As vaccinations drop, outreach workers hit the streets to change minds Volunteers across the country are responding to people's fears, coaxing the hesitant and removing obstacles for those who want to get vaccinated. NBC News

DETROIT — Tanika Knighton knows how devastating Covid-19 can be: Her 62-year-old father died of the disease last spring, and she and her husband both got very sick last year.

LA Times owner pledges $210 million to transfer vaccine technology to  South Africa

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire biotechnology entrepreneur who owns The Los Angeles Times, announced on Wednesday that his corporation and his philanthropic foundation would commit an initial 3 billion South African rand (about $210 million) to transfer the latest technology for producing vaccines and biological therapies to South Africa, where he was born.

Companies there, he said, could then use them to make a second generation of vaccines to address variants of the coronavirus that might make current vaccines less effective.

Dr. Soon-Shiong spoke at an international meeting on the equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics that was co-chaired by the director-general of the World Health Organization.