The US and its allies are demanding answers over how COVID-19 became a pandemic. But instead of pointing fingers at China, the inquiry should focus on scientific clues to help us thwart future disasters.
Rapid blood tests for coronavirus could fill a large gap in knowledge.
Taechit Taechamanodom/Moment via Getty Images
Expanding coronavirus testing is one of the most important tasks public health officials are tackling right now. But questions over accuracy of the two main types of tests have rightly caused concern.
The new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, spreads faster than the H1N1 influenza virus and is much deadlier. SARS-CoV-2 is particularly skilled at keeping cells from calling out for help.
A University of Washington Medical Center set up a drive-through testing center on March 13, 2020.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Coronavirus and COVID-19: your questions answered by virus experts
The Conversation90,3 MB(download)
What do you need to know about COVID-19 and coronavirus? We asked our readers for their top questions and sought answers from two of Australia's leading virus and vaccine experts.
Researchers around the world are working together to control the coronavirus outbreak, now known as COVID-19. This is what’s behind the global effort to develop a vaccine.
There’s no evidence you can spread the Wuhan coronavirus before showing symptoms, but one study suggests it’s possible for children and young people to be infectious without ever having symptoms.
Polio can be circulating through a community long before anyone is paralyzed. Monitoring sewage for the virus lets public health officials short-circuit this ‘silent transmission.’
Ebola vaccination team member administering Ebola vaccine in Beni, North Kivu, DRC.
UNICEF/MARK NAFTALIN HANDOUT
No one then knew a virus caused the 1918 flu pandemic, much less that animals can be a reservoir for human illnesses. Now virus ecology research and surveillance are key for public health efforts.
Many in the Western Front contracted haemorrhagic dysentery.
Wellcome Library, London
When commemorating our troops, doctors and nurses this Anzac Day, consider also tipping your hat to the discovery of bacteriophages. In the post-antibiotic era, our health might just depend on them.
Cytomegalovirus infection in the womb is more common in Australia than infection with listeria or toxoplasma in pregnancy.
from www.shutterstock.com
We can prevent congenital deafness and intellectual disability due to cytomegalovirus by simple hygiene measures. So, why don’t pregnant women know about this?
GMOs may very well have filled up that syringe.
Syringe image via www.shutterstock.com
Public health experts enlist the molecular biology tools that create genetically modified organisms – as well as the GMOs themselves – in the fight against emerging infectious diseases.
The climate is startlingly complex, as is the immune system.
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Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney