COVID-19 vaccination produces a more consistent immune response than a past infection. With the delta variant, the difference in protection may be even greater.
New Zealand’s chief science advisor Dame Juliet Gerrard receiving her first vaccination dose.
Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Nicholas Steyn, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Michael Plank, University of Canterbury et Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
New Zealand will have to vaccinate 80-85% to reach population immunity. Until then, a blanket border re-opening, even if only for vaccinated people, would pose a high risk of new outbreaks.
New Zealand health authorities were quick to react to the threat of a COVID-19 outbreak and managed to avoid community transmission, but the unique nature of how the virus spreads also played a role.
Federal officials have repeatedly touted Canada’s border measures during COVID-19 as among the most stringent in the world.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Pressure is mounting to reopen the Canada-U.S. border, but there are risks. How well those risks are managed may be the difference between pandemic recovery or a fourth wave of COVID-19.
The government needs to vaccinate as many South Africans as possible.
Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images
New Zealand has avoided a COVID-19 outbreak, despite a visit by an Australian traveller with the delta variant. But now is clearly the time to introduce mandatory scanning and mask rules.
The emergence of variants of concern in late 2020 marked a shift in the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Shutterstock)
We recently heard reports of a new and dangerous ‘hybrid’ variant circulating in Vietnam. There is such as a thing as a hybrid viral variant — but this doesn’t appear to be it.
The level of immunity needed — either through vaccination or infection — for practical herd immunity is uncertain, but may be quite high.
(Shutterstock)
It is unlikely that we will reach full herd immunity for COVID-19. However, we are likely to reach a practical kind of herd immunity through vaccination.
The prevention of future pandemics requires examining viral family trees.
Stockcrafter/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Fiona Russell, The University of Melbourne; John Hart, Murdoch Children's Research Institute et Katherine Gibney, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
The COVID-19 variant responsible for Victoria’s latest outbreak is one of three Indian variant sub-types, which spreads more easily than the original strain. Here’s what we know so far.
This giant effigy of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is intended to be burned as part of the Holika Dahan, during which the demon Holika is led to the stake on the eve of the Holi celebrations, a popular Hindu festival.
Sujit Jaiswal/AFP
As the Indian variant becomes more prevalent within our borders, anti-South Asian sentiment is also growing, putting the community at a higher risk of hate crimes.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the latest variant of concern: B16172.
Anita Anand, Canada’s minister of public services and procurement, opens a box with some of the first 500,000 of the two million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses that Canada secured last March through a deal with the Serum Institute of India.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio - POOL
Despite some public virtue signalling, the Canadian government is not doing all it can to improve global access to COVID-19 vaccines. Canada has yet to announce its position on the WTO patent waiver.
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