Since immunity from COVID vaccination begins to wane over time, it’s important that everyone, irrespective of age, receives their boosters as soon as they are eligible to do so.
COVID-19 patients receive oxygen as they lie in their beds in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Machakos, Kenya, in August 2021.
(AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
A major lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to decolonize transnational governance so that the world is better able to handle both future and current global crises.
A dose of Imvanex vaccine used to protect against Monkeypox virus.
Lex van Lieshout/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Anna Howe, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Emma Best, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, and Matthew Hobbs, University of Canterbury
The risk of serious disease outbreaks among NZ children is now very real. Some childhood immunisation rates have dropped from about 80% in early 2020 to 67% by June 2022, and as low as 45% for Māori.
The Jynneos monkeypox vaccine provides strong protection against infection but is in short supply.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
There are two approved monkeypox vaccines in the US. Both use a related poxvirus called vaccinia to produce an immune response that protects against smallpox and monkeypox.
A health-care provider administers monkeypox vaccine at an outdoor walk-in clinic in Montréal, on July 23, 2022. It is crucial that people who have been exposed to monkeypox get vaccinated if they do not yet have symptoms, or isolate if they do have symptoms.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
To control monkeypox, there is a short window — weeks, not months — in which to vaccinate the most susceptible and to encourage and support self-isolation for those who have symptoms.
Polio is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2022.
Sarah Poser, Meredith Boyter Newlove/CDC via AP
The Albanese government will reinstate the pandemic leave payment for workers who have to isolate but do not have sick leave, after earlier vigorously defending its ending on budgetary grounds.
We have reached a hinge point in the pandemic, and coming weeks pose a huge challenge for political leaders. The community has moved on from COVID. But COVID has not moved on from the community. It has dug in.
Australia currently has its first cases of childhood respiratory diphtheria since 1992. So why are we seeing diphtheria now? And what role does travel play in its spread?
This winter we’re seeing high rates of COVID and the re-emergence of influenza. So how do they compare, in terms of transmissibility and deadliness?
Talking about vaccines with trusted health care providers and with family can help wade through the sea of information – and misinformation.
Morsa Images/DigitalVison via Getty Images
With COVID-19 shots finally available for infants and preschoolers, knowing how to combat misinformation on social media and elsewhere could be more important than ever.
Smallpox vaccines are effective against monkeypox.
James Gathany/CDC
If you’re over 65, you’ll likely get an immune-boosting flu shot. And there are options for those who don’t want a vaccine made with eggs – though the standard shots are safe for those with allergies.
Katie Attwell, The University of Western Australia and Tauel Harper, The University of Western Australia
Contrary to the popular belief that social media creates rumours about COVID vaccine harms, new research suggests social media generally only aids the spread of these rumours.
Viral surveillance and prediction may be key parts of figuring out what goes into a vaccine.
Pexels Cover/500px via Getty Images
A new generation of vaccines and boosters against SARS-CoV-2 may take a page from the anti-influenza playbook, with shots periodically tailored to target the most commonly circulating virus strains.
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