
<p>A new wave of innovation is rising on the African continent, where startups are leveraging AI to address local challenges, fueling sustainable growth, and forging a path for others to follow. The AI industry on the continent is expanding rapidly, with reportedly over 2,400 companies specializing in the industry as of this year.</p>



<p>Spending on AI innovation in Africa and the Middle East is likely to see the fastest growth in AI spending in the world, hitting $3 billion this year and over $6 billion by 2026 per the International Data Corporation (IDC). This innovation is both locally and internationally-driven, with organic AI-based startups across the continent, as well as collaborative initiatives such as Google’s first AI research center in Ghana, launched in 2018.</p>



<p>In the heart of Cameroon, in the capital city of Yaoundé, resides Agrix Tech — a startup committed to aiding smallscale farmers in their battle against plant diseases and pests. These threats, exacerbated by the ongoing climate crisis, pose a critical challenge to agriculture. Agrix Tech&#8217;s innovative solution is a mobile app that empowers farmers to scan their plants&#8217; leaves. Leveraging AI, the app identifies any ailments and suggests appropriate interventions.</p>



<p>What sets Agrix Tech apart is its dedication to inclusivity. The app&#8217;s features are available regardless of location or internet connectivity — crucial for remote farmers. &#8220;The app can work offline as the AI model is embedded into the mobile app,&#8221; states founder and CEO Adamou Nchange Kouotou to FORBES AFRICA. “This allows farmers with no internet connection to still use it. The app can also be set in many local African languages.&#8221; By extending its AI library to other developers, Agrix Tech is broadening the reach of its crop and disease detection capabilities.</p>



<p>In Nairobi, Kenya, is another groundbreaking company making use of AI. Since its inception in 2012, SunCulture has made significant strides in equipping farmers with precision irrigation solutions.</p>



<p>Starting with solar-powered irrigation and pay-as-you-go financing, the company has expanded its reach from Kenya to Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, and the Ivory Coast, among others.</p>



<p>“It’s a viable business idea,” says SunCulture CEO Samir Ibrahim.</p>



<p>Approximately 90% of smallholding farms on the continent rely on rainfall for irrigation. As a result, the timing of planting, fertilizing, and harvesting is critically dependent on weather forecasts, which are often too broad or inaccurate. SunCulture&#8217;s solution — a trailblazing amalgamation of technologies called AgOptimized — addresses this issue head-on. The app gathers local soil and weather data, integrates it with meteorological and satellite data, and analyzes it alongside historical trends using AI. The result? Detailed, localized weather forecasts and recommendations on irrigation, fertilizing, and pest control, designed to lower costs and maximize farming yields.</p>



<p>Further south in Johannesburg is an AI startup that aims to meet their bold slogan of ‘AI for Africans, By Africans, Solving African Problems’. Lelapa has crafted an AI-based language- model-as-a-service named Vulavula.</p>



<p>Linguistic diversity is the heartbeat of Africa, and nowhere is this more evident than in South Africa, a country that proudly recognizes 12 official languages. Yet, the digital space often falls short in catering to this richness. That&#8217;s where Vulavula steps in, carving out a unique niche in the landscape of AI applications.</p>



<p>“We tackle the challenges of language diversity through very careful data creation and curation with the help of sociolinguists who understand the nuances of dialects,” says Jade Abbott, Director at Lelapa AI. “Our vision is for Vulavula to be used across education, healthcare, government. </p>



<p>Children learn maths best when taught in their home language, people die because doctors do not speak the same languages as their patients, and many people can’t participate in government because majority of the resources are available in English or Afrikaans.” </p>



<p>Vulavula harnesses the power of AI to provide real-time translation and transcription services, enabling businesses to communicate with their customers in their own language seamlessly. </p>



<p>Ubenwa, a Nigerian-owned AI startup, is making significant strides in the realm of neonatal health. Named after the Igbo term for &#8216;baby&#8217;s cry&#8217;, Ubenwa has developed an AI system that deciphers infants&#8217; cries to detect early signs of neurological issues. It specifically targets birth asphyxia — one of the leading causes of infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa — by analyzing frequency, pitch, and other key acoustic features in a baby&#8217;s cry. This AI- powered approach provides a low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic tool for early intervention, potentially saving many young lives.</p>



<p>What sets Ubenwa apart is its commitment to accessibility. Their AI solution operates independently of internet connectivity, a pivotal feature ensuring its usability in Africa&#8217;s remote areas. Bymeeting this challenge head-on, Ubenwa exemplifies how AI can be harnessed to tackle region-specific healthcare issues, paving the way for other AI startups to make impactful strides in their domains.</p>



<p>On a broader scale, Ubenwa underscores the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, particularly in settings with limited resources. Their innovative approach is a powerful testament to the potential of AI in Africa, spotlighting the profound societal impact of locally-sourced solutions to local challenges.</p>


Close-up of businesswoman use computer while use digitization display for monitoring the data in business office.

Africa’s AI-Based Businesses And Innovations


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Apple and Nvidia stocks tanked for the second consecutive trading session Thursday, a rare down stretch for the Silicon Valley titans this year fueled by concerns about each of their explosive sales.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Apple shares slipped 3.4% by 2:25 p.m. Eastern time after Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-07/china-plans-to-expand-iphone-ban-to-some-state-backed-firms-in-blow-to-apple?srnd=premium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;China is considering banning iPhone usage among some government workers and employees at state-owned corporations, casting doubt on Apple’s strength in the country which accounts for roughly a fifth of its sales.</p>



<p>The slide comes a day after Apple shed 3.6% – its 6.9% dip since Tuesday marks the steepest two-day loss for the world’s most valuable company since November.</p>



<p>Nvidia shares also dropped about 3% Thursday, bringing its two-day loss to 5.5% as the S&amp;P 500’s best-performer of 2023 suffered a rare tumble.</p>



<p>The artificial intelligence leader’s stock slump came as a dubious conspiracy theory&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JesseCohenInv/status/1699307464619876691" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proliferated&nbsp;</a>on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, suggesting that Nvidia has artificially inflated revenue in its AI segment by lying about its sales to CoreWeave, a Nvidia-backed cloud computing startup&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-30/coreweave-said-to-seek-stake-sale-at-up-to-8-billion-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;valued at about $8 billion.</p>



<p>That theory is “nonsense,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a Thursday note to clients he “very grudgingly” sent out, encouraging investors to not get “your investment thesis from Twitter randos.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>$250 billion. That’s how much market capitalization Apple and Nvidia shed over the last two days.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Apple and Nvidia are two of the seven tech stocks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/10/these-7-tech-stocks-command-almost-90-of-the-sp-500s-gains-signaling-market-rally-may-not-be-so-healthy/?sh=65e0aafc65d5">accounting for</a>&nbsp;a large majority of major stock indexes’ gains this year, leading to lingering questions about the depth of the strong market (Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla round out the super seven). Both Apple and Nvidia set all-time high share prices this year, but on far different trajectories. Apple rode a steady 42% gain this year, just ahead with the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 32% rise, thanks to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/05/04/apple-beats-quarterly-profit-sales-estimates-despite-interest-rate-headwinds/?sh=77f139f03637">solid</a>&nbsp;5% and 6% earnings beats during the first and second quarters, respectively, while Nvidia more than tripled in share price due to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/23/nvidia-earnings-stock-soars-as-ai-giant-again-smashes-quarterly-expectations/">exploding</a>&nbsp;expectations about its AI business, which grew by 141% just last quarter.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“The Nasdaq is sinking as one bad Apple spoils a bunch of mega-cap tech stocks,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketpulse.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oanda</a>&nbsp;analyst Edward Moya wrote Thursday. The index is down 2% over the last two days, steeper than the S&amp;P 500’s 1% loss.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/tosv2.html?vid=&amp;uuid=14d8c1fa-4dad-11ee-bf85-ff6800d7a7ae&amp;url=L25ld3MvYXJ0aWNsZXMvMjAyMy0wOS0wNy9jaGluYS1wbGFucy10by1leHBhbmQtaXBob25lLWJhbi10by1zb21lLXN0YXRlLWJhY2tlZC1maXJtcy1pbi1ibG93LXRvLWFwcGxlP3NybmQ9cHJlbWl1bQ==" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BLOOMBERG<strong>Bloomberg</strong></a></p>



<p><strong></strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/23/nvidia-earnings-stock-soars-as-ai-giant-again-smashes-quarterly-expectations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORE FROM FORBES<strong>Nvidia Earnings: Stock Soars As AI Giant Again Smashes Quarterly Expectations</strong><small>By&nbsp;<strong>Derek Saul</strong></small></a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824661/coreweave-nvidia-debt-gpu-ai-chips-collateral" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">THE VERGE<strong>How to get your startup a loan with one easy computer part</strong></a></p>


Apple Ahead Of The IPhone 15 Launch

Apple And Nvidia’s Losses This Week Hit $250 Billion


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The Food and Drug Administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-takes-action-updated-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-better-protect-against-currently-circulating" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gave its approval</a>&nbsp;for emergency use Monday to new updated Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that are specially designed to protect against the latest dominant strain of the coronavirus, Omicron variant XBB.1.5—the latest effort of drugmakers, regulators and doctors to keep up with the virus’ ever evolving nature.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Anyone 5 or older is eligible to receive a single booster dose of the newly updated vaccines regardless of how many shots they’ve received before, as long as it’s at least 2 months since the last dose they received of any Covid-19 vaccine, the FDA announced.</p>



<p>Children between the ages of six months and four years are eligible to receive one or two doses of the new vaccines if they’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19 before, but if they’ve never received a vaccine, they’re eligible to receive three doses of the new Pfizer-BioNTech shot or two doses of Moderna, the FDA said.</p>



<p>This comes after the new XBB lineage of coronavirus, a group of new variants that emerged in late 2022, became the most common strain.</p>



<p>After the emergence of this new lineage, the FDA encouraged Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax to create new vaccines specialized to defend against it.</p>



<p>These will be the first Covid-19 vaccines that aren’t free and paid for by the U.S. government, with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-business-covid-medicare-1a5d65356ebc7b5bc76524ae99deb55e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pfizer</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-expects-price-its-covid-vaccine-about-130-us-2023-03-20/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moderna</a>&nbsp;both estimating their shots will cost between $110 and $130 per dose, though many health insurances plans will cover it and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/bridge/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CDC’s Bridge Program</a>&nbsp;will pay for some uninsured Americans’ vaccines.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Drugmakers have released a number of new iterations after the first Covid-19 vaccines were administered in late 2020. In fall 2021, the first booster shots were authorized by the FDA and were meant to help replenish waning immunity to the virus months after people received their initial doses. Then, after a new variant of the virus called Omicron, which was more resistant to the original vaccines, sparked a vicious new wave of the pandemic, drugmakers released a modified “bivalent” booster shot in fall 2022. That vaccine was designed to protect against both the original virus as well as Omicron. This new booster will attempt to do what that bivalent booster did with Omicron, but with the new XBB strains.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>Now that the FDA has approved the drugs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/25/2023-18288/advisory-committee-on-immunization-practices" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scheduled to meet</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday to decide whether it will recommend people receive the new booster shots, an additional standard regulatory step that each of the previous iterations of the vaccines have had to complete. People won’t be able to receive the new vaccines until the CDC gives its signoff.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>While Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s new vaccines were approved on Monday, the FDA still hasn’t approved Novavax’s. The company, which was a late entry into the Covid-19 vaccine market, had its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccine-comparison#:~:text=Status%3A%20The%20vaccine%20was%20authorized,it%3A%20People%2012%20and%20older." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first vaccines approved</a>&nbsp;in July 2022. Its vaccines, unlike Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s do not use mRNA technology, but rather are subunit vaccines that use a piece of the virus to invigorate a body’s immune response. The company said in an email Monday its vaccines have already arrived in the U.S. and, despite not being approved alongside Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s, are still awaiting FDA approval. The company reiterated that its vaccines will be widely available across the country, but “timing is ultimately at the discretion of the FDA.” By 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time, Novavax’s stock price had fallen 10% to around $8 a share. Neither Pfizer nor Moderna’s stock moved significantly. Both fell less than 1.5%.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



<p>This comes as Covid-19 hospitalizations begin to rise across the U.S. In the week ending August 27, the most recent data available, hospital admissions for Covid-19 were up 15.7%, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_new-admissions-rate-county" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the CDC</a>. That’s 17,418 hospital admissions during that week, and while that is still a far cry from the peak in January 2022, when there were around 150,000 hospitalizations a week, doctors believe it signals that a new wave could be coming in the fall.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>These new vaccines follow doctors’ long held predictions that Covid-19 vaccines will likely become similar to the influenza vaccine, where a new iteration is released annually to keep up with new strains of the virus. At a September 2022 White House briefing, Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the leader of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, said: “We likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated Covid-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/09/01/its-ok-to-get-your-covid-flu-and-rsv-shots-at-the-same-time-experts-say/?sh=7a857a4c3099">It’s Okay To Get Your Covid, Flu And RSV Shots At The Same Time, Experts Say</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/09/06/modernas-updated-covid-vaccine-is-effective-against-pirola-variant-as-concern-over-new-strain-grows/?sh=18b82c3a1a06">Moderna’s Updated Covid Vaccine Is Effective Against Pirola Variant—As Concern Over New Strain Grows</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/09/06/fda-may-approve-new-covid-boosters-by-friday-as-deaths-spike-report-says/?sh=5bc3a51b54f2">FDA May Approve New Covid Boosters By Friday As Deaths Spike, Report Says</a> (Forbes)<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/"></a></p>


Injection of the third dose of the covid 19 vaccine at a Covid-19 vaccination center in Dinan, Brittany

FDA Approves New Covid Vaccines To Target Latest Strains


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Google plans to require verified election advertisers to make “clear and conspicuous” disclosures when their advertisements contain AI-generated content, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/13755910?hl=en&amp;ref_topic=29265" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a>&nbsp;from the tech giant, which will institute the changes as artificial intelligence becomes more commonplace in the leadup to the 2024 presidential election.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The update to Google’s political content policy will arrive in mid-November and will require disclosures to be placed in clear locations on images and videos.</p>



<p>Audio content is included in the disclosure requirements, though AI generated content “inconsequential to the claims made in the ad,” such as color corrections, image resizing and cropping, are exempt.</p>



<p>Videos uploaded to YouTube that aren’t paid advertising are also exempt, even if the content is uploaded by political campaigns.</p>



<p>Election advertisers who want to run election ads through Google are already required to go through a&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/adspolicy/troubleshooter/9973345" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">verification process</a>&nbsp;requiring basic information from applicants.</p>



<p>A mix of human and tech tools will be used to enforce the disclosure requirements.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Google is one of several tech companies that has faced scrutiny over its handling of misinformation. YouTube, which was acquired by Google in 2006, faced backlash after announcing this year it would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtube-will-stop-removing-false-claims-2020-election-fraud-rcna87503" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stop taking down content</a>&nbsp;containing false claims about the 2020 presidential election—when former President Donald Trump baselessly claimed voter fraud was rampant in an election he still considers rigged. YouTube said in a blog post it made the decision to protect its “community” and provide “a home for open discussion and debate.” The company was also criticized in 2020 for slowly removing or labeling videos with election misinformation.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>X, formerly known as Twitter, does not have specific guidelines for AI-generated ad content. Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, does not have similar policies either, though it does have a ban against “<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/enforcing-against-manipulated-media/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">manipulated media</a>” such as deepfakes—videos that typically use digital alterations to copy someone&#8217;s likeness and convey false information.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtube-will-stop-removing-false-claims-2020-election-fraud-rcna87503" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube will stop removing false claims about 2020 election fraud</a>&nbsp;(NBC News)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/06/google-ai-election-ads-disclosure" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google to require disclosure for AI in election ads</a> (Axios)</p>


In this photo illustration, a woman holds a smartphone with

Google Will Require Advertisers To Add Disclosures For AI-Generated Election Ads


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>With a potential winter and fall surge of the flu, Covid and RSV, some experts recommend getting all three shots at the same time, while limited research shows doing so might cause rare side effects.=</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>It’s “acceptable” to get the new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine co-administered with other vaccines, including the flu and Covid vaccines,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2023-06-21-23/07-RSV-Adults-Britton-508.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>



<p>For the first time, two RSV vaccines have been greenlit by the FDA to protect&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/03/fda-approves-first-ever-rsv-vaccine-after-brutal-2022-season/?sh=3dd0ac5910b2">older Americans</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/08/21/fda-approves-first-rsv-vaccine-for-kids-given-to-pregnant-moms-heres-what-to-know/?sh=75ffd2ab813e">infants</a>&nbsp;against the virus, which are expected to be available this fall, and the agency also approved an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/03/first-rsv-vaccine-for-infants-approved-by-cdc-and-fda-other-top-vaccines-and-their-effectiveness/?sh=7a5031872040">antibody shot</a>&nbsp;for infants and toddlers in August.</p>



<p>New monovalent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/21/new-covid-boosters-expected-this-fall-why-some-doctors-suggest-holding-off-on-getting-your-next-booster-until-then/?sh=18f37e73438b">Covid boosters</a>&nbsp;to protect against variants of the dominant XBB lineage are being developed by Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax at the request of a Food and Drug Administration panel and also are predicted to be available this fall.</p>



<p>As the fall and winter seasons approach, there are concerns another respiratory virus “tripledemic”—caused by a simultaneous rise in flu, Covid and RSV cases, causing hospitals to become overwhelmed—may happen again this year.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>It’s “more probable that we&#8217;ll have a high viral season” this year with people getting Covid, the flu and RSV around the same time, so getting vaccinated is an important preventative step, Sharon Nachman, the chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, told&nbsp;<em>Forbes.</em></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p><a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Covid</a>&nbsp;hospitalizations in recent weeks ticked up, increasing by almost 19% between August 13 and August 19, while deaths increased almost 18% between July 8 and August 26, as EG.5, or the Eris variant, made up the majority of cases. Though national&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/surveillance/nrevss/images/trend_images/RSV14Num_Nat.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RSV cases</a>&nbsp;have increased slightly since June—they went from 149 cases in the week of June 17 to 423 cases the week of August 26—cases were over four times higher around this time last year.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Flu cases</a>&nbsp;aren’t witnessing a spike just yet, as flu season is expected to begin in October, but updated vaccines are available for the upcoming season.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>50,000. That’s how many people in the U.S. died from Covid infection between November 2022 and March 2023,&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_deaths-total" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the CDC. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flu</a>&nbsp;accounted for around 58,000 deaths during last year’s tripledemic and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/research/rsv-net/dashboard.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RSV</a>&nbsp;killed 10,000 people—mostly seniors—and caused twice as many hospitalizations than in prepandemic years.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>A good number of patients last year were admitted into Nachman’s hospital with “more than one virus” at a time. So, she recommends those who are eligible to first get their doctors’ approval and then get all three shots in preparation for the upcoming seasons. Other than approving the co-administration of the RSV shot with other vaccines, the CDC also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/coadministration.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">endorses</a>&nbsp;co-administration of the Covid and flu vaccines. Nachman said there’s a “better immune response” when more than one vaccine is administered at the same time. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22015687" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<em>Elsevier&nbsp;</em>found dual vaccination of Covid and the flu saw a reduced risk of infection than in unvaccinated people.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



<p>Epidemiologist Richard Reithinger told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, “People are a little bit more cautious” about getting the RSV vaccines at the same time as the other two because they were only recently approved by the FDA this year. There is limited evidence on whether the new RSV vaccines negatively interact with the Covid and flu vaccines. However, there were rare instances in a clinical trial where people developed severe side effects after getting the RSV and flu shots at the same time. Two 71-year-old participants developed acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (<a href="https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/acute-disseminated-encephalomyelitis#:~:text=Acute%20disseminated%20encephalomyelitis%20(ADEM)%20is,helps%20with%20electrical%20nerve%20signaling." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ADEM</a>), a neurological disorder that causes widespread swelling in the brain and spinal cord that damages the nerves’ protective coating, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/pdfs/mm7229a4-H.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;by a CDC advisory committee. One of these instances resulted in death. However, researchers aren’t sure if these cases were a result of the vaccines being administered together, or just a coincidence. The study also found that RSV and flu antibodies were slightly lower when administered together, though the “clinical significance is unknown.” If people are unsure about getting all three vaccines at once, it’s okay to “just take the flu vaccine [right now] and then wait for the Covid-19 and RSV” vaccines to be released later this year, according to Reithinger. Although he believes getting all three vaccines at the same time is safe, he ultimately recommends people consult with their doctors on timing.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/21/new-covid-boosters-expected-this-fall-why-some-doctors-suggest-holding-off-on-getting-your-next-booster-until-then/?sh=18f37e73438b">New Covid Boosters Expected This Fall: Why Some Doctors Suggest Holding Off On Getting Your Next Booster Until Then</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2022/12/20/heres-why-there-is-a-shortage-for-childrens-tylenol-advill-and-motrin-and-what-to-do-about-it/?sh=3a6e33ce28f4">Here’s Why There Is A Shortage For Children&#8217;s Tylenol, Advil And Motrin—And What To Do About It</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/03/fda-approves-first-ever-rsv-vaccine-after-brutal-2022-season/?sh=3dd0ac5910b2">FDA Approves First-Ever RSV Vaccine After Brutal 2022 Season</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/08/21/fda-approves-first-rsv-vaccine-for-kids-given-to-pregnant-moms-heres-what-to-know/?sh=75ffd2ab813e">FDA Approves First RSV Vaccine For Kids—Given To Pregnant Moms—Here’s What To Know</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/03/first-rsv-vaccine-for-infants-approved-by-cdc-and-fda-other-top-vaccines-and-their-effectiveness/?sh=7a5031872040">First RSV Shot For Infants Approved By CDC And FDA: Other Top Shots And Their Effectiveness</a> (Forbes)</p>


It’s Okay To Get Your Covid, Flu And RSV Shots At The Same Time, Experts Say


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Officials in New York City this week&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12471305/NYC-Health-Department-tells-New-Yorkers-MASKING-Labor-Day-good-idea-new-Covid-variants-drive-infection-rates.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;urged residents to wear masks in public as a new strain of Covid-19 continues to spread throughout the country, while some hospitals and schools have also reimplemented mask mandates, though medical experts say masking requirements might not last long, and might not be necessary for the entire population.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan this week warned the virulent Ba.2.86 variant is “likely to evade immunity that has developed from vaccination or prior infection,” while a city health official told the Daily Mail it would be a “good idea” to mask up in crowded indoor places over the holiday weekend.</p>



<p>In Atlanta, Morris Brown College—a historically Black university—implemented a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/morris-brown-college-implements-two-week-covid-19-mask-mandate-as-cases-climb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two-week mask mandate</a>&nbsp;for all students and faculty last week as students move back on campus, also re-imposing social distancing amid “reports of positive cases among students.”</p>



<p>California-based healthcare facility Kaiser Permanente&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/kaiser-permanente-reinstates-covid-19-mask-mandate-amid-spike-in-cases-but/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reinstated</a>&nbsp;its mask mandate at its facilities in Santa Rosa, California last week “amid an uptick in patients testing positive,” while in New York, a group of hospitals also imposed mask mandates,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fox4news.com/news/citing-rising-covid-cases-these-us-hospital-systems-have-now-reinstated-mask-mandates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">including</a>&nbsp;United Health Services, Auburn Community Hospital and University Hospital in Syracuse, New York.</p>



<p>In Santa Monica, California, Hollywood studio<strong>&nbsp;</strong>Lionsgate<strong>&nbsp;</strong>also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/hollywood-studio-covid-rates-mask-mandates-back-1235571466/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requested</a>&nbsp;employees wear masks in certain parts of its facilities in response to a rise in cases last month.</p>



<p>A mask mandate is also in effect in&nbsp;<a href="https://sf.gov/information/know-when-masks-are-needed#:~:text=There%20are%20no%20longer%20masking,or%20people%20living%20in%20jails." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">San Francisco</a>&nbsp;for healthcare workers when around patients, as well as for employees at jails.</p>



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<p>By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



<p>Officials have been torn on mask mandate policies since the start of the pandemic, while studies have found mandates might not be a guaranteed safeguard from community-wide spread. George Washington University Dr. Leana Wen told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/health/labor-day-coronavirus-increase-wellness/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN</a>&nbsp;this week the decision to mask up also depends on an array of factors, including a person’s age and whether they’re at high risk of contracting the virus—she also said children in schools who are at low risk should not be required to mask up. When asked about Labor Day weekend precautions, Wen added people who didn’t cancel their plans last year probably don’t need to cancel them either, despite cases being on the rise.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Vaccine boosters from drugmakers Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/21/new-covid-boosters-expected-this-fall-why-some-doctors-suggest-holding-off-on-getting-your-next-booster-until-then/?sh=6d037a70438b">expected</a>&nbsp;to be ready for use later this month and widely available in October, though they are still pending Food and Drug Administration approval. Those boosters, unlike their predecessors, target newer coronavirus strains, including the Eris strain and other XBB subvariants, adding to Americans’ arsenal to combat Covid, though only 17% of Americans have received the current bivalent booster shot,&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-booster-percent-pop5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>15,067. That’s the number of Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. over the week ending August 19, an increase of 18.8% from the week before, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_new-admissions-rate-county" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CDC data</a>. More than 6.27 million people in the U.S. have been hospitalized since the outbreak of the pandemic more than three years ago.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



<p>Despite the rise in cases, Republican lawmakers have slammed Covid mask mandates, with Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R)&nbsp;<a href="https://mailchi.mp/5dd152f9c1de/governor-tate-reeves-mask-mandates?e=ae3824fee2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">swearing off</a>&nbsp;potential mask orders, saying, “MIssissippians will not and should not submit to fear again.” In a&nbsp;<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110979968873429026" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video</a>&nbsp;posted on his social media platform Truth Social, former President Donald Trump argued mask mandates amounts to “fear mongering,” calling lawmakers “Covid tyrants,” and vowing: “We will not shut down our schools, we will not accept your lockdowns, we will not abide by your mask mandates and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandate.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/21/new-covid-boosters-expected-this-fall-why-some-doctors-suggest-holding-off-on-getting-your-next-booster-until-then/?sh=6d037a70438b">New Covid Boosters Expected This Fall: Why Some Doctors Suggest Holding Off On Getting Your Next Booster Until Then</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2023/08/25/wastewater-analysis-update-on-ba286-in-the-united-states-its-here-be-careful/?sh=6ab2e5353cc0">Wastewater Analysis Update On BA.2.86 In The United States: It’s Here, Be Careful</a> (Forbes)</p>


Business owner setting up face mask required sign in cafe window

Will Covid Mask Mandates Return? Here’s Where They’re Making A Comeback


<p class="has-drop-cap">According to <em>MedicineNet</em>, at least 10% of the world’s population is affected by chronic pain. Eight out of those 10 patients are affected by depression, and lower back pain is the most common chronic condition, globally. It’s no wonder that pain clinics are popping up everywhere, some of them being called ‘pill mills’, one-stop shops for the medicine that specialists are becoming cautious of prescribing.</p>



<p>“Are they really clinics? My answer is no,” says Dr Marnin Romm, a specialist interdisciplinary pain management clinician and assistant and associate professor based in Boston, United States (US), but born in South Africa.</p>



<p>“A true pain clinic, by definition, is interdisciplinary.”</p>



<p>For Romm, one of the biggest problems with pain management is the commercial side of the business. “It’s ludicrous. Where’s the sustainability of the practitioner?” he asks. “Pain is more complex than just cracking your back, or going to a physiotherapist and feeling okay for a day or two until the pain comes back with a vengeance and you have to go back. That tells me you’re not managing the patient properly, you’re not doing the right treatment and if you keep doing the same thing day in and day out, where’s the ethics?”</p>



<p>Based on his training, clinical experience and work as an academic, Romm believes that pain management is about self-management.</p>



<p>His goal is to help his patients, many of whom have gone down the Dr Google rabbit hole, to stop relying on healthcare providers – including himself.</p>



<p>“It’s for the greater purpose of the good of the patient,” he explains. “I’m not here to fix them. I’m here to guide and navigate in terms of their self-management to different modalities, different tools, and a mixture of different tools, a mix of pharmacology.”</p>



<p>According to Romm, there has been a shift in terms of understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying chronic pain. Instead of understanding the pathophysiology underlying chronic pain, healthcare providers use pharmacological agents and invasive interventions.</p>



<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:33% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="681" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-681x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-59398 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-681x1024.jpeg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-768x1154.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-1022x1536.jpeg 1022w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-1363x2048.jpeg 1363w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Dr-Marnin-Romm-scaled.jpeg 1703w" sizes="(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>“IN MEDICAL SCHOOL, THE AVERAGE AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT TRAINING DOCTORS OR PHYSIOTHERAPISTS (OR ANYONE INVOLVED IN PAIN) OVER THE SPAN OF SEVEN YEARS IS FOUR HOURS… FOUR HOURS. FOR A PANDEMIC. SO, YOU’RE SAYING YOU CAN LEARN EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PAIN MECHANISM IN FOUR HOURS? THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE.”</p>
<cite><strong>—Dr Marnin Romm</strong></cite></blockquote>
</div></div>



<p>“And it’s not their fault. The reason for this is that in medical school, the average amount of time spent training doctors or physiotherapists (or anyone involved in pain) over the span of seven years is four hours,” he says. “Four hours. For a pandemic. So, you’re saying you can learn everything you need to know about pain mechanism in four hours? That’s impossible.”</p>



<p>Romm, who spent two years in London doing a master’s degree in pain neuroscience, says that the reason healthcare practitioners find it difficult to treat chronic pain is because they’re unable to identify what mechanisms are at play.</p>



<p>“In my assessments, I find out what is going on in the body and then target those mechanisms. Whether the treatment is pharmacological, more invasive, or psychological to reduce stress and anxiety or even exercise-based, but one of the biggest problems in pain management now is that’s still not the case,” adds Romm.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center" id="h-making-money-off-pain">MAKING MONEY OFF PAIN</h4>



<p>There’s no question that opioids are both oversupplied and overprescribed in high-income countries. Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2021 exposé about Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic, <em>Empire of Pain</em>, pinpointed the Sackler family’s marketing strategy to generate billions of dollars – which resulted in millions of addicts.</p>



<p>In sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a sharp increase in treatment admission trends for opioids and opioid-related disorders. A <em>BBC </em>investigative documentary called <em>Sweet Sweet Codeine </em>uncovered corruption at major pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria with staff running drug syndicates to meet the high demands of the black market. A few years after banning cough syrup containing codeine, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) reportedly shut down three pharmaceutical firms. Whether used to combat pain or recreationally, the United Nations (UN) put in a report that west, north and central Africa jointly account for 87% of all pharmaceutical opiates seized globally.</p>



<p>Another problem sub-Saharan Africa faces is the use of fake or substandard medications. Drugs are big business which means counterfeits and poorly-made medication benefits the pharmaceutical company that doesn’t know these products are infiltrating their supply chain and the street vendors who knowingly peddle these drugs.</p>



<p>A report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime showed that 267,000 deaths in Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and the Niger) were linked to fake or below-par antimalarial medication. Just under 170,000 deaths have been linked to falsified antibiotics used to treat severe pneumonia in children. Sahel countries rely on imports of medical products due to their own pharmaceutical industries being in the earlier stages of development.</p>



<p>It is believed the counterfeit drugs are imported from pharmaceutical exporters (like Belgium, France, China and India), and diverted from the legal supply chain, or manufactured in neighboring countries.</p>



<p>An alternative to opioids is cannabidiol, or CBD. Different to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which also comes from cannabis plants, CBD is non-intoxicating in its pure form. While regulations around the world differ due to the insufficiency of solid evidence to establish its benefit versus the risks, there are many countries that have approved its use for pain. A <em>Forbes </em>Health survey found that 60% of the adults who use CBD in America do so for its pain relief effects. When it comes to cancer pain, Canada has given the thumbs up for CBD and so has the UK to treat the pain that comes with multiple sclerosis stiffness and spasms. In Lesotho, marijuana has become a cash crop as the small landlocked country grows and exports medical cannabis to Europe. In South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, he said that the legal hemp and cannabis sector has the potential to create over 130,000 new jobs in the country – the pharmaceutical market has been estimated at over R100 billion ($53 million) a year. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center" id="h-brain-training-and-tech-to-track-and-treat-pain">BRAIN TRAINING AND TECH TO TRACK AND TREAT PAIN</h3>



<p>There’s more to the business of pain management than drugs, pharmaceuticals and otherwise. Exciting technology such as AI tools to monitor and track pain with big data to non-invasive devices that stimulate nerve fibers are being researched. Telemedicine has also become a big part of chronic pain care as some patients cannot travel to see specialists but still need to consult a doctor.</p>



<p>Another type of technology that’s up-and-coming in the pain space is virtual reality (VR) distraction therapy for pain relief. Dr David Binder, the director of innovation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, US, has been studying VR for a number of years. He explains that stimuli can distract the brain from receiving pain signals. In a paper for <em>Harvard Health Publishing</em>, he writes: “We already take advantage of this wiring all the time. For example, if you hit your elbow by accident, and it hurts, you rub the elbow and it feels better. You’re tricking the brain by producing the sensory reaction of touching the elbow, which cancels some pain signals.”</p>



<p>Dr Todd Maddox is part of AppliedVR, a company in Texas in the US that makes prescription VR-based therapeutics for chronic pain management. “One of the ways people learn to deal with chronic pain is with breathing mechanisms – this deals with a part of the brain that learns behavior and the goal is to engage those centers in the brain,” he explains.</p>



<p>Maddox explains chronic pain (and where technology fits in) as something that gets worse over time because the brain gets you into a habit that you cannot break out of. Chronic pain is not only about issues with the tissues as muscles, as one example, usually heal within six to 12 weeks, it’s how your brain processes information.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="576" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AppliedVR-1024x576.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-59396" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AppliedVR-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AppliedVR-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AppliedVR-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AppliedVR-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AppliedVR-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><strong>AppliedVR makes prescription VR-based therapeutics for chronic pain management</strong></figcaption></figure></div>


<p>“So much of how we approach chronic pain is cognitive… but the behavior centers in the brain don’t listen to the cognitive centers very well,” says Maddox. This is why talking to someone and telling them what to do with chronic pain doesn’t always work – someone may do the exercises recommended by a physiotherapist but they also might not.</p>



<p>“Here’s what VR does: it broadly engages the brain. It engages your sensory and perception centers – the parts of the brain that say you’re there. It engages cognitive centers, emotional centers, you get motivated, excited and are poised for behavior change…” The research behind this non-pharmacologic form of chronic relief is exciting but it’s something that depends on good content which costs money to create. There’s also the fact that at this point, VR for pain isn’t covered by insurance unless you’re in a nursing home in America and on a CareWell plan. The alternative to what a company like AppliedVR offers is a patient buying their own VR headset and downloading a meditation app like TRIPP which combines tried- and-tested relaxation techniques with binaural audio – it just won’t be supervised by a specialist and the content won’t be specifically designed around pain relief.</p>



<p>Smartphones have given rise to numerous apps to track pain and others that take a more multidisciplinary approach, pairing users with a health coach who can create customized care plans. </p>



<p>One piece of wearable tech that is making the rounds on social media is Healy, an expensive, palm-sized device which delivers mild electrical currents to the wearer. Robyn Gilbert, a mom of two, discovered Healy from a friend. “I have pain from an autoimmune condition and Healy can mitigate it almost completely,” she says. “It has also improved my sleep, my overall energy levels, and my general sense of emotional wellbeing.” While Gilbert doesn’t feel the current – in fact, it is recommended to keep the stimulation levels low so the user doesn’t feel it – she says she felt a mental shift straight away. “People experience profound changes in many different ways, from the cessation of pain to an overall sense of wellbeing on an emotional and mental level,” she adds. Healy was invented by Marcus Schmieke, founder of the Existential Consciousness Research Institute. It isn’t approved by the FDA but that hasn’t stopped over 300,000 people from buying a device.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">‘IT’S ALL IN YOUR… GUT?’</h3>



<p>Chronic pain may be common but it’s complex and the idea that it’s all ‘in your head’ is something not every doctor agrees on.</p>



<p>Dr Sarette Zecharia is a clinical psychologist who works with alternative forms of pain management, including traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, and is on the board of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology. “Medication is a quick fix but the issue is that it’s foreign to the body and you end up taking more medication to cover up the side effects,” she says. “What I recently heard is that for each decade you’re in, you have to be on two medications and if </p>



<p>you’re not, it’s mind-boggling. It’s no longer normal to not be on medication.”</p>



<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="20" height="20" src="">Zecharia has seen incredible (and less expensive) results with her pain patients by simply managing diet, using food as fuel. “In modern science, it’s very easy to find the one thing that’s the cause of everything – and medicate. Pain is in every single system, the energetic system, the physical system, the mental system, the emotional system, the spiritual system, and it has to be dealt with on all of those levels,” she adds.</p>



<p>New research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown that there is a connection between the gut and chronic pain because the bacteria living</p>



<p>in our gut can influence some neurological diseases – when the microbiome is disrupted, the communication between the gut and brain is disrupted. There is also research in the <em>Nature </em>science journal which validates that an out-of-balance microbiome can lead to chronic inflammatory disease. “If you think about all these psychotropic medications that people are given, it disrupts the gut and the gut is where you make the majority of your neurotransmitters. That’s where your mood comes from and that’s why food is so important,” she adds.</p>



<p>“Food is not important to people whose mood is regulated, but the moment your mood isn’t regulated, you start to realize the importance of food.”</p>



<p>The connection between pain, food and diet culture is complicated and can be attributed to various factors, including societal pressure, media influence and individual experiences. Living a ‘healthy lifestyle’ comes at a cost and the diet industry globally is worth billions ($282.53 billion by 2028 per <em>GlobeNewswire</em>), profiting off those who struggle with their relationship with food and body image.</p>



<p>While Zecharia does believe food is fuel and has seen regenerative diets work for those in pain, she says making money off pain is easy because you can charge people a fortune and “keep giving them stuff that’s just knocking them more off their center line”.</p>



<p>Where does the spend stop and relief begin? For those dealing with pain, chronic or acute, finding a quick fix can take a dark turn but as the field expands and researchers across different disciplines collaborate, there is hope. Says Zecharia: “I’m not saying don’t take psychotropic medication if you need it. The problem is when someone gets medication from a healthcare provider who doesn’t really know what they have. And if it doesn’t work, you keep upping the dosage, messing up your gut biome…”</p>


Closeup female hand neatly placing medicament at domestic first aid kit top view. Storage organization in transparent plastic box drug, pill, syringe, bandage. Fast health help safety emergency supply

The Business Of Pain Management: Expert-Speak From Africa


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>New Covid boosters pending approval will only target the coronavirus’ Eris strain and other XBB subvariants, which make up most cases in the U.S., causing some experts to encourage patients to wait for the new shots instead of getting a current bivalent booster.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>In June, a Food and Drug Administration panel&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/169591/download?attachment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recommended</a>&nbsp;Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax formulate their new Covid booster shots to be monovalent and only protect against the XBB.1.5 variant and other XBB sublineages—as opposed to the currently available shots, which were designed to combat earlier coronavirus strains.</p>



<p>The companies are still awaiting FDA approval: The new vaccines are estimated to be ready by late September but probably won’t be widely available until October, CBS News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-booster-xbb-variants-september-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>.</p>



<p>XBB.1.5 (also known as “Kraken”) is a descendent of the omicron variant and was the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/xbb15-omicron-subvariant-questions-patients-may-have" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most dominant</a>&nbsp;strain in the U.S. earlier this year, but is now the eighth dominant strain.</p>



<p>The reason the FDA recommended monovalent boosters that protect against one strain is because most of the circulating variants are XBB descendants—as of June, over 95% of the Covid variants in the U.S. were XBB sublineages, the agency said in its report.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/10/what-we-know-about-eris-covid-variant-eg5-the-dominant-stain-driving-an-uptick-in-cases/?sh=22a519ab1627">EG.5</a>&nbsp;or “Eris” is an XBB subvariant and the dominant strain in the U.S., accounting for 20.6% of all cases in the U.S. between August 6 and 10,&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>



<p>The second most common variant, FL.1.5.1, made up 13.3% of cases in the country within that same time period and is also an XBB subvariant.</p>



<p>On Thursday, Moderna&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2023/Moderna-Clinical-Trial-Data-Confirm-Its-Updated-COVID-19-Vaccine-Generates-Robust-Immune-Response-in-Humans-Against-Widely-Circulating-Variants/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;its new Covid vaccine generated a “robust immune response” against Eris and other XBB variants.</p>



<p>A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02228-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<em>Nature Medicine&nbsp;</em>found that although any available booster offers good protection against Covid, variant-specific shots—like the new monovalent XBB ones awaiting approval—offer about 1.6 times more immunity.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>676,728,782. That’s how many vaccines have been administered in the U.S. according to CDC&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-booster-percent-pop5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>. However, only 17% of the population has received an updated bivalent booster.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Some experts believe that since the new vaccines expected to release this fall are specifically aimed at targeting XBB variants, Americans should hold off on getting updated boosters until then. Paul Sax, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-booster-fall.html#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%2C%20according%20to,the%20Omicron%20XBB.1.5%20variant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>New York Times&nbsp;</em>that “waiting makes more sense” for most people looking to get a new vaccine. The current booster is a bivalent shot designed to protect against omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which were once the dominant strains in the U.S. but now make up less than&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1%</a>&nbsp;of cases combined. A January&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7205e1.htm?s_cid=mm7205e1_w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted by the CDC found the bivalent vaccines were about 50% effective at protecting against XBB and XBB.1.5 in most adults and about a third effective in those 65 years and older. Raina MacIntyre, head of the biosecurity program at the medical research organization the Kirby Institute,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/four-fifths-of-australian-adults-have-failed-to-get-a-bivalent-booster-here-s-why-that-is-a-problem-20230814-p5dwb5.html#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;the S<em>ydney Morning Herald</em>&nbsp;the available bivalent boosters “do not provide enough protection against EG.5.1, but the XBB subvariant boosters that are being made by most companies will protect against EG.5.1.” Similarly, University of Michigan infectious disease expert Preeti Malani&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/08/11/1193229029/coronavirus-faq-is-it-wiser-to-get-a-booster-now-or-wait-for-the-new-fall-booste" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told NPR</a>&nbsp;the updated booster shots “will provide a better match to the currently circulating variants,” so most patients are better off waiting for it to be approved.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



<p>The CDC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/interim-considerations-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">still recommends</a>&nbsp;that most people receive at least one bivalent booster shot. The agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/09/01/cdc-advisory-panel-recommends-new-covid-booster-shots-targeting-omicron-heres-what-you-need-to-know/?sh=e92dc701da8c">first signed off</a>&nbsp;on Pfizer and Moderna’s updated boosters almost a year ago.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>A new Covid variant called BA.2.86, or “Pirola,” was&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1692255671687794902" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">labeled</a>&nbsp;as a variant under monitoring by the World Health Organization on Thursday due to the “large number of mutations it carries.” That same day, the CDC&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/CDCgov/status/1692326710262304890?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it was monitoring the variant as it’s been reported in the U.S., Israel and Denmark. It is the descendant of omicron subvariant BA.2, which was the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-ba2-omicron-subvariant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dominant strain</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. earlier this year, at one point making up 85% of cases in the country. An&nbsp;<a href="https://slides.com/jbloom/new_2nd_gen_ba2_variant?ftag=YHF4eb9d17#/3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis</a>&nbsp;by Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, found the variant had 36 additional spike protein mutations than XBB.1.5 and 34 more mutations than BA.2. The number of mutations BA.2.86 has in comparison to other variants makes it “comparable to [the] number of mutations in [the] first Omicron strains relative to” the original Covid strain, according to Bloom. Although its prevalence in the U.S. isn’t large enough to appear on the CDC’s variant tracker—it’s being lumped in with BA.2 cases—there might be concern that the new monovalent vaccines won’t protect against it because it’s not an XBB variant. However, in a report shared with&nbsp;<em>Forbes,&nbsp;</em>Pfizer-BioNTech said evidence shows their new monovalent boosters should offer some protection against BA.2.86.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/10/what-we-know-about-eris-covid-variant-eg5-the-dominant-stain-driving-an-uptick-in-cases/?sh=22a519ab1627">What We Know About ‘Eris’ Covid Variant EG.5: The Dominant Strain Driving An Uptick In Cases</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-booster-fall.html#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%2C%20according%20to,the%20Omicron%20XBB.1.5%20variant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Don’t Get Your Next Covid Booster Quite Yet</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/26/covid-vaccines-heres-evidence-they-work-despite-persistent-misinformation-along-with-side-effects-and-common-misconceptions/?sh=2d67186147c3">Covid Vaccines: Here’s Evidence They Work—Despite Persistent Misinformation—Along With Side Effects And Common Misconceptions</a> (Forbes)</p>


A healthcare worker administers the Pfizer-BioNTech (

New Covid Boosters Expected This Fall: Why Some Doctors Suggest Holding Off On Getting Your Next Booster Until Then


<p><strong>Nigeria faces its highest inflation rate in approximately two decades, with the last instance of such soaring inflation recorded back in September 2005, when the rate touched 24.3%.</strong></p>



<p>Nigeria faces its highest inflation rate in approximately two decades, with the last instance of such soaring inflation recorded back in September 2005, when the rate touched 24.3%.</p>



<p>The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the headline inflation rate in July reached 24.08%, marking a significant increase from the June rate of 22.79%.</p>



<p>Analyzing the data, it becomes apparent that the month of July witnessed a noteworthy 1.29% point rise in the headline inflation rate when compared to the previous month.</p>



<p>Comparing July to the same month the preceding year, the headline inflation rate on a year-on-year basis surged by 4.44% points. This substantial increase in inflation rate, when juxtaposed with July 2022&#8217;s rate of 19.64%, reveals the escalating inflationary pressures that the Nigerian economy currently grapples with.</p>



<p>This recent development raises concerns and calls for a comprehensive understanding of its implications on the nation&#8217;s economy and its citizens&#8217; livelihoods.</p>



<p>According to Iheakanwah Felix Arinzeh, a financial expert and doctor of business administration, the current inflationary surge was not unforeseen.</p>



<p>Arinzeh tells FORBES AFRICA: &#8220;The July inflation rate is not a shock to financial experts. Believe me, the inflationary pressure was expected, considering the tough policy decisions of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.&#8221;</p>



<p>He attributes the upward inflationary pressure to a combination of factors, including the removal of the fuel subsidy, the depreciation of the Naira, and the global food crisis. He also points out the impact of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has disrupted global supply chains and subsequently led to increased energy and food prices.</p>



<p>However, Arinzeh advocates for further devaluation of the Naira to enhance export competitiveness, especially for non-oil exports, which could bolster foreign exchange earnings and reserves.</p>



<p>While acknowledging the positive potential of recent government policies to revive the economy, Arinzeh highlights the importance of effective communication. He believes that proper sensitization about the implications of policies to the populace would have alleviated concerns and prepared citizens for the outcomes.</p>



<p>&#8220;I suggest the provision of financial assistance to vulnerable households via a social intervention program will go a long way in alleviating the excruciating impact of the high inflationary pressure on essential commodities.</p>



<p>&#8220;I believe we can recover well, but slowly from the current situation,&#8221; says Arinzeh.</p>


Inflation Concept

Nigeria Confronts Highest Inflation Rate In Nearly Two Decades, Eclipsing 2005 Record


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>New research found that organs like the heart, liver and kidneys may still be affected by Covid well after the lungs have healed, affirming previous research that long Covid can affect multiple organs.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>A new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abq1533" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<em>Science Translational Medicine&nbsp;</em>on Wednesday reviewed how Covid can negatively affect organs other than the lungs, resulting in long Covid.</p>



<p>Long Covid (also called post-Covid) is lingering symptoms—like loss of smell or taste, chest pain, shortness of breath or brain fog—following recovery from a Covid infection that can last for weeks or even years,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>



<p>The cause of the issue stems from when the virus’ proteins bind to the genes of the mitochondria, the cells’ energy producer, which can negatively impact the body’s organs, leading to dysfunction.</p>



<p>The study also found that even if mitochondrial gene expression recovered in the lungs, the first organ&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/covid-19/about-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">affected</a>&nbsp;by Covid infection, it can still negatively impact other organs, including the heart, liver and kidneys.</p>



<p>Long Covid most commonly affects people who suffered from severe Covid symptoms, people with underlying conditions, the unvaccinated and those who had multisystem inflammatory syndrome—a rare&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mis/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">condition</a>&nbsp;associated with Covid in which body parts like the kidneys and brain become inflamed—during or after Covid, the National Library of Medicine&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/postcovidconditionslongcovid.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>.</p>



<p>A study published in February by the American College of Cardiology&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/02/23/long-covid-linked-to-heart-problems-here-are-the-symptoms--and-whos-at-risk/?sh=43b1469c6890">found</a>&nbsp;having long Covid doubled a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular health issues.</p>



<p>A separate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9955527/#:~:text=The%20results%20of%20these%20investigations,in%20long%2DCOVID%2D19." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in the journal of&nbsp;<em>International Urology and Nephrology&nbsp;</em>found that long Covid may play a part in the development of chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“This study provides us with strong evidence that we need to stop looking at Covid-19 as strictly an upper respiratory disease and start viewing it as a systemic disorder that impacts multiple organs,” Douglas C. Wallace, the study’s coauthor, said in a statement. “The continued dysfunction we observed in organs other than the lungs suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction could be causing long-term damage to the internal organs of these patients.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>65 million. That’s how many people worldwide are estimated to suffer from long Covid, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<em>Nature&nbsp;</em>in February.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(22)00354-6/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;<em>Lancet</em>&nbsp;found that Covid vaccines could potentially reduce the risk of developing long Covid, with data suggesting two doses is more effective at protection than one.&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/postcovidconditionslongcovid.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a>&nbsp;to MedlinePlus, a site run by the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine, post-Covid symptoms may present in one of three ways: Patients may develop new health issues months after a Covid infection; they seem to recover from Covid, but their symptoms come back; or they have symptoms that can linger for a span of days to years. Long Covid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">symptoms</a>&nbsp;can include heart palpitations, chest pain, diarrhea, stomach pain, coughing, shortness of breath or neurologic symptoms—like brain fog, headaches or sleep problems. There is not a certain test for long Covid. To diagnose it, a physician will ask about a patient&#8217;s medical history, conduct a physical exam and they may order blood work and imaging tests.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>New&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.29.23292056v1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<em>medRxiv&nbsp;</em>suggests that genetics may play a role in who develops long Covid. The researchers looked at data from 24 different studies with almost 6,500 participants and found that patients with long Covid were more likely to share DNA around a gene called FOXP4, which is a gene that may be involved in immune responses in the air sacs of the lungs. However, just because a patient has the FOXP4 gene doesn’t guarantee they will develop long Covid. The gene has previously been&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25994569/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;to play a role in tumor growth in lung cancer.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/02/23/long-covid-linked-to-heart-problems-here-are-the-symptoms--and-whos-at-risk/?sh=43b1469c6890">Long Covid Linked To Heart Problems: Here Are The Symptoms – And Who’s At Risk</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/06/15/more-people-got-diabetes-during-the-covid-pandemic-heres-why/?sh=65ea758f31d3">More People Got Diabetes During The Covid Pandemic—Here’s Why</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/05/10/covids-no-longer-a-public-health-emergency-heres-how-that-may-affect-you/?sh=33db5d4d20e3">Covid’s No Longer A Public Health Emergency: Here’s How That May Affect You</a> (Forbes)</p>


TUNISIA-HEALTH-VIRUS-TOURISM-HOSPITAL

Long Covid May Affect Organs Like The Heart And Kidneys After Lungs Recover, New Research Says


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Moderna and BioNTech shares both cratered to their lowest price in years Monday as the companies behind the most widely-circulated mRNA Covid-19 vaccines grapple with investor disappointment with crashing revenues.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>BioNTech and Moderna’s stocks fell 8% and 6%, respectively, a decline spurred by BioNTech’s earnings report revealing the German firm’s sales fell 95% year-over-year last quarter.</p>



<p>Moderna’s fresh decline came after it reported a 93% annual decline in quarterly revenues in its own earnings release Thursday.</p>



<p>Moderna’s $101.20 close Monday was its lowest since November 2020, while BioNTech’s $98.50 close was its lowest since March 2021.</p>



<p>BioNTech, which developed a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, said Monday it expects to generate $5.5 billion in Covid vaccine sales this year, a 70% decline from 2022, while Moderna’s $6 billion to $8 billion in forecasted Covid jab sales is similarly about two-thirds below its $18 billion of revenue in the unit last year.</p>



<p>The stock crashes moved against broader market gains, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 408-point, or 1.2%, rally its strongest since June 2.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Shares of Moderna are down 78% from their September 2021 high of $456, making the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company the worst-performing stock listed on the S&amp;P 500 during the period, according to FactSet data. BioNTech, which isn’t listed on the S&amp;P, is also down 78% from its 2021 peak share price. Moderna and Pfizer are among the worst-performing stocks listed on the S&amp;P this year as the rival firms both grappled with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/31/pfizer-expects-covid-vaccine-and-pill-revenues-will-fall-60-in-2023/?sh=182d46027bee">declining demand</a>&nbsp;for Covid prevention and treatment.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>About $340 billion. That’s how much market capitalization BioNTech (down $85 billion) and Moderna (down $157 billion) have lost over the last two years.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>Until BioNTech gets “the COVID guidance monkey off its back, this will remain purgatory for most investors,” Jefferies analysts led by Akash Tewari wrote in a Monday note to clients.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/07/03/worst-stocks-of-2023s-first-half-battered-banks-and-vaccine-makers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORE FROM FORBES<strong>Worst Stocks Of 2023&#8217;s First Half: Battered Banks And Vaccine Makers</strong><small>By <strong>Derek Saul</strong></small></a></p>


In this photo illustration the medical syringe is seen with

Covid Vaccine Makers’ Stocks Crash To Multiyear Lows Monday As Sales Keep Sliding


<p><strong>The recent coup in Niger has escalated tensions in West Africa as the junta defies ECOWAS&#8217;s deadline for reinstating President Mohamed Bazoum.</strong></p>



<p>Niger has closed its airspace following the expiration of a deadline imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the reinstatement of elected President Mohamed Bazoum. This comes after Bazoum was ousted in a coup by a military junta, marking a significant crisis in West Africa&#8217;s diplomatic landscape.</p>



<p>ECOWAS, a regional political and economic union of fifteen West African countries, has been pushing for democratic stability in the region, and military action to reinstate the president is now a possibility. The situation has attracted international attention, with the coup igniting tensions in an already fragile part of the continent.</p>



<p>The coup, which was declared last month by the head of the Presidential Guard, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, blamed a lack of economic growth and continuing insecurity for the ousting of Bazoum. However, the country has long seen divisions between the democratic political sphere and the military, with the last coup attempt being mere days before Bazoum’s inauguration in 2021.</p>



<p>Niger under Bazoum has served as a critical strongpoint for the European Union in an attempt to block illegal migration from Africa, and an important ally from which France has based its military operations on the continent after relations with Malian authorities soured last year. The United States also considers Niger an ally, and has supported the country with foreign aid, some of which has been paused in light of the coup.</p>



<p>African heads of state as well as European and American bodies have condemned the coup, and ECOWAS’ stated deadline for Bazoum’s reinstatement reflected the body’s hard stance against his deposition.</p>



<p>However, the closure of Nigerien airspace yesterday indicates that the junta will not comply with demands, increasing tensions, as it remains to be seen whether this non-compliance will result in a military invention by ECOWAS in the already unstable region.</p>


Demonstration of coup supporters in Niger

Niger Airspace Closure Signals Deepening Crisis As ECOWAS Deadline Passes


<p><strong>Among the key topics to be addressed at the BRICS Summit in August are the expansion of the bloc, a common currency within it, and ensuring food and energy security.</strong></p>



<p>After three years of virtual summits, South Africa is hosting in person the 15th BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24.</p>



<p>An acronym for the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and since 2010, South Africa, BRICS, according to Trevor Bester, CEO of BRICS Global Television Network (expected to launch on August 20), “is a continuation of a vision established in 2010 as a platform to trade with a common currency, decreasing reliance on the dollar as the global reserve currency. The fastest-growing economies joined together to become the dominant global economies by 2050”.</p>



<p>The summit comes at a vital time in the alliance’s history as more than 20 countries have expressed interest in joining. None is more certain than Saudi Arabia, largely because of its interest in funding the BRICS Bank.</p>



<p>This will have massive positive implications for the emerging economies in the bloc and their development.</p>



<p>Iran is also likely to be accepted. It has embraced the global south and expressed its desire to eliminate Western dominance, one of the goals of BRICS, and will not hesitate to embrace and assist in de-dollarization efforts.</p>



<p>The United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Argentina and Egypt all stand a chance of also being accepted and bring with them varying benefits.</p>



<p>Among the key topics to be addressed at the summit are the expansion of BRICS, a common currency within the bloc and ensuring food and energy security.</p>



<p>“BRICS already accounts for 31.5% of global GDP and by 2030 will account for 50%. China is the fastest-growing economy at the moment but India is likely to take over,” says Bester.</p>



<p>“BRICS countries’ combined population is at 3.24 billion, which represents almost half the world’s population and have a combined GDP of $26.03 trillion. This, combined with the gradual decrease of unemployment in the BRICS countries from 4.8% in 2022 to 4.7% in 2023, illustrates the progressive nature of the concerned economies.”</p>



<p>The New Development Bank, formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, established in 2014, offers member countries a platform to trade with each other in either local currency or a new currency backed by gold.</p>



<p>“The benefits of this bank, amongst others, is to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging markets and countries,” says Redge Nkosi, Executive Director and Head of Research at Firstsource Money and Monetary Reform, to FORBES AFRICA.</p>



<p>“BRICS members will be able to achieve a level of self-sufficiency in international trade.”</p>



<p>The move could make it easier for economies to take on the US dollar and challenge its global reserve status.</p>



<p>In the last 18 months, BRICS nations have increased their gold buying expenditure and are stockpiling the precious metal.</p>



<p>The dollar is now a risky asset as it comes with the dangers of debt. If the debt ceiling crisis worsens, it could cause a domino effect of financial problems in developing countries. Therefore, a handful of countries in Asia,</p>



<p>Africa, Latin America, and Europe are looking to stay away from the dollar for global settlements.</p>



<p>For Africa, this is an opportunity. In recent years, BRICS has expanded its involvement on the continent. BRICS members are now Africa’s largest trading partners and significant investors, especially in the manufacturing and service sectors.</p>



<p>Pursued properly, BRICS participation can position South Africa and other African countries as being among the world’s fastest-growing economies.</p>



<p>Pravin Maharaj, Chairman of Trade BRICS, believes that by South Africa hosting the summit, “the time for Africa has arrived, it has moved from vision to reality”.</p>



<p>“The summit will focus on bringing about less poverty, less inequality and more development. Youth will have more to look forward to as education is also a key focus area at the summit,” he says to FORBES AFRICA.</p>


BRICS summit

‘Less Inequality And More Development’: What To Expect At The BRICS Summit


<p>A week before the 2023 French Open, South African tennis ace and paralympian Kgothatso Montjane said on radio that she wanted to top her achievements with a Grand Slam win “to validate everything”.</p>



<p>“And then I went out to win the Grand Slam, it was just unbelievable!” she says now, back in South Africa at the end of June as a Roland Garros women&#8217;s wheelchair doubles champion with Yui Kamiji from Japan as the two clinched an impressive 6-2, 6-3 victory over Diede de Groot and Maria Moreno.</p>



<p>Speaking to FORBES AFRICA soon after her win, she reminisces that this was not the career she had originally envisioned for herself.</p>



<p>“I picked up a racket at the age of 19 for the first time,” says the 37-year-old. “At school, I was playing quite a lot of sport. So I think that&#8217;s the reason why [with] tennis, they came directly to me. They were like ‘you’ve got to go try this’. So I was somehow forced into it.”</p>



<p>The Limpopo-born tennis player remembers going to university not sure about wanting to continue the sport.</p>



<p>“At school, I felt like I was good at table tennis. So for me, that&#8217;s what I was looking forward to playing when I got to university, but it wasn&#8217;t there. Even wheelchair basketball, I think I would have settled for, but tennis, it was foreign to me. I have never seen it anywhere. And I just never understood this whole thing of them wanting me to play the sport.”</p>



<p>A few years later, she was approached to play professionally, which came with the opportunity to travel the world. At first, it seemed an attractive proposition but it was not without its challenges, especially when she had to start securing her own sponsorships.</p>



<p>“It was glamorous at the beginning, because there was someone taking care of everything,” Montjane explains. “We didn&#8217;t have to worry, we just had to pack our bags and go to the airport. I didn&#8217;t know the financial implications that were involved, the admin and the entering of tournaments.”</p>



<p>This meant that she had to learn to be business-savvy. So the young sportswoman set off to learn to draft proposals and approach sponsors across the board.</p>



<p>All of this is what led to Montjane’s illustrious career including being named ‘South Africa&#8217;s disabled sportswoman of the year’ three times (2005, 2011 and 2015), holding 29 singles titles and winning wheelchair tennis tournaments such as the Belgian Open and Swiss Open.</p>



<p>Montjane also made history as the first South African woman to win at Roland Garros since Tanya Harford’s and Rosalyn Fairbank&#8217;s victory in 1981.</p>



<p>“I still can&#8217;t believe it happened. When someone says ‘Grand Slam champion’, I am like ‘Nah, you are not talking to me’. It&#8217;s still to sink in,” she says. “I just want people to know that disability doesn&#8217;t mean inability. It&#8217;s just a condition that limits you in a certain way… At the end of the day, we people with disabilities – we are human, we are capable, we are talented.”</p>


IMG-2912

‘Disability Does Not Mean Inability’: South Africa’s Wheelchair Tennis Champ


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The U.S. women’s national team game against the Netherlands was last week’s most-watched show on television as it broke records for the highest-ever English language viewership of a group stage match in women’s FIFA World Cup history.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The match, which saw the two teams draw 1-1, was watched by 6.4 million people last Wednesday, Nielsen data shows, and is the second U.S. game from this year’s World Cup to score record viewership.</p>



<p>The Netherlands match was the most-watched ever in a group stage and the July 21 game, a 3-1 win over Vietnam, was watched by 5.3 million people, making it the third most-viewed group stage game in Women&#8217;s World Cup history behind the 2019 U.S. game against Chile in second place.</p>



<p>The game against the Netherlands was the most-watched broadcast show last week by almost 1 million viewers—CBS&#8217;s&nbsp;<em>60 Minutes</em>&nbsp;saw 5.6 million viewers in second place, followed by Tuesday&#8217;s episode of&nbsp;<em>America&#8217;s Got Talent</em>&nbsp;with 5.8 million watchers and<em>&nbsp;Celebrity Family Feud</em>, which drew 3.6 million.</p>



<p>Viewership numbers for the final group-stage match for the U.S., a game played against Portugal Monday, have not been released but likely won’t hold up to the others because of timing—the Portugal game aired at 3 a.m. ET as opposed to 11 p.m. and 9 p.m. for the Vietnamese and Netherlands matchups, respectively.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>The next game. The 0-0 tie against Portugal allowed the U.S. team to finish second in Group E and narrowly advance. The team will play its first World Cup knockout stage game at 5 a.m. Sunday against Sweden. The World Cup is now down to its last 16 teams.</p>



<p>Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up</p>



<p>By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>The U.S. team has won the FIFA Women&#8217;s World Cup four times—more than any other country. The Americans are the current champions after winning the 2019 tournament in France and they also won the title in 2015 in a game that became the second most-watched soccer game in American history with 26.9 million viewers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/thegoalkeeper/most-watched-soccer-games-united-states-world-cup-copa-america.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>Philadelphia Inquirer.&nbsp;</em>No country has ever won three consecutive men&#8217;s or women&#8217;s World Cups and the feat is rare at the professional level in any sport. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2022/06/15/major-sports-teams-three-peat-last-50-years/7635754001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">last American team</a>&nbsp;to do it was the Los Angeles Lakers, which won the NBA Championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Other teams include the Chicago Bulls from 1996 to 1998, New York Yankees from 1998 to 2000 and the WNBA&#8217;s Houston Comets, which won four championships from 1997 to 2000.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Fox News continued its domination in the cable sphere last week, Nielsen data shows, with nine of the 10 most-watched cable shows. All five episodes of the round-table talk show&nbsp;<em>The Five</em>&nbsp;were in the top 10, with Wednesday&#8217;s airing the most watched at 3.1 million viewers. MSNBC&#8217;s&nbsp;<em>Rachel Maddow Show</em>&nbsp;was the only non-Fox show to break in—2.5 million people watched the Monday episode, ranking it ninth place. Fox News saw a 26% jump in ratings&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/07/26/fox-news-ratings-surge-26-amid-post-tucker-carlson-shakeup-and-trump-interview/?sh=4e84af1d180e">two weeks ago</a>&nbsp;when it premiered its reshuffled lineup with Jesse Watters in the 8 p.m. spot once held by Tucker Carlson, and last week’s numbers show viewership has climbed even higher. Fox News averaged 1.84 million primetime viewers for the week of July 24, up from 1.81 million in the previous week.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/07/27/womens-world-cup-hits-record-tv-viewership-for-group-stage/?sh=6a248029358e">Women’s World Cup Hits Record TV Viewership For Group Stage</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/07/26/fox-news-ratings-surge-26-amid-post-tucker-carlson-shakeup-and-trump-interview/?sh=1033bef0180e">Fox News Ratings Surge 26% Amid Post-Tucker Carlson Shakeup—And Trump Interview</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2023/07/21/womens-world-cup-highest-paid-alex-morgan-megan-rapinoe/?sh=ceabde45acdd">The Highest-Paid Players At The 2023 Women’s World Cup</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/07/21/money-equity-and-taxes-make-news-early-at-the-2023-womens-world-cup/?sh=54fbd7196386">Money, Equity And Taxes Make News Early At The 2023 Women’s World Cup&nbsp;</a>(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/manasipathak-1/2023/07/18/netflix-will-follow-united-states-at-womens-world-cup/?sh=c4b66c12524c">Netflix Will Follow United States At Women’s World Cup</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>


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