The question of whether and to what extent face masks work to prevent respiratory infections such as COVID and influenza has split the scientific community for decades.
Treating people for long COVID – that is, symptoms that last longer than four weeks after COVID infection – can be extremely complex due to the wide variety of problems associated with the condition.
With many Australians taking advantage of open borders this summer holiday, Dr Deb Mills, Travel Medicine Expert, helps unpack some information on travel vaccinations, and also provides an update on rabies, and the precautions vacationers should take to minimise their risk
Since the COVID variant omicron emerged in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into multiple subvariants. One subvariant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the main variant spreading in Beijing, and is contributing to a wider surge of COVID infections in China.
There are many reasons why your RAT may not give you the results you expect. But one factor is whether RATs can detect the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID).
At the end of the third year of the pandemic, we are no longer surprised to hear we’re in a new wave of infection. It’s fuelled by new sub-variants of the virus that may evade immunity from both vaccination and previous infections.
China is the only major country which, until now, has continued to enforce a zero-COVID strategy. Other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, also sought to eliminate COVID entirely earlier in the pandemic.
How healthy young people will derive little benefit from a fourth or fifth dose of vaccine, and how we should keep them for the vulnerable population, and China's response to the COVID surge being of global interest and concern
Last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released a report of mortality statistics. It showed that from January to July 2022, there were 17% more deaths (16,375) than the average expected for these months.
The pros and cons of a 5th jab for health workers, whether we have reached the end of the road with mRNA-based vaccines, cutting through the subvariant hype, new vaccines on the horizon, and the 2023 forecast - does ATAGI need a rethink?