African Plume

By Akin Ojumu Every few months, we learn of a version of the virus that seems somehow worse: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. The coronavirus appears destined to march its way through the Greek alphabet – a prizefighter getting quicker, slicker, stronger with each opponent.  What are the limits to its evolutionary fitness? Are they knowable? And, if so, how close are we to reaching them? (Dhruv Khular). And that is the 200 million cases and 4.5 million deaths question.  From where I stand, the coronavirus is just warming up, it isn’t done with us just yet. My greatest fear is that, if we are not careful, and if significant number of people continue to resist commonsense public health measures, this virus has the potential to erase humanity from the face of the earth. Folks, we are at the cusp of a biological Armageddon. As long as some of us continue to tempt fate and insist on taking the bate of those playing politics and religion with a deadly virus, excruciating pain and total de...

By Akin Ojumu Sexual Scandal One: Donald Trump Allegations of 26 incidents of “unwanted sexual contact” and 43 instances of inappropriate behavior. Boasted about groping and kissing women without consent. Consulted with porn stars and then paid them to buy their silence. How Did the Republican Party Respond? Conservative News Media: "Fake news" Mike Pence: "Trump Tax Cuts" Republican Women: "Locker room talk" House of Representative Republican Women: "Boys being boys" House of Representative Republicans: "All good." Senate Republicans: “The women are lying” Senate Republicans: ‘I have no reason not to believe Trump’s denial” Republican Freedom Caucus: "Ride on" White Supremacists: "Trump Making America Great Again!!!! White Supremacists: “Building the Wall” Christian Conservatives: "He's Pro-life Christian Conservatives: "He's Anti-abortion: Christian Conservatives: "He's Anti-gay." Christi...

By Akin Ojumu Ever since the day Coronavirus invaded our lives, all kinds of remedies have been pushed as silver bullets for curing the dangerous virus. From the most powerful podium in the world, Donald Trump championed the injection of disinfectant into the body, suggested insertion of ultraviolet light under the skin, and lauded the powerful efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in curing COVID. In her tiny space on social media, Sister Stella Immanuel pushed ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and zinc as pluripotent antidotes. Some might say, but that was in the early days of the pandemic, at a time when there were no other proven remedies available. I wished that was so. Even now, months after 4 or more vaccines with proven safety and efficacy against COVID-19 have become available and hundreds of millions of shots have already been administered, promoters of miracle cures have not hung it up and gone into retirement. On the contrary, these pushers of unproven remedies have cranked up the v...

By Akin Ojumu The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIAID), under the able leadership of Dr Anthony Fauci, supports and conducts research to identify new vaccine candidates to prevent a variety of infectious diseases, including those for which no vaccines currently exist. In addition, NIAID-supported research also aims to improve the safety and efficacy of existing vaccines. To give you an idea of the vastness of NIAID’s vaccine research effort, consider the list below: VACCINES AGAINST VIRAL DISEASES Coronaviruses Therapeutics and Vaccines Dengue Fever Prevention Ebola Vaccines Hepatitis Disease-Specific Research HIV Vaccine Development Influenza Vaccines Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Prevention Smallpox Vaccine Supply and Strength West Nile Virus Vaccines Zika Virus Vaccines VACCINES AGAINST BACTERIAL DISEASES Cholera Treatment and Prevention Group A Streptococcus Vaccine Research Lyme Disease Vaccines Pertussis Vac...

By Akin Ojumu It was a chaotic scene at the Nigerian Embassy, Washington DC, this morning where I went to renew my expired Nigerian passport. A large crowd amassed at the embassy gates with their cars parked helter-skelter blocking entrances to the other nearby embassies and at spots clearly marked "No Parking," or "Embassy Parking Permit Only." There are 4 embassies in this particular cul-de-sac of International Court, Washington, DC. They are the Embassies of Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Nigeria respectively. Of those 4, it's only at the Nigerian embassy where you’d find this chaotic scene. The other embassies are so quiet and look so serene, you'd think they are empty buildings with no activities going on inside. As the clearly agitated crowd milled around at the entrance to the Nigerian embassy, visitors to the other embassies couldn't help but indulge themselves in a bit of rubbernecking; they gaped, in disbelief, at the pandemonium. When the sta...

By Akin Ojumu President Muhammadu Buhari was at the Global Education Summit: Financing GPE 2021-2025 which took place in London on July 28 and July 29, 2021. On the last day of the summit, Buhari joined four other African Heads of State namely, Uhuru Kenyatta (President of Kenya), Nana Akufo-Addo (President of Ghana), Lazarus Chakwera (President of Malawi), and Faure Gnassingbé (President of Togo), in a panel session titled, “Financing for Transformation,” where they discussed the way forward for transforming education outcomes for developing nations.  One by one, the five African leaders fielded questions from the moderator on their individual assessments of the challenges they’ve encountered in making education available, accessible, and affordable for their citizens. The Presidents of Kenya, Ghana, Togo, and Malawi each succinctly elucidated the challenges in his own country and intelligently articulated the programs and plans they’ve put in place to close the education gap amon...

By Stephen Goldstein Over the last several months the question of where SARS-CoV-2 originated, exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic began, has become an increasing focus of public discussion. The issue has become fraught and politicized, debated in the halls of Congress, on the front page of leading publications and perhaps most contentiously on cable news. The two dominant theories are that the virus was introduced into humans from an animal reservoir, or that a lab accident seeded the virus into the population of Wuhan. Recently, I joined in writing a critical review of this question with 20 other virologists, epidemiologists and evolutionary biologists from around the world. We examined all the scientific evidence available, and we came to the conclusion that SARS-CoV-2most likely originated in animals – although the possibility of a lab accident cannot be entirely dismissed. The evidence for an animal origin of SARS-CoV-2 is strong and has steadily built as we’ve learned more about th...

By Akin Ojumu Passed into law early this year to provide the much needed relief to millions of American families reeling from the severe economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is one part of Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan which also includes the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. The nearly $2 trillion legislation - one of the most expensive rescue packages in US history - was heavily criticized by the Republican Party as another wasteful giveaway by profligate Democrats to their deadbeat lazy bums voting bloc that's always looking out for government handouts. The spending package includes, among several other targeted and direct spending provisions, the following (Source: National Conference of State Legislatures): • $350 billion to help states, counties, cities and tribal governments cover increased expenditures, replenish lost revenue and mitigate economic harm from the COVID-19 pandemic. • Direct payments of $1,40...

By Akin Ojumu  “…I loved you. I served you. I respected you. I did everything to make it work for you. But you turned against me. And God has turned against you. Get out of my way…” That encapsulates the latest outburst by Tunde Bakare, pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, in this new 3-minute video on YouTube.  With these people, it’s always, “I, I, I,” and “Me, Me, Me.” Nothing ever changes. The sense of entitlement is mind boggling. It’s always about them and the universe that revolves around them. They are the shining sun in their own solar system and every other surrounding planet derives life and sustenance from them. What the latest bloviating is all about is the loss of influence at the table where important decisions are made. Since Tunde Bakare no longer enjoys the usual patronage he believes he is entitled to, and has lost the relevance he used to command, he is telling all Nigerians that God has suddenly turned against Buhari. Since the man in Aso Rock no...

In a four-minute anti-government tirade during his Sunday service posted on YouTube, Pastor Greg Locke of the Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee pastor told his congregation that he would not tolerate mask-wearers in his church. "If they go through round two and you start showing up (with) all these masks and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave," Locke in his anti-masking diatribe. "I will ask you to leave. I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church." Locke's comments come at a time when localities around the country are considering requiring face masks as the Delta variant rages through the unvaccinated population. Locke's colorful jeremiad was posted to YouTube. "I ain't playing these stupid games," he said. "A bunch of pastors talking about how much they want to see people heal and they're afraid to baptize people because of a delta variant – I'm sick of it." “Sometimes you got to stir the fools up....