We’re moving towards the ‘disease control’ phase of our response to COVID, which means learning to live with the virus. But significant challenges remain as authorities battle COVID fatigue.
Evidence from Massachusetts suggests that a multistep process discourages enrollment. The findings could help policymakers stave off a sharp decline in coverage when COVID-19 policies change.
The cause of every death in Australia must be certified by a medical practitioner. If the cause of death is not clear, the death is reported to the state or territory coroner for investigation.
Factors such as having supportive family and friends, safer communities, positive school environments and adequate resources, are often associated with more physical activity.
Many questions remain about next steps for US vaccine policy. But the FDA advisory panel’s hearty endorsement of a single-composition COVID-19 vaccine represents a pivotal step.
There have been concerns that lunar new year may cause the current wave of COVID infections in China to spread much further and faster. But the worst has likely passed.
Clinically vulnerable people tended not to respond as well after the first and second shots, but their immunity rises to greater levels with a booster.
Curbing vaccine hesitancy is as much a matter of acknowledging its social, historical, and cultural roots as it is of addressing its clinical dimensions.
Taking into consideration the number of excess deaths caused by COVID-19 compared with pre-pandemic years is critical to getting an accurate accounting of the pandemic’s real toll.
The new bivalent boosters against COVID-19 have failed to halt omicron infections. However, new technologies are being developed that pave a way forward.
The repeated lesson from other countries is that the loss of immunity and the appearance of new variants make herd immunity a futile goal when it comes to COVID.
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