Beating COVID cannot rely solely on the efforts of vaccines – economic policy must robustly support the path to full recovery, starting with healthcare and ventilation.
How governments chose to respond to the coronavirus – and how well equipped their health services were before it arrived – made a big difference.
While doctors and nurses have received well-deserved praise for their service on the frontlines, medical examiners and coroners perform dangerous work in the shadows.
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Careful lab work will complement public health data as researchers worldwide focus on omicron, asking questions about contagiousness, severity of disease and whether vaccines hold up against it.
Throughout the pandemic, sporting organisations have proven they can organise large-scale events in a safe and responsible way, without mandated vaccines for athletes.
In China, the wildlife trade is thriving, driven by the increased demands for luxury goods and traditional medicine. But there is real concern about the threat of diseases that can cross over to humans.
The key requirement of any mandate should be that a vaccination certificate be produced for access to high-risk spaces where harm to others could occur.
Virtual care is a way to deliver health-care services using technology to remotely connect patients and health professionals.
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Given the success of telehealth and virtual care during the pandemic, it would be a mistake to automatically return to pre-pandemic norms of health care.
This is an important victory for employees and unions, acknowledging the importance of genuine and meaningful consultation. It’s not a victory for mandate opponents.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand