{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,3]],"date-time":"2026-10-03T03:07:03Z","timestamp":1790996823519,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,28]],"date-time":"2022-11-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1669593600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In global conversations about COVID-19 vaccine access, Africa has overwhelmingly been characterized as a site of lack. However, the successful reverse engineering of the Moderna vaccine by Afrigen at the mRNA Hub in Cape Town marks a more hopeful path forward. This paper introduces the mRNA Hub and puts it into context of broader decolonial aspirations for African futures in the face of rich countries' disregard. Highlighting ways in which Afrigen's Managing Director's articulations of the endeavor resonate with historical and contemporary calls to dismantle the unequal global order, we argue that the mRNA Hub provides an example of the potential for decolonial solidarity in the post\/pandemic period.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2022.1065993","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,28]],"date-time":"2022-11-28T07:17:52Z","timestamp":1669619872000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["\u201cA passion to change the landscape and drive a renaissance\u201d: The mRNA Hub at Afrigen as decolonial aspiration"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Lauren","family":"Paremoer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anne","family":"Pollock","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.abc7056","article-title":"Unveiling \u2018Warp Speed,' the White House's America-first push for a coronavirus vaccine","author":"Cohen","year":"2020","journal-title":"Science."},{"key":"B2","unstructured":"Establishment of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub to scale up global manufacturing2021"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"400","DOI":"10.1377\/hlthaff.2020.02097","article-title":"The COVID-19 innovation system","volume":"40","author":"Sampat","year":"2021","journal-title":"Health Affairs"},{"key":"B4","unstructured":"WHO supporting South African consortium to establish first COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub2021"},{"key":"B5","unstructured":"Even if Moderna declines \u2013 other pharma partners now poised to join South African mRNA vaccine hub initiative\n            CullinanK\n          2022"},{"key":"B6","unstructured":"South African scientists copy Moderna's COVID vaccine\n            MaxmanA\n          35115696Nature2022"},{"key":"B7","unstructured":"WHO announces first technology recipients of mRNA vaccine hub with strong support from African and European partners2022"},{"key":"B8","unstructured":"COVID-19 and mRNA technology are helping Africa fix its vaccine problems377\n            BryceE\n            OngS\n          35623637Bmj2022"},{"key":"B9","unstructured":"Analysis: Vaccine partnership with US government boosts prospects for local production\n            TomlinsonC\n          2022"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.47963\/jla.v3i1.767","article-title":"Thinking a post-coronavirus Africa: Reading Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon in the era of COVID-19. KENTE - Cape Coast","volume":"3","author":"Asempasah","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Literat Arts"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"690","DOI":"10.1038\/s41579-020-00441-3","article-title":"Prospects for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines in Africa","volume":"18","author":"Margolin","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nat Rev Microbiol"},{"key":"B12","unstructured":"Will \u2018open-source' vaccines narrow the inequality gap exposed by Covid? (2022)"},{"key":"B13","unstructured":"Moderna to share vaccine tech, commits to never enforce COVID-19 jab patents\n            FurlongA\n          2022"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"o304","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.o304","article-title":"COVID-19: WHO efforts to bring vaccine manufacturing to Africa are undermined by the drug industry","volume":"376","author":"Davies","year":"2022","journal-title":"BMJ."},{"key":"B15","unstructured":"Pharma leaders shoot down WHO voluntary pool for patent rights on COVID-19 products\n            SilvermanE\n          STAT News2020"},{"key":"B16","unstructured":"2022"},{"key":"B17","unstructured":"1619JakartaIndonesia. Ministry of Foreign AffairsAsia-Africa speak from Bandung31955"},{"key":"B18","unstructured":"Moderna's patents stand in way of mRNA vaccine hub's grand vision\n            JervingS\n          Devex Newswire"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.17157\/mat.5.2.531","article-title":"Partnerships for now: Temporality, capacities, and the durability of outcomes from global health \u201cpartnerships\u201d","volume":"5","author":"Okeke","year":"2018","journal-title":"Med Anthropol Theory"},{"key":"B20","unstructured":""},{"key":"B21","unstructured":"International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR1978"},{"key":"B22","unstructured":"Solidarity is Mutual aid between forces fighting for the same objectives\n            Machel\n            S\n          1973"},{"key":"B23","unstructured":"2015"},{"key":"B24","unstructured":"Third worldism94116\n            NashA\n          Af Sociol Revi Rev Af de Sociol.72003"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"253","DOI":"10.1177\/0021909615580867","article-title":"Incompleteness: frontier Africa and the currency of conviviality","volume":"52","author":"Nyamnjoh","year":"2017","journal-title":"J Asian Af Stud"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226629216.001.0001","volume-title":"Synthesizing Hope: Matter, Knowledge, and Place in South African Drug Discovery","author":"Pollock","year":"2019"},{"key":"B27","unstructured":"Six African countries to receive initial transfer of mRNA vaccine technology\n            AfricanDevelopment Bank\n          2022"},{"key":"B28","volume-title":"The Wretched of the Warth, Wranslated by Constance Farrington","author":"Fanon","year":"1963"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"312","DOI":"10.1080\/02533952.2017.1372054","article-title":"Lateral texts and circuits of value: Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino and Wer pa Lawino","volume":"43","author":"Garuba","year":"2017","journal-title":"Soc Dynam."},{"key":"B30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"365","DOI":"10.1111\/maq.12432","article-title":"From drug safety to drug security: a contemporary shift in the policing of health","volume":"32","author":"Hornberger","year":"2018","journal-title":"Med Anthropol Q."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2022.1065993\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,28]],"date-time":"2022-11-28T07:18:03Z","timestamp":1669619883000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2022.1065993\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,28]]},"references-count":30,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2022.1065993"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2022.1065993","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,28]]},"article-number":"1065993"}}