While the ethics and socio-economic impacts of Lockdowns are too complex to cover here, the fact is that they do work to minimise viral transmission. After two weeks of our latest Lockdown in Melbourne, restrictions were loosened on Friday 11th June;
After enjoying a couple of months of “relative” normality, including Fun Fridays, having dinner at a restaurant, and watching a film at the theatre, we are back in a “snap circuit-breaker” lockdown that has been going for 12 days.
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...
With over 2.6 million deaths worldwide (over 530,000 in the US), countless businesses decimated and massive social disruption, we can probably say we lost the war against COVID-19. The good news is that vaccination programs are underway...
Vaccination programs are well underway in many countries. The US is currently averaging about 2 million doses per day and President has indicated that there will be enough doses for all US adults by June (600 million by late July). In the meantime, ...
Following many weeks of “freedom” including zero COVID-19 cases, we (Melbourne, Australia), have entered a five-day circuit-breaker snap lockdown stating at 11:59 pm Friday February 12th 2021. The stage 4 lockdown [essentially Lockdown 3.0], includes a 5 km travel...
Like the Gregorian calendar New Year, this year’s Chinese New Year festivities were relatively more subdued than normal. With travel restrictions imposed in China and other limitations in other Asian countries it is assumed that festivities were more low-key ...
It’s been a bit over three weeks since Inauguration Day in the US (20 Jan 2021). After peaking at ~300,000 cases a couple of days after the well-known events at the Capitol Hill, COVID-19 cases have now been steadily decreasing to under 100, 000...
Although the mutation rate of coronaviruses is relatively slow, there are many thousands of mutations that have occurred in the SARS-Cov-2 virus to-date; most of these are inconsequential with regards to infection and pathology. However, about 12 distinct...
Most people would agree that 2020 sucked! With the rollout of safe and effective vaccines 2021 was eagerly anticipated with some optimism; unfortunately, we have to do quick a reality vs optimism check. In what people are calling COVID-19’s last (hopefully!)...