News and analysis

Struggling to figure out when your turn for a COVID vaccine will arrive? Bhekisisa and Media Hack have teamed up to create infographics that make it easier to decipher. This is a living document: when the timeline or guidelines change, we will create an updated graphic and upload it here.

Vaccines will only be registered for use in South Africa if their common side-effects are mild. To qualify as a “very rare” side-effect, the symptom needs to affect fewer than one in 10 000 people. Here’s why.

The high demand for COVID vaccines means there are limited global supplies. Local manufacturing is one potential solution to this problem. So why isn’t South Africa making its own jabs? Find out.

Access to oxygen could mean the difference between living or dying for a COVID patient. But developing countries lack the infrastructure to produce liquid oxygen and transport it to hospitals. Now a team of scientists at Cambridge University has come up with a solution.

In the rare event that you experience a severe side-effect as a result of COVID-19 vaccines, this fund will pay you out.

People who participate in a challenge trial volunteer to get sick in order to help scientists learn more about a disease. These studies have been used for diseases like cholera and malaria — and now for COVID-19.

South Africa previously rolled out the oral polio vaccine which must be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius like the Pfizer jab. Here’s what it takes to keep up the cold chain.

We’re all aware of the health benefits of walking. But for many of Africa’s urban populations who are forced to walk because of poor development planning, walking is not a leisure activity – it’s an indicator of inequality.

How do Sisonke study researchers decide which hospital is a COVID vaccination site and will these venues also be used for our wider, national vaccine roll-out? We break it down for you and also explain how sites store the jabs.

Many people with physical disabilities find it hard to access sexual and reproductive health services — and it’s often the prejudice of those without disabilities that stands in their way.

South Africa’s decision against the AstraZeneca vaccine marked the first time South Africa departed with WHO's advice in its COVID-19 pandemic response.

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases. But cases almost completely disappeared through mass vaccination campaigns. As we once again attempt to end a pandemic through vaccines, here are some lessons to take away for the roll-out of COVID jabs.

After a year of lockdowns and restrictions, vaccine passports could allow people to travel more freely within their communities, enter other countries or engage in leisure activities that were largely prohibited during the COVID pandemic. But they also have the potential to further divide the global rich from the global poor.

How do you work out which proportion of a population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity? We break it down and calculate how each jab would change how many people need to be vaccinated in order to stop COVID from spreading in the country.

Imagine the layers of your mask as a spider web, catching respiratory droplets as you breathe in and out — but some masks have more efficient webs than others.

Countries around the world have begun vaccinating against COVID-19 — and it’s working. The jabs help protect people from severe disease. But for how long? Find out.