Africa waited for solutions to past health crises: Will it be different for Covid-19?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently noted that “researchers are working at break-neck speed” to understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19). They are also working to develop potential vaccines, medicines and other technologies that are affordable and equitable.

By June 2020 – six months since it was first identified – thousands of therapeutic trials and dozens of vaccine development studies were underway, including one vaccine study each in South Africa and Nigeria.