virus
-
No Mum, Cold Weather Won’t Make You Sick
I think we can all safely say that our mothers would yell at us as children if we went out in the cold without around fifty layers of clothes saying that we’d catch a cold. But can you really catch a cold from cold weather? Colds are caused by viruses, so no. But can cold…
-
The Costly Lesson From COVID
Imagine it is 2030. Doctors in a regional hospital in country X note an expanding cluster of individuals with severe respiratory disease. Rapid whole-genome sequencing identifies the disease-causing agent as a novel coronavirus. Epidemiological investigations suggest the virus is highly infectious, with most initial cases requiring hospitalisation. The episode bears a striking resemblance to the…
-
Your Risk of Long COVID Goes up Each Time You Catch It
Like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Obrador before him, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been infected with COVID for a second time. In the middle of this year’s fourth Omicron wave, Albanese’s reinfection should not come as a surprise. Population antibody surveys have shown roughly half of Australian adults had COVID…
-
Why Haven’t I Had COVID Yet?
Throughout the pandemic, Australia has recorded 10.4 million cases of COVID-19, with the majority occurring this year. This is without doubt an underestimate, as not everyone tests for COVID-19 or reports their positive results. The latest survey of donor blood looked at the proportion of people who had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes…