect the properties of the virus enough to cause concern. These affected properties could impact disease severity, virus transmissibility and potentially the performance of vaccines. The coronavirus that causes COVID-19, called SARS-CoV-2, started showing mutations that posed an increased risk to global public health…
Author: Rod Amner
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Vaccines are ultimately the only way to ensure that we beat COVID-19, yet vaccine hesitancy remains a threat to attaining herd immunity and protecting the whole community. A virologist at Rhodes University and member of the Provincial COVID-19 Expert Panel, PROFESSOR ROSEMARY DORRINGTON, addresses misinformation and fears about the possible adverse effects of being vaccinated. We need to look at the clinical evidence. There have been anecdotal stories of people dying from the vaccine, but the evidence does not confirm this. In these anecdotal stories that claim a person died from the vaccine, it is much more likely they died…
Book Review: Blood Trail by Tony Park By STEVEN LANG Blood Trail, the latest novel from Tony Park, is frantically exciting and just about as authentic as can be. It is packed tight with heaps of action unfolding in two adrenaline-charged days on a fictitious game lodge located in a real game reserve on the border of the Kruger National Park. The time frame plays a pivotal role in the story. It takes place soon after lockdown is declared as a result of COVID19. The almost immediate shutdown of the tourism sector has devastating consequences for the game lodge and…
As shared in my brief introduction last week, I am the new Grocott’s engagement editor. Over the coming months, I will be working closely with the editor, our student journalists, freelance journalists, and community contributors to build a digital community around Grocott’s and Makhanda, primarily through our social media platforms. When people think about social media, they may think of cute cat videos, rants, their information being harvested by advertisers, and collecting likes. They are not wrong, but that is not all social media is. It is also a space to establish a connection, a sense of belonging, and community.…
By ROD AMNER, learning editor, Grocott’s Mail Over the next few weeks, several Rhodes Journalism students will begin actively contributing to GMDirect and Grocott’s Mail’s online platforms. Under the guidance of their learning editors, they will attempt to produce truthful, fair and independent journalism. But, they will aspire to do so in innovative ways that get far more of our citizens directly involved in communication. They will cultivate relationships and networks and seek sources and ideas that do not automatically appear on journalists’ radars. They will accord those voices the appropriate respect in ways that helped bridge the faultlines that, historically, have…
By POELO IRENE KETA They sang “Wathintabafazi wathintimbokotho” (“You strike a woman, you strike a rock”). They proudly commemorated the heroics of the 1956 Women’s March on the Union Buildings against apartheid laws. They donned beautiful traditional clothing and activist T-shirts. They celebrated womanhood. But, the women of eThembeni mostly honoured National Women’s Day on Monday by tackling, head-on, the myriad challenges confronting South African women in 2021. Limise Gagayi, who planned the event (with the help of her husband!), is a dynamo in this community. In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020, she started a soup…
Rhodes University lost its most senior student on 30 July with the passing of Martin Allison at the age of 83. His PhD supervisor, Prof ROBIN PALMER, pays tribute. Martin Allison was an English gentleman with an adventurous spirit. Trained by articles in accountancy, as everyone was in his day, he spent most of his career in Zambia and then Swaziland (now Eswatini), eventually retiring to Port Alfred. Feeling bored at the age of 73, he decided he wanted a degree, so he registered at Rhodes University, majoring in Anthropology and History. Not content with a BA, he stayed on…
By ROD AMNER Yesiree, Bob. There’s another one. Makanda is a village (population: 561) in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. It is named after Makanda, a local Native American chieftain. Apparently, it has a smiley-face water tower. According to onlyinyourstate.com, Makanda is the most hippie town in Illinois: “It is a place for free spirits and progressive thinkers.” Like Makhanda, Makanda holds several annual festivals, including the Vulture Fest, an annual two-day event held during the third weekend in October that celebrates the migration of the black vulture and turkey vulture to the region. On 21 August 2017, the centre…
Social media reports of high-pressure systems bumping into each other this weekend “like the 1968 event” are fake news and should be ignored, says Garth Sampson, client liaison office for the South African Weather Service (SAWS) in Gqebera. “We expect some nice rain (in the Eastern Cape), but NOTHING that will contribute to ending the water crisis,” Sampson said. “The so-called high-pressure system ‘bumping event’ did not happen like that anyway,” he added. However, two significant winter systems will affect the country this week, with their impact extending into the weekend, SAWS reports. “Firstly, an intense cold front will make…
I am Nyx McLean, a Makhandan by birth, a former Victoria Girls’ High School pupil, and a Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies graduate. I have lived in Johannesburg and Cape Town for the last decade, working as an editor, digital strategist, and recently as a lecturer, supervisor, and researcher in multimedia and digital culture. I am joining the Grocott’s staff to assist with social media engagement and innovation, mentoring student journalists in creating social media content, and all the challenges and opportunities that may go along with this. My work is intersectional and driven by a need to…