The Nigerian government has made funds available for the local production of vaccines. But is it enough to kickstart a moribund industry? Daniel Oladimeji Oluwayelu argues that this is unlikely as he unpacks the history of drug production in Nigeria and the substantial gaps the country would need to fill before any meaningful production could start.

Debates about compensating Black Americans for slavery began after the Civil War, with unfulfilled promises of “40 acres and a mule.” A century and a half later, some modern critics of reparations dismiss slavery as too long ago to merit recompense. Yet many products of enslaved people continue to play a role in the U.S. economy today. “American cities from Atlanta to New York City still use buildings, roads, ports and rail lines built by enslaved people,” write Penn State geographer Joshua Inwood and University of California, Berkeley urban planner Anna Livia Brand. Their work documenting this infrastructure demonstrates how slavery continues to generate wealth today.

Interest in ivermectin, a highly effective drug primarily used to kill parasites in animals, has gone through the roof across the world following laboratory evidence that it has an active ingredient that acts against the COVID-19 virus. To sort out fact from fiction, Vinny Naidoo, Dean of the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science, sets out the background to the drug, what the excitement is about and why a great deal of caution is required. Listen to his fascinating account here.