As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a challenge for the scientific community to publish results quickly, and publication often occurs at the price of quality and reproducibility, which in turn undermines the public’s trust of science. A recent paper by Gaiha et al evaluated the relation between youth smoking and coronavirus and […]

An effective COVID-19 vaccine could help us emerge from isolation and end the social distancing required during this pandemic; but it will only work if people are willing to be vaccinated.1 We conducted a survey in June of 2020 that addressed whether people’s willingness to use a COVID-19 vaccine and adopt other preventive healthcare measures […]

For more than thirty years, there have been many calls for the mainstreaming of gender into tobacco control (World Health Organization 2007); however, insufficient progress has been made with dire health and economic consequences. Recommendations from women’s health advocates – including those involved in the creation of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against […]

COVID-19 has presented not only a health crisis, but a burgeoning economic catastrophe as well. A recent McKinsey report notes that in 2020, African economies could experience a catastrophic loss from US$90 billion to US$200 billion, a 3–8% drop in GDP growth, and delayed or reduced foreign direct investment. Such a massive hit will require […]

David Hockney is not a scientist. He is one of the most important British painters of the twentieth century, best known for his contributions to the 1960s pop art movement. As an artist, his contrarian views on Vermeer’s possible use of a camera obscura should be taken seriously. As a contrarian on the subject of […]