What's That Rash?

An 88-year-old man and a 94-year-old woman in Queensland were given the incorrect doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday. It's still under investigation how much extra they were given, and the doctor who administered the drug has been stood down from the vaccine program. It was revealed yesterday that the doctor had not completed the required vaccination training. So on today's Coronacast what hap...

If you don't have an auto-immune disease, you probably know and love someone who does. These are diseases where the body's immune system attacks healthy cells, and they include conditions like type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. And plenty of people with these conditions have been asking the ABC: what happens if you have an auto-immune disease and get coronavirus? And...

As the coronavirus vaccine rollout continues across the country, it's left many wondering when it'll be their chance to go and get a shot. So far, there hasn't been a huge amount of specific information released as to when larger groups of Australians will be vaccinated. So on today's Coronacast, what we know about when the vaccine is coming for large groups of Australia and what we don't yet know...

Australia's coronavirus vaccination campaign started a day earlier than expected yesterday, with an 85 year-old World War Two survivor being the first in the country to receive a COVID vaccine. Ever since the pandemic began last year, vaccinations have been keenly anticipated as a way of hopefully returning to a more normal life. But if international modelling is anything to go by, it could be a w...

Scientists are slowly discovering more about the so-called UK strain, or more precisely the variant of coronavirus known as B.117. The variant of concern is often said to be more infectious and faster moving, and now scientists think it might keep its human host infectious for longer. It could have ramifications for the way our hotel quarantine system is run. So on today's Coronacast, what else ha...

The World Health Organisation has reported that the number of new coronavirus cases around the world has fallen 16 per cent compared to the week before. In more good news, the number of deaths has also fallen 10 per cent. It comes as the global vaccine rollout continues, with millions of doses being administered. So on today's Coronacast are vaccines finally starting to see off the worst of the pa...

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in Australia, but it comes with fine print around who should get it. In its approval, the Therapeutic Goods Administration noted that the "decision to immunise an elderly patient should be decided on a case-by-case basis with consideration of age, co-morbidities and their environment". While there are no safety concerns for people who are ag...

142,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine have arrived in Australia, and will soon be divvied up and given to people next week. While it's a great start, it's only the beginning of a very long process to get as many as people across Australia vaccinated by the end of the year. It's a huge challenge, and obstacles include keeping the Pfizer vaccine cold enough, making sure the right people re...

The Holiday Inn outbreak in Melbourne has continued to grow, despite the city being in hard lockdown now for two days. Additional exposure sites have been identified, with the popular Queen Victoria Market being added to the ever-growing list. The five-day lockdown was sold as a 'circuit breaker' to put a stop to the so-called UK coronavirus variant before it could spread too far. So on today's Co...

The Holiday Inn cluster in Melbourne has continued to grow, with close contacts yesterday testing positive to COVID and more exposure sites being added to the growing list. So far, 11 people are connected to the outbreak which started in a Melbourne hotel quarantine facility before being spread to workers and another resident. Other states are keenly looking on - deciding if they should once again...

Melbourne has temporarily shut down one of its quarantine hotels for deep cleaning after several different people seemed to catch it from within the facility. The 'working theory', according to Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton, is that the virus may have spread further than expected because someone with COVID in the hotel had to use a nebuliser for medical reasons. It's one of a couple...

Never before have we watched vaccines being developed in real time, and so rapidly. There's elation one day as a vaccine is announced to be safe and highly effective; disappointment another day when it's revealed it doesn’t work as well against new variants. And the backdrop to this is wonder and sometimes suspicion that these vaccines are able to have been developed so quickly. So today on Corona...

South Africa says it's suspending the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine while it goes through the results of a recent study which has thrown the vaccine's effectiveness into question. Data from a recent study showed the vaccine only gave small amounts of protection against mild-to-moderate infection caused by the country's dominant coronavirus variant. The country's dominant coronavirus va...

A hallmark of the coronavirus pandemic has been the related "infodemic" of fake news that has circulated online. But while many have tried valiantly to set the story straight, fact-based debunking is often a tougher sell than a wild conspiracy theory. Now experts are trying a different approach: they've come up with a game where you play the role of a fake-news generator in an attempt to get peopl...

The Federal Government has revealed that it has sourced another 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, bringing the total ordered for Australia to 150 million. Most Australians will still be given the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine if it is approved by the regulator. Also, it's been announced that everyone in Australia, including all visa holders, will be given a vaccine for free and it's hoped the r...

Late last night, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that a worker at a quarantine hotel hosting guests for the Australian Open had tested positive to coronavirus. This came just hours after it was revealed Victorian authorities were trying to work out how two groups of returning overseas travellers both staying at a different hotel ended up with the exact same variant of coronavirus. As of...

Yesterday was another coronavirus donut day for Western Australia, which also comes as there's been a huge increase in testing numbers. While Perth and some surrounding areas remain in lockdown, both testing numbers and the zero cases will give health authorities a little bit more confidence that there isn't an undetected coronavirus cluster bubbling away. But if we come back to hotel quarantine w...

When you're in the middle of a coronavirus scare, the sweetest number of all that you want to hear is 0 new cases. That's exactly what Western Australia's Premier Mark McGowan delivered yesterday, as Perth entered its first full day of a strict lockdown. It was triggered after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for COVID over the weekend, ending a 10 month long no community transmission run...

It was the information that no one in Australia, let alone Western Australia, wanted to hear: there's been a COVID leak from a quarantine hotel. The city of Perth last night spent its first night in a five day hard lockdown, as health authorities start a mammoth contact tracing effort to track down the virus. As lockdowns go, it's very strict: people are only allowed out for a few essential reason...

For much of the coronavirus pandemic, there's been an idea that when enough people are infected and then recover the health crisis will be over. It's known as herd immunity - and early on in the pandemic some countries thought it would be the best long-term strategy in dealing with COVID. Well, it's lucky that the herd immunity strategy was mostly abandoned, because a peer-reviewed study published...

There's no denying that Australia has so far done well at managing COVID and keeping it out of the country. But how do we compare to the rest of the world? Well, according to a new report from the Lowy Institute, the answer is very well indeed with Australia coming in at number 8 in the world. So on today's Coronacast, how did Australia end up at number 8? And who did better? GUEST:Herve Lemahieu,...

The vaccine hopes of millions of people worldwide are hanging on the Pfizer vaccine, but the supply of the shot is facing delays. Why? Well, it relies on a whole lot of things that have never happened before all happening at once, in perfect sequence. It's the first approved mRNA vaccine, it needs to be produced in the billions, and it needs to be kept at super-low temperatures until it's needed....

In news that has been eagerly awaited since the pandemic began, a coronavirus vaccine has finally been approved for use in Australia. Yesterday, the Therapeutic Goods Administration gave the mRNA vaccine the thumbs up, paving the way for its rollout for key vulnerable groups. But Australia won't have enough Pfizer vaccine for the entire population, and is relying on the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine...

Today marks one year since coronavirus officially reached our shores and changed our lives forever. On January 25, 2020, Victorian health authorities detected the first case of COVID-19 in a man who had flown in from Guandong province a few days earlier. On today's Coronacast, Dr Norman Swan and Tegan Taylor look back on the moment they realised that our world was about to be upturned. Also on the...

In a global context, Australia is in an incredibly privileged position when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine rollout. Case numbers are very low and we're once again getting close to eliminating local spread, so we have time to monitor how the Pfizer vaccine is working in other countries. We can see what works and what doesn't, which can help inform the vaccine rollout strategy Australia takes w...