November 22, 2021, Pretoria, South Africa, a grouping of new Covid-19 cases emerged from Tswahne University along with some nearby townships, the incidence of infections were four times the usual level. This was a worrying development in the pandemic since the delta variant emerged from Asia during the spring. South Africa was concerned about rising cases in student dormitories. In Botswana scientists were concerned about an unusual set of covid-19 samples taken from a few pa

Black Slip Wasp on Ivy flower, Conamara At the beginning of the 20th century large numbers of children and elderly succumbed to diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria and pneumonia. Microbiologists had little understanding about how diseases were spread, or how they could be controlled, so epidemics flourished. The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19, probably originating in returning US armed forces military camps, caused c. 50 million deaths worldwide, greater than dea