What's That Rash?

For obvious reasons, pandemics are pretty hot news right now. And it seems every few weeks, we see headlines about a possible new outbreak of potentially pandemic proportions. Thankfully, we haven't seen any new disease outbreaks yet, but it doesn't mean it won't happen sometime in the future. So what should we make of recent stories revealing a jump in avian influenza cases in 2021, and how likel...

When the NT's Chief Minister Michael Gunner held the COVID-19 press conference yesterday, he revealed news that many have been dreading. A significant cluster of COVID has been detected, and all the people who were announced yesterday to have contracted the disease are Indigenous Australians. It's the worst day ever for local cases in the NT since the pandemic began. That's on today's Coronacast....

Nerves are running high in South Australia, as the state is now only one week away from opening the doors and inevitably letting COVID in. South Australia is leading the way for zero-COVID states, and will be the first to open its doors to people travelling from Victoria, NSW and ACT. It has a vaccination rate that is slowly increasing and may just get to 80 per cent fully vaccinated 16+ by next w...

Australians know full well that the Delta variant loves winter. As the weather warms up here things are looking up, but overseas it's getting colder and case numbers in Europe are rising. Hopefully the heavy impact of winter and Delta won't be felt, thanks to high levels of vaccination in many western European countries. But on today's Coronacast, it hasn't stopped the reimposition of some public...

When it was clear that the daily new COVID cases in Victoria had peaked, there was hope and speculation that the numbers would drop off quickly like what happened in NSW. But sadly, we're still getting about more than a thousand new cases a day and it's starting to level off at that figure. NSW has levelled off too lately, but at a much lower level of only a couple of hundred a day. So what could...

As vaccination rates increase and restrictions ease, plenty of us are starting to make plans for the Christmas and New Year breaks. But in most of Australia, restrictions aren't easing for everyone. For many people who aren't vaccinated, restrictions are staying or even getting harsher. So is this fair? Is it an effective way of getting the vaccination rate up? And how do you navigate tricky conve...

With the news that NSW has hit 90 percent double vaccination in 16+, with other parts of the country to follow soon, you could be forgiven for thinking that the pandemic is finally over. But like it or not, we're still living through a pandemic and it's likely in the coming months there'll continue to be outbreaks and waves of COVID-19. It's not all bad news though. New drugs are likely to come on...

When the Doherty model was released a few months ago, it set Australia on a path to reopening at various stages of vaccination. Now that the country has hit 80 per cent double dose for 16+, experts from Doherty, Burnet and other organisations have released new models on what we can expect a little further down the line. One of the big ones is how schools can remain open - even when positive cases...

The largest age group of active COVID cases in Victoria at the moment are kids, under 9 years old. While hard to compare directly, it's a similar story in NSW. Kids are currently unable to be vaccinated, leaving them vulnerable to infection as more COVID circulates through the community - though thankfully, disease is often very mild in children. But on today's Coronacast, overseas experiences tel...

The world passed a grim milestone a few days ago: 5 million deaths from COVID-19 and counting. But the reality is, that the actual deaths from the pandemic are much, much higher. Estimating how high is hard, but researchers can use data around excess deaths - ie, an increase beyond the normal number of people who die on average year to year - as a guide. So on today's Coronacast, why reported COVI...

A program to vaccinate children in the United States has come closer to reality, after the CDC endorseds the use of COVID-19 shots in kids from 5 to 11. Australian health authorities and regulators have yet to decide if it should happen here, but it is expected to happen in the next couple of months. There has been some debate about whether kids should be vaccinated, with some questioning the very...

The rules for fully vaccinated people in NSW are changing for the better next week, with a bunch of restrictions being lifted early thanks to high vaccination rates. But the unvaccinated will have to wait with restrictions longer, as the state aims for even higher levels of vaccination across the population. NSW, Victoria and the ACT are showing that it's possible to get to 95 per cent 12+ vaccina...

It was in early May when the Delta variant was officially listed as a variant of concern. Delta turned out to be far more contagious than previous variants, and challenged Australia's public health response. But since then, there haven't been any new variants of concern listed by the World Health Organisation, though there have been a couple of new variants of interest. So why not? And what do we...

From today, you can buy rapid antigen tests from the shop and use them on yourself to see if you've got COVID-19 or not. Previously, the home, general-public use of antigen tests wasn't available for purchase by the general public. So with a bunch of them on the market for the first time, what should you keep in mind and how do they differ from the usual PCR test we're so used to? That's on today'...

Australians over 18 years of age who've waited six months from their second COVID vaccine will be given the chance to grab a booster shot if they want one. While the focus will be on aged care and healthcare workers to start, yesterday, the expert panel on vaccinations approved the use of Pfizer booster doses. And - at the moment - it's being sold as a boost, not a requirement to be considered "fu...

Australia's expert vaccination panel may soon tick off on a major expansion to the country's coronavirus vaccination program, paving the way for third doses to be administered. Yesterday, the medicines regulator the TGA approved Pfizer for use as a third dose - sometimes referred to as a booster - for Australians aged 18 or over after six months after their second dose. But despite the third dose...

One of the big unknowns with coronavirus is why some people are left with symptoms from the illness long after they test negative. It's known as long COVID, and studies overseas suggest it affects more than half of people who get COVID to varying degrees of severity. So now we're nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic, have we learnt more about long-COVID and what type of symptoms seem to...

As more states open their borders in coming months, more COVID than ever will be circulating through the community. Vaccines will help protect many of us, but for vulnerable people - like the elderly or immunocompromised - additional protections may be needed. So if you have someone close that is more vulnerable to severe disease from a COVID-19 infection, what are some of the things you can do to...

As more and more of the country is vaccinated, state and territory governments are starting to outline which restrictions we will lose when we reach very high levels of coverage. Over the weekend, Victoria revealed that when it reaches 90 per cent double dose in a month there will be no density caps, and masks will only be mandatory at certain high-risk settings. But how do we know when is the rig...

There's been all sorts of vaccination targets bandied about over the last year: 70 per cent, 80 per cent, 16+ eligibility, 12+ eligibility. It never seems to end. But what if - and this might not make you happy because it seems almost impossible at the moment - the real target should be 95 per cent? It's been done overseas: in Portugal and Iceland. So what would it take to do it here and what bene...

Greater Melbourne will finally come out of lockdown a minute before the strike of midnight tonight, which will be a huge relief to millions of people. But the city comes out of lockdown with high daily caseloads - with the rolling five day average being around 1850. When NSW came out of lockdown, its daily caseload was much lower - and has remained low and is showing no signs of increasing again....

When the various states and territories report their daily vaccination rates as a mix of single and double doses, should they perhaps also be adding in third doses? The COVID-19 vaccines in Australia are currently limited to two doses, but so far only immunocompromised people have been approved to get a third shot. So should that be extended to older people and perhaps healthcare workers who got t...

Until now, a lot of the worry about COVID-19 in Australia has been about how zero-COVID states will rejoin NSW, Victoria and the ACT. Well yesterday, Queensland put its plan forward saying that December 17, 2021 is the date its borders will be broadly reopened once again to other states, including hotspots. So with vaccination rates in Queensland lagging, will this be the push some need to go and...

Victoria's lockdown will end this Thursday night, when the state expects to reach its first vaccine goal of 70 per cent double vaccinated. Reasons to leave the home and the curfew will be lifted, which will be a huge relief to the people of Melbourne which have suffered through many long lockdowns. But it's not as if the pandemic will end this week: many working in the hospital system are in for a...

The arrival of the Delta variant really was a massive curveball that few experts saw coming. It ripped through populations overseas and quickly punched holes in Fortress Australia. It especially challenged our public health response with its incredible infectiousness and has taken hold in NSW, Victoria and ACT. But how did Delta come into existence in the first place? And as more and more of us ar...