The public has been left to their own devices as all our previous safeguards collapse around us. We urgently need a “vaccines-plus” strategy to flatten the curve.
Instead of assuming that science skeptics are motivated by ignorance, or selfishness, we should listen to them and try to understand and address their actual concerns.
Skeptics may make demands for absolute certainty to undermine science and delay action. Critiques may not be in the interest of advancing science and public health, but by someone with an agenda.
International relations, elections, climate change policies and the continuing pandemic are some of the political events to keep an eye out for in the upcoming year.
We overestimate how much we think others want the world to return to its pre-pandemic ways, which makes us pessimistic about the potential to make things better.
One Health recognizes the interrelations between the health of humans, other animals, and their shared environments. It should be integrated in the international treaty on pandemics.
Peer support, opportunities to engage in responses to combat racism and bias and culturally responsive counselling are important for the mental health and well-being of international students.
How two Canadian teams of economists and epidemiologists studied COVID-19 from a social science perspective to show that higher national income inequality is associated with worse COVID outcomes.
Some vaccine hesitancy is based on a fear of the nanoparticles used in mRNA vaccines. But humans have been interacting with nanoparticles for millennia, and we use nanotechnology-based devices every day.
As we face the rise and rise of the Omicron variant, your risk of getting severe Covid may depend on how stressed you are. Now is a great time to look after your mental health.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne