A sign in County Kildare, Ireland. in March 2020. Epidemiologists around the world worked hard to try to stop big parties in the face of rising caseloads of what would come to be called COVID-19.
Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images
The US was not ready for the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. What can public health leaders and policymakers do to make sure we don't face another winter of rampant disease?
The first year of dealing with the pandemic has taught New Zealand many lessons — including how we might tackle systemic social and environmental problems.
Our buildings and cities were not designed to handle a pandemic. But countries around the world are coming up with design ideas, some high-tech and some more basic, to reduce the infection risks.
Universities have legitimate reasons for employing some staff on casual contracts, but the impacts of the COVID pandemic have brought long-standing problems to a head. Now is the time to act on these.
Chinese international students stuck offshore due to border closures face shame, family tension and pressure to give up their dreams of studying in Australia. Some are even being urged to get married.
The rapid increase in the number of infections is the most obvious reason why new variants of the virus have been emerging recently. Case numbers doubled in just two months at the end of 2020.
The highly infectious nature of the COVID-19 variant, and the fact the infections have no clear link to the border, leaves the worrying possibility of a more widespread community outbreak.
More people than expected needed help, and the states have found stable housing for less than a third of rough sleepers who were put up in hotels. A hands-off federal government simply isn't helping.
Life under COVID-19 restrictions means many of us are having to deal with the intense boredom of life being on pause.
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Ilan Noy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington et Ami Neuberger, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
As the eradication of polio and the successful rollout of AIDS treatments have shown in the past, global cooperation in the face of COVID-19 is possible.
It could easily be another 12 months until Australians are fully vaccinated. While we've had great success fending off the coronavirus, our leaders need to work even more closely to prevail this year.
Student mental health was already an issue before the pandemic. And then students felt the strain on all fronts as studies went online and they lost jobs and social contacts.
South Africa produces about 16% of sub-Saharan Africa’s maize.
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As African economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, governments should explore technologies like global positioning systems and blockchain for use in the registration of land rights.
Walking all parts of Melbourne before and after the pandemic hit was eye-opening. It brought home just how much change is possible if we wish for a better, more sustainable way of living.
Vaccine hesitancy is not new, but it has a new element: few people can remember the devastating impact of diseases such as smallpox and polio and it is hard to see the lives saved by vaccination.
Missing a field season can be devastating if your research subject is melting away.
Karen Lloyd
Three scientists describe the fieldwork they've had to delay in 2020 because of the pandemic. These are setbacks not just for their careers, but for the body of scientific knowledge.
Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Senior Research Fellow, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne