We love this story via Quartz. UK royals-in-chief, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, may become Covid-19 “vaccine influencers”. ​Unnamed sources told the press that the royal couple may “let it be known” when they’ve received a Covid-19 vaccine, a move that could combat anti-vaxxing sentiment and disinformation in the UK and beyond.

Speaking of vaccines, the UK has started its roll-out and Canada will soon too. While you may have heard that South Africa “lagged” in making a payment to be included in a global vaccine roll-out initiative called Covax, we explained this week that it appears to be a little more complicated than that. Read our explainer on explain.co.za.

The real question is whether vaccines will be equitably rolled out to all, and with wealthier countries buying up doses by the millions, this isn’t guaranteed. But President Cyril Ramaphosa promised this week that SA would have access to vaccines for at least 10% of the population by mid-2021, so there is hope. 

This brief was originally published in The Wrap here.

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verashni@explain.co.za |  + posts

Verashni is passionate about empowering citizens to hold those in power to account. She was previously editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian and HuffPost South Africa, and won the CNN African Journalism Award, among others.