NSW needs to mandate masks outdoors, provide adequate financial support, set up a ‘ring of steel’, use rapid tests for essential workers, and ensure cases not in full isolation get to zero, among others.
As high-income countries move into post-vaccination life with vaccination rates of over 80 doses per 100 people, only 1.1 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
Vaccine hesitancy is declining in Canada but hasn’t disappeared. New research shows many of those initially less hesitant have since been convinced. With continued efforts, others can still be reached.
Vaccines can’t provide 100% protection, so it’s not a failure or surprise when some vaccinated people get sick with COVID-19. The good news is their cases are much less likely to be severe or fatal.
The US has split into “two Americas,” one of the unvaccinated and one of the vaccinated. The differences in deaths and hospitalizations between the two populations are striking.
Preliminary evidence suggests Lambda has an easier time infecting our cells and is a bit better at dodging our immune systems. But vaccines should still do a good job against it.
A small number of cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported following the mRNA COVID vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna. But this is no reason to avoid the jab.
Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research Institute