It has been one year since we were “kicked out” of our offices and essentially all tertiary teaching moved online. Luckily as essential workers, at least our labs could operate in a limited way during the lockdown periods. Like most people, over the…
year we have relied heavily on Zoom meetings to operate. Although Zoom is great technology and a lifesaver after 111 meetings with the team during the year (over 300 hours), we can authoritatively say that Zoom fatigue is a real phenomenon! Although real life meetings can sometimes be draining there is a unique de-energizing quality associated with Zoom meetings; it is difficult to pin exactly why, but there is a definite drain in energy after online meetings!
Anyway, in Melbourne we are now almost fully open – much of the teaching is now back to face-to-face and typical routines like Fun Fridays are almost back to “normal”. With the current vaccine rollout, it looks like that compared to many other places, we (Australia), escaped the brunt of the health consequences cause by COVID-19. However, a quick stroll around our city (Melbourne), tells the story of the severe economic consequences of the pandemic. Many businesses have been decimated – empty shops and “For Lease” signs are everywhere. It is clear that the pandemic has created damage that will take many years to repair and for many the damage is irreparable.
It has (obviously!), been a different year with “records” and numbers dominating headlines. Popular trackers have monitored have carefully monitored and documented the global spread of infection; an important one is the Johns Hopkins University resource center which (toady) shows over 120 million confirmed infections and 2.7 million deaths (almost 550,000 deaths in the US). An interesting and saddening statistic is that overall COVID-19 has resulted in ~20 million years of life (on average a person who died from COVID-19 lost 16 years of like; in the US is it estimated that life expectancy dropped by ~1 year predominantly due to COVID-19 deaths in 2020.
All indications a showing that globally the pandemic has now peaked with the numbers of infections declining over the past weeks. Vaccination programs have at least something to do with that, and fundamental public health measures have also helped. Regarding herd immunity, Israel is the leading nation with ~60% of its population vaccinated to date (70-80% appears to be the range to achieve herd immunity). There is great optimism that the pandemic is coming to an end. Emerging variants pose the greatest threat with respect to the longevity of the virus, and many experts believe that eventually COVID-19 will become endemic – similar to the four circulating coronaviruses that cause a common cold. It will be interesting to see what levels and for how long immunity is afforded by vaccination; this is another important factor that will dictate the progression of COVID-19 and whether we can eradicate the virus.
The origins of the SARS-CoV-2 remains a topic of some interest. Investigations by World Health Organisation experts have yielded a number of sources and the main ones that have persisted are the bat-host, bat-intermediate-host, contaminated frozen food, and laboratory leak hypotheses. The investigations also suggest that the virus was circulating earlier and more wider than original assumed. To alert of incoming threats in the future there is much talk of pandemic preparedness strategies and the establishment of the Global Immunological Observatory is a step in that direction; currently the aim of a pilot project is investigate blood samples for antibodies against viruses; it will be costly and logistically difficult but hopefully such a system can be implemented.
It has been a weird year, with many new lessons learned. On top, it was a US election year (probably the most eventful and dramatic in recent years), and we saw the rise of potential heroes followed by the apparent fall (e.g. Gov. Cuomo). In some good news, the flu season was the mildest it has ever been known to be (there was some reports of humans catching the bird flu H5N8 but they fizzled away). Black widow is finally going to be released, and Krispy Kreme is giving away donuts to people that can produce a vaccination card – they better extend that offer in the Australia!
Until next time …